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Ganesha Chaturthi - Eid El fitr..... Will we learn the lesson?

It is always amazing when you find two religous festivals are taking place in the same days, today, September 1, 2011, while Muslisms around the world are celerating their third day of the three-day Fitr Festival, our Hindu brothers are starting their first day of the eleven-day celeberation of the Ganesha Chaturthi Festival which is one of the most popular Hindu festivals. Ganesh Chaturthi also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the symbol of wisdom and remover of obstacles. This festival is also known as Ganesh Utsav which means festival of Ganesh. Lord Ganesha is also referred to as Ganapati, Gajanana, Vinayaka, Vighneshawar and Pillaiyar.

Lord Ganesh, the patron deity is the God of wisdom. Starting from August, preparations to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi - the auspicious day when Lord Ganesh was born - begin with great enthusiasm all over the state. The 11-day festival begins with the installation of beautifully sculpted Ganesha idols in homes and mandaps (large tents), colorfully decorated, depicting religious themes or current events. The Ganesh idols are worshiped with families and friends. Many cultural events are organized and people participate in them with keen interest. After ten exciting days comes the time to bid farewell to the beloved God

Please take a moment of silence to think with me! Is there any wisdom behind having different religion feasts in similar days? is it no more than a regular coincidence or is it a message of peace and tolerance? We should not only celebrate and greet each other in such days, we should however, learn the great wisdom behind this concept.

We have been living together for thousands of years, different religions, different thoughts and different ideologies, all of them came together to build our today's human being. The only way our ancestors managed to live together with all their differences was when they realized the significance of "being different while being tolerant", they used each others thoughts in enriching their ideologies to enlarge their intellectual horizons. Will we learn the lesson?......... May peace prevail one earth :)

URI Multi-Region team sends its greatest wishes to our Hindu brothers whom are celebrating the Ganesha Chaturthi.