Jagrans / Jagratas of the 21st Century are way over my head
I am not a religious man. But I believe in God. I don’t visit temples every Tuesdays but I do take care not to lose a chance to visit them either. Recently got a chance to go to a jagrata a cousin was organizing. A jagrata or jagran as it is also know is a religious ceremony where people stay awake whole night doing prayers and praising god. I have been to many such functions over the years and I have seen the changes they have incorporated over the years. The one I visited this weekend was the weirdest one I have seen in a long time. It had everything. It had the usual prayers to the god. But the prayers (bhajans) were sung in tunes that could well have formed a quiz competition. Spot the original song from the bhajan! They were made out of the most hilarious Bollywood songs and even TV soap theme songs. So much so for making them interesting to the common man. There were kids impersonating Gods doing all sorts of activities. I saw a kid doing Shiva’s tandava. Another kid doing ras leela of bhagwan Krishna. There were ram and seeta leaving for the forests. How do you feel if the gods you pray to are doing weird dances in front of you? Well I felt weird… And there was a kaun banega crorepati based quiz program kaun jitega mata ka khazana. And to sum it all they also ran the mahabharat’s theme song from the TV series coz the presented found it to be pretty interesting. He also sang a film song that he believed was suitable for the event.
Jagrata literally means staying awake the whole night. So I guess that’s what we will see in these ceremonies in the future. Whether we sing songs in the honor of the god or do the prayers in the old fashioned style!
September 7th, 2007 at 02:15 am
On 17th March, 2007… I attended a “Mata ki Chowki” at Jhandewalan Devi Temple, Delhi. Chowki was performed by Maa Bhagwati Sewa Mandal, and the Sewadars were not singing the Bhajans with the tune of any filmy song! I liked it and have been in constant touch with them and have been attending their Chowkis/Jagrans from then on, whenever I get time.
I think they didn’t had anything odds, which you mentioned, and I think, that’s why I also liked it.
Some of their videos have been uploaded on Youtube, along with the one.. that I first attended, ie. at Jhandewalan Temple.
You can see them at the following link, and do let me know.. what you thought about it.
http://www.youtube.com/maabhagwatisewa
Regards
Abhishek