New York-based Guyanese observe Teerat/Kartik

TIMES INT'L

By Vishnu Bisram

New York-based Guyanese Hindus observed the annual festival of Kartik Snaan by fasting and performing special prayers last week. They visited the waterways in NY on that warm Thursday to perform special Ganga puja. Kartik or teerat is an observance to mark the culmination of a series of sacred purification rites, directing man towards his goal of “moksha” or liberation of the soul.

Teerat is celebrated on the last day in the month of Kartik in the Hindu calendar and is normally celebrated with a bath in the ocean or river. The month normally falls in November in the western calendar, and the day usually coincides with the full moon. The observance of Kartik is important, especially at a time when the sea seems to be reclaiming land and purging out all the impurities dumped in the water.

The Mother of the Sea is asked to protect her devotees and provide them with whatever they wished.

The work teerat or “Kartik” means “to have a bath in the river or the sea”. The holy river “Ganges” or “Ganga Mai” is the main deity worshipped at the festival. It is believed that the Goddess of water, Ganga Mai, came unto the earth on that day and so Hindus seek her blessings by performing special prayers devoted to her and taking a dip in the sea believing that he Ganges water is mixed with the rest of the bodies of water. Kartik is a time to cleanse oneself and to ensure that something is given back to the goddess of the sea.

Some people in NY mixed Ganges water in a bucket of water and took a bath with it that full moon morning. Hundreds of Guyanese and other Indo-Caribbeans thronged to various water outlets in the city where they immersed their legs in the chilly water and prayed and chanted special mantras, sang bhajans and made offerings as part of Kartik celebrations. The puja began with purification of the ground and the environment and offerings to the Goddess, and culminated with aartee. Devotees made offerings of Prasad, conducted puja, and burned incense.

Offerings included rice, perfume, fruits, flowers and clothes. There was also the offering of food.

The significance of the ritual is that the devotee is feeding the earth back everything that comes from it.

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