Basant Panchami celebrated at Gracelake Hindu Temple

Geetha Patil
CHICAGO: Basant Panchami/Vasant Panchami (Basant/Vasant means “spring” and Panchami means “the fifth day”) marks the beginning of the spring season. This was celebrated as Ma Saraswati, the Goddess of wisdom and knowledge, Puja at the Hindu Mandir of Lake County, Grayslake, on Saturday, February 9 with huge religious fervor and devotion
More than 200 devotees with 70 children from very young to adolescents participated in the event with enthusiasm and gusto. The Grayslake Mandir encourages all in the Indian community to participate at all the Indian festivals and cultural activities with their children and cherish them proudly as our rich heritage. More

The actual Vedic Puja of Goddess Saraswati began after all the young children finished coloring the picture of Ma Saraswati. Melodious Bhajans were sung by Mrs. Sangeetha Singh and Kamlesh Desai. Pt. Anil Joshi ji performed Samohika Sankalpam Lord Ganesh and Ma Saraswati Puja. Yogesh Pandey chanted Ma Saraswati Ashtotram with all the children. Each child was given yellow flowers to offer to Ma Saraswati and obtain her sacred blessings for their best learning power, knowledge, and success.
Pt. Joshi Ji delivered informative discourse on the role of Ma Saraswati in the creation of this universe and our life. He said that our Trimurti – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva – gain their spiritual insight from Ma Saraswati, Ma Lakshmi and Ma Shakti. Ma Saraswat is a Goddess of Art, music, dance, science and philosophy.

He said that this is primarily a festival of students, poets, musicians and teachers. Everyone bows down before Saraswati and prays to her to grant them right guidance and help them excel in their fields of learning. On this special day, young children are introduced to Aksharabhyasam to learn alphabets and write them down for the first time.
On this day, Ma Saraswati sits on Hans (Swan) that can segregate milk from water. “If we worship Ma Saraswati on this day, we obtain that secular and spiritual wisdom along with knowledge that helps us to separate out good things from bad ones,” Pandit Anil Joshi said.
After Maha Mangalarati to Ma Saraswati, Lord Krishna and all other deities, the temple offered new notebooks and pens to all the children as Ma Saraswati’s blessings and also very delicious Prasadam to all the devotees.