Ganpati Bappa Morya

Author: Amita Raj

Ganesh Chaturthi is an important and beloved celebration for so many of us. This is Lord Ganesh’s special annual appearance day, when we honour this supreme elephant god in our prayers and offerings. Joyously paying homage to him through the offering of his favourite hibiscus flowers, sweetmeats and sweet fragrances he loves, so many of us all over the world invoke his blessings.

Through puja, arati, powerful chants and prayers, we seek his help in removing obstacles in our paths as we joyfully anticipate wisdom, health and prosperity in our lives.

Among the many powerful incantations offered to Lord Ganesh is a very well-known one starting with the words ‘Ganpati bappa morya’.

This chant carries a very profound significance and is repeated by devotees, while especially carrying the statue of the lord to be immersed in water after puja. As the clay statue is released, the lord is returned to his spiritual abode. This repeated chant invokes him to return to this earth the next year with a fresh statue of Lord Ganesh in the next puja.

Among the legends surrounding this chant is one that I find particularly moving. It is the story of Morya Gosava, a fourteenth century devotee of Lord Ganesh. Through his pious, heartfelt devotion, he gained the mercy of the lord, who offered him a boon. Morya accepted this blessing, but asked for nothing material, but an eternal bond with the lord. Hence, Lord Ganesh declared that his own name in this auspicious chant was to be followed by Morya’s name.

This powerful testimony of how Lord Ganesh responds to sincere devotion above all resonates with me in a personal way as one living far from home. Unlike the days when with immediate and extended family, our puja and offerings were elaborate, these practices are now adjusted, greatly simplified and at a much smaller scale. Immersion for me and others is now a symbolical process, involving dipping of the statue into the water, releasing the lord spiritually to his home, but retaining the statue for future immersions.

However, the love and devotion in these gestures is surely what lord Ganesha feels and enjoys! I hope those of you who celebrate, have had a blessed Ganesh Chaturthi!

About the Author

Amita Raj has always loved creating imaginatively rich stories through the melody and colours of language. Her writing talent was sparked off in her childhood at age eight in a classroom assignment where she wrote the autobiography of a pen. Since then, she has been enchanted with writing, also reading and enjoying the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. She has been a contributing writer to Deccan Herald, India Currents, Twist&Twain magazine, and of late regularly to Story Scrapers, ArtoonsInn Poetry Parlour and Soul Craft. She looks forward to her ongoing lyrical journey, writing and sharing with the world many more of her short stories, poems and novellas.