Paras Ramoutar
TRINIDAD, November 13, 2004: Thousands of Hindus, mainly women, will converge at several beaches and rivers to celebrate the annual festival of Kaatik-ke-Nahaan on Sunday. Main areas of focus will be Manzanilla and Mayaro beaches, which have become the mecca for this very auspicious Hindu religious observance over the years. Kaatik is a full month of celebration which falls in October/November and coincides with Deepavali, the Festival of Lights. Several temples and other religious groups will perform “Ganga Puja” and pour offerings to the ocean and recite special mantras in honour of Ganga Mata. Among the many mandirs and religious groups participating in the celebrations are: Edinburgh Hindu Temple led by Pundit Ramesh Tiwari; mandirs from Caparo, Felicity, Penal, Chaguanas, Cunupia, Sangre Grande, Longdenville, Princes Town, Debe, Tunapuna and Couva.
According to Hindu astrology, the correct name is “Kaartik Poornima Snaari.” Hindus believe taking a bath in the Holy River of the Ganga is considered sacred since the Goddess Ganga is personified with this river, according to Pundit Tiwari. “A dip in this river on the Kaatik full moon day is believed to be especially important as this cleanses the bather of all impurities and frees him from the three types of fear in the world: daihik or physical, daivic or natural, and bhautic or non-physical. Pundit Tiwari added: “It is also believed that Lord Vishnu, the Preserver of the Universe, wakes up on the eleventh day of the bright half of this month after four months of sleep in the rainy season.” This, of course, may be appropriately interpreted as the emergence of the bright sun in some parts of India, after four months of cloudy sky.
“On this occasion, a bath in a flowing river or ocean is considered most refreshing, healthy and life-giving,” Pundit Seereeram Maharaj of the Shri Kailash Mandir, Caparo, said. “Hindu festival and ritual observances are essentially religious and are a great source of spiritual and moral upliftment. Like the Deities of the Hindu pantheon, fasts and festivals are numerous and frequent. Sometimes they outnumber the days of the week as there are more festivals than days in each week,” Pundit Munesh Maharaj, spiritual leader of the Esperanza Shiva Mandir, noted. Kaatik, like Deepavali, Ramanavami, Krishna Janamashti, Sivaratri and Nau Raatri, among several others, are all aimed at helping mankind towards spiritual purification as the focus remains prayers, worship, fasting, abstinence, devotion and other acts of piety. “Being cathartic in nature, Hindu festivals purify and strengthen the spirit within as they teach one how to find spiritual joy and happiness through renunciation and self-denial, “Pundit Tiwari said.