Durga Puja 2019: Significance Of Visarjan (Idol Immersion) On The Last Day Of The Festival

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Durga Puja is observed with fervour and festivities in West Bengal. The Divine Mother is glorified ceremoniously for four days. Mahadashami marks the end of the much-celebrated Durga Puja, for it is the final day when the idol immersion of Goddess Durga and the accompanying Gods in the Pandals, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Karthik takes place. This year the festival has begun from 28 September and will continue till 8 October.

The Process and Festivities associated with idol immersion(Read detailed account)

On Mahadashami Sindhoor Khela or the smearing of vermilion takes place where women offer vermilion to Goddess Durga and apply on each others' forehead for the longevity of their husband and the blessings of Goddess Durga in general. Later follows the idol immersion of Goddess Durga.

The idols are then taken in a long procession with the huge retinue to the water bodies or river banks where they are to be immersed or submerged as the culmination of the festival.

Durga Puja Idol Immersion Significance

What is the significance of idol immersion of the statues on Mahadashami of Durga Puja? Mahadashami marks the end of the elaborate Durga Puja festivities. Idol immersion of the statues is the culminating aspect of most of the Hindu festivals, as popularly practised in Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations.

Idol immersion carries the profound significance of the Vedanta thought in it.

The idols are modelled out of clay. The idols signify the manifestation of the absolute truth, here clay. The formless God is glorified and worshipped in these idols during the four day celebration of Durga Puja. The forms are then immersed in water bodies or a river where they lose their form and merge with their essence, the clay.

Every aspect of Durga Puja has the Vedantic truth embedded in it, right from the emergence of Durga (Read detailed version) to the slaying of Mahishasura as Mahishasuramardhini. So it is with idol immersion as well. It signifies the manifestation of the form (Durga) (Read detailed account ) from the very consciousness or the absolute, formless truth and the mergence of it in the same consciousness. The idol made of clay is finally immersed in a water body where it loses it's attribute of form to merge and mingle with its essence.

It allegorically portrays the truth of realising one's true nature through having taken up a form.
Idol immersion is thus a pointer to self-realisation and universal oneness as we are immersed in the illusion of identifying ourselves with the body-mind complex.

Let us thus recall the essence of idol immersion in order to realise our own essence as we celebrate the idol immersion of Goddess Durga is an important aspect of the festival.