On Friday 29^th September, in Kundapura FSL India- CEL, staff and volunteers, totally 20 members participated in Ayudha Pooja.

Why did we celebrate it in CEL?

CEL is Community based center and FSL India is a non-political, non-religious & non-governmenalt organization. We are an institution, which promotes Pease through cultural exchange.   

This is reason why we celebrate all types of festivals in order to celebrate all cultures around. In this way we celebrated Ayudha Pooja in CEL.

Ayudha Pooja part of the Navaratri festival, a Hindu festival Which is celebrated at Karnataka state in India. Ayudha Pooja’s name itself suggests about worshiping tools & vehicles.

 Ayudha puja was performed on the day prior to Goddess Chamundeshwari’s war on demon Mahishasura and all her weapons were worshipped before she left for the war. And the day that follows is the celebration of her victory in her war over the demon, then they called Vijayadashami indicating her victory.

Domestic tools and transport vehicles and are washed, decorated and worshipped in this day. It indeed is a visual treat to witness the clean and colourfully decorated vehicles drive the roads looking bright and nice on the day.

In some houses, where culture is more deeply followed, items such as home keys, television or computers can also be worshipped.

For the pooja moment, we use incense sticks, colourful flowers, lemons and coconuts. All items will receive some drops of coconut water after opening it. They will also receive the smell of incense and lemons will be placed under the vehicle wheels in order to remove the bad energy. When the vehicles are started, they will squeeze the lemons. Also a coconut will be smashed onto the ground in the name of removing all bad energy again.

We hope you learned and enjoyed reading this blog article about Ayudha Pooja.