A file photo of the Lord Bodgeshwar temple illuminated for the annual zatra in Mapusa last year.
Mapusa city has quite a few temples and the chief among them is said to be the temple, located in a lush green environment dedicated to Kanakeshwar Baba or Lord Bodgeshwar, locally known as Bongini. Lord Bodgeshwar is considered as the ‘guardian’ of Mapusa city.
The festival is usually celebrated in December or January, i.e. on Paush Shukla Chaturdasi or the fourteenth day during the waxing phase of the moon as per the Hindu lunar calendar. The festival normally spans over five days.This year, the festival will be celebrated on January 27 following all guidelines by the State government due to the pandemic.
It is believed the deity would stroll around a certain route in Mapusa at midnight. Residents, who have seen the deity moving around, would keep coconuts or beedis for him. When residents woke up the next morning, the coconuts and beedis would disappear.
Lord Bodgeshwar is regarded as ‘Angavani’, the one to whom vows are made and the one who fulfils the desires of devotees.
Lord Bodgeshwar is also the Rakhno (caretaker) of the lost. There is a story told of a small boy who had come for the fair with his father from Porvorim. He got lost in the mammoth crowd at the fair.
While walking back home as he knew the way, he was accompanied by a stranger, who introduced himself as his uncle. This stranger disappeared as the boy reached home. It was later found on enquiry that the uncle had not gone for the fair. He was none other than Lord Bodgeshwar.
People from various strata of society visit the temple to seek blessings of the deity, such as students who are answering their exams, the agriculture community of Mapusa for a better crop and they offer bananas and coconuts, the business community for good fortune, etc.
The festival begins with the pooja in the noon, followed by mahaprasad. Various temples in Mapusa offer fruits and flowers to Lord Bodgeshwar. Once this is over, devotees start visiting the temple, with their supplication and offerings.
In the evening a cultural programme is held at the temple. Various organisations such as temple committees, pickup rickshaw associations, fish vendors, drivers association, Mapusa municipal council and vegetable vendors come to perform Satya Narayan pooja on a specific day.A huge fair is usually held in the field outside the temple.
(The writer is former director of Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr at Porvorim)
