ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

The ‘Mahalya’ is a great occasion for the Bengalis of all over the world indeed. Because,every year from this day only the Devi paksha starts in reality.

In the early morning of ‘Mahalaya’ we do the Tarpana for our fourteen fathers. This is one of our duties actually. It is said by our Shashtras that, in the day of ‘Mahalaya’ the holy spirits of our fourteen fathers give us blessings from the heaven.

It is known by us that, the ‘Mahalaya’ has a divine power of it’s own. The day of ‘Mahalaya’ is a very holy day for us - the Hindu Bengalies. The biggest festival for the Bengalis the great Durga pujo starts from just after one week of the ‘Mahalaya’ as a matter of fact. So the ‘Mahalaya’ brings the good news that - the Durga pujo is coming on the way very soon.

We Bengalis are so very much aware of the fact that, there are lots and lots of mythological stories over here related with Durga pujo, the festival, stays very near of the hearts of the Bengalis.

The first mythological story about Durga pujo is- to kill the Mahishasura (the evil power) and save the earth the Devtas created Devi Durga by the help of their own tez or power actually. So,that means Devi Durga is the mixture or combination of the different types or states of divine power in fact.

The second mythological story about the same is - the worship of Goddess Durga took place just before the onset of spring initially. But, Rama the king of Ayodhya, had done the worship of Goddess Durga in the month of Ashwin, just before of the beginning of the autumn with the help of pitamaha Bramha and all other Devtas, as he (Rama) had been seeking for the blessings of Devi Durga to win his great battle with Ravana- the king of Lanka. It was ‘Akal Bodhan’. Bramha and other Devtas helped Rama a lot to worshiping Devi Durga indeed,because they Rama to kill Ravana - one of the dangerous asuras of the earth. Devi Durga came to accept the worship of Rama in a root of a tree (Bel brikhya mul). Rama thus started the tradition of ‘Akal Bodhan’ as a matter of fact. And we have been following his footsteps till date.

We do the worship of Goddess Durga every year. The evil power - the Mahisasura gets the worship along with the Goddess as it was his demand to the Goddess — another mythological story says.

Any ways, the TV Channels of Bengal have Telecast ed different programs on the occasion of ‘Mahalaya’. Star Jalsa is one of them. In this Channel only we have seen ‘Durga durgatinashinee’ on the 6th of this month (the day of Mahalaya) at 7 AM. Star Jalsa has organised this Mahalaya special program very differently indeed.

The Channel has taken the famous story of ‘Annapurna o Ishwari patni’ from ‘Annada Mangal’ to develop the program. In this program Devi Annapurna herself told all the mythological stories about Durga puja to the Ishwari patni as a matter of fact. - we must appreciate the effort of Star Jalsa in this case.