AGOMONI 2309 agomoni_mod | Page 7

More subtly, Adi parashakti is the name of Mother Goddess in her unmanifest pure energy state with no form. She manifested into nine different forms- Siddhidatri, Kushmanda, Brahmacharini, Shailputri, Mahagauri, Chandraghanta, Skandamata, Katyayani (she killed Mahishasura in this form), Kalaratri – each of which is invoked during the worship. The magnificiently creative femi- nine force of the universe is honored and harmonized by worshipping the Goddess. Although the festival of Durgapuja is widely celebrated as the victory of good over evil, in Vedantic realization, it is considered a symbolism of victory (knowledge) of absolute reality over apparent duality. Mother Goddess or the Pure Consciousness manifests herself in myriads of different forms, of- ten completely opposite yet complementary forms, and “recognizing the one Divinity in every form and every name” is the ethos of Durgapuja. Festivals around the world, irrespective of the original underlying reasons, over the time become more about people. It is the jolly time of bonding, revisting the roots, togetherness with family and friends, fun and frolic. Festivity-wise, one can mention Durgapuja as the Christmas of Ben- galis. This is the inaugural year (2017) of Durgapuja celebration in Poland. Participation from In- dian, Polish and international communities in general already has created a beautiful and warm atmosphere of coexistence, cooperation and cocelebration surrounding the festival. A variety of cultural programs involving performers of multiple origins are scheduled during the puja days. Alongside, the first annual issue of this very magazine “Agomoni” (meaning: advent) comes out to celebrate the borderless diversity of creative expressions in variety of forms: poetry, painting, photography, travelogues, short-stories, popular science articles, and many others. In a tri- lingual mode of communication (Bengali, Polish and English), Agomoni looks forward to reaching out to a broad audience. We hope that the readers will enjoy our inaugural effort. A little sapling now dreams of growing up to be an oak tree. The magazine wishes to get en- riched by creative contributions from you in future, and to enrich others in return. Celebrating the diversity in the homogeneous, and the commonalities in the heterogeneous – remains our motto. In the vast ocean of human existence, another journey has started. “Let there be light”. Warsaw, 2:46 am September 21, 2017 Shamba Sankar Mondal (on behalf of the editorial board of Agomoni) Agomoni editorial board members: Nirmalya Mukherjee (Chief editor) Sahelee Pal Soumik Bodhak Shamba Sankar Mondal