Ganesh Visarjan – the Immersion Procession

The ten-day long celebration of Ganeshotsav is now coming to an end. Everything that begins has to end. But when celebrations come to an end, we need to ask ourselves, “Have the celebrations raised our level of understanding? Have the celebrations brought about awakening in our life?”

The Ganeshotsav culminates on the tenth day with the immersion of Lord Ganesha’s idol. The previous articles during the ten-day celebration would have provided an understanding of the significance and symbolism of Lord Ganesha. But the immersion of the idol also teaches us a vital lesson for life. We learn to develop an attitude of detached witnessing to the happenings in life by learning to watch the procession of thoughts that go on in our mind.

Let us understand what the immersion of Lord Ganesha’s idol symbolizes.

We all have participated or witnessed the processions of Lord Ganesha’s idols on the last day of the festival. With lot of enthusiasm, devotees journey with the idol to a pre-decided venue like a temporary water enclosure, a river, a lake, or even the sea, where the idol is immersed. The idols keep moving on a pre-decided route of the procession, one after the other. Many people participate in the procession, while others enjoy watching the procession standing on either side of the streets or from the balconies of their buildings.

This is a beautiful analogy that we can reflect on for our life. Consider the thoughts that occur to us. We can think of it as a procession of thoughts that goes on in our mind. No sooner does one thought subside, than the next thought takes its place. This is just like the idols that are taken in a procession one after the other. But do we just observe the thoughts as they emerge and subside like a procession? Or do we get entangled in them?

One idol is immersed in water and then the next. This continues till the procession is over and all idols are immersed. Without getting attached to any particular idol for long, we just enjoy the procession as a whole. We like the presentation of some idols and dislike the presentation of some. But again, we observe the procession with complete joy. We need to exactly do the same with our thoughts, without getting attached or being averse to them.

Just as we are mere spectators of the entire procession of Lord Ganesha’s idols, so are we spectators to the procession of our thoughts!

We need to witness our thoughts just as we are witnessing the procession; enjoying every aspect of it. We don’t need to jump into any troupe (troupe of thoughts) and get carried away. The right way is to see the thought for what it truly is, be patient and then act accordingly. But we unknowingly get identified with thoughts and make a mess of it. This happens because we have never practiced maintaining a safe distance from our thoughts.

If we are alert, we will be able to identify the gap between two thoughts. The gap between two thoughts is nothing but silence, blankness. Being in this blankness gives us the experience of boundless joy and peace. It is in this blankness that we get to know our true Self – the knower of everything.

As a force of habit, many of us tend to keep focusing on negative thoughts that occur repeatedly. This is because we are trained to focus on such thoughts. We now need to un-train ourselves and learn to witness them detachedly as they emerge and subside. Observing the thoughts exactly as they are, without getting attached to them, prepares us to live in the present. We give an opportunity for those thoughts that are for the benefit of mankind to emerge from within us.

We should act only on those thoughts that align with the goal of our life. Otherwise, we would be wasting our precious time. If we are able to learn this art of witnessing our thoughts, then the ritual of worshipping Lord Ganesha on the day of Visarjan would have served its purpose. We would understand the art of immersion of thoughts!

Just as the entire festival is symbolic in every way, the immersion of the idol too is symbolic. It indicates that we shift our focus from the form to the formless. As we understood in our earlier article, a form is required to understand the formless. God is formless; our aim is to be established or become one with the formless. Hence the immersion of the idols represents the journey from the form to the formless.

So while we are enjoying the procession, let us also start enjoying the procession of our thoughts. Let us focus on the gap between thoughts without pursuing them.

This brings us to the end of this series of articles on Ganeshotsav. Let’s seek blessings from the Lord to realize the essence of who-we-truly-are. Let’s contemplate on every indication given in these articles. Let the festival bring a U-turn in life and fill us with love, bliss and peace.

You can also read: 
– What does Lord Ganesha Symbolize?
– Pointers for us from Lord Ganesha’s Idol