The Young Chronicle: For 2nd Graders October 15th, 2015 | Page 4

The Story Behind Durga Puja
Durga Puja or Sharadotsav is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates the
worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It starts on the 6th day of the Navratri, and ends
with Dussehra on the 10th day.
Durga Puja festival marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura (মহিষাসুর). Thus, Durga Puja festival epitomises the victory of Good
over Evil.
Long ago there lived a Daemon King called Mahishasura. Mahishasura prayed to Lord Brahma and pleased the lord. When Lord brahma asked him for a wish, Mahishasura asked him
to give him the gift to live forever. Since this was an unreasonable request, lord Brahma
asked Mahishasura to ask for something else. Mahishasura toned down a bit and asked
lord brahma to give him a boon that only a woman could kill him. Since Mahishasura
thought that women were weak, he felt he was safe and would never die.
Mahishasura then decided that since even the gods couldn’t kill him, he should wage a war
against them. He gathered a huge army of Asuras and decided to wage a war against the
Gods. All the gods tried their best but they couldn’t kill Mahishasura. That’s when the
gods decided to create a woman from their best parts. A dazzling pillar of light emerged
from the face of Brahma and shone in the sky. It was red and was bright like the sun.
Next, from the body of Lord Sankara, a silver colored flame emerged
and joined that
from Brahma. Vishnu also contributed his power to this group, and so
did the other Devas.
Born of the best parts of all the
Gods, the goddess formed came to
be known as Mahalakshmi. She was
made eternal. She became the protector of the Gods. Though she appears in many forms, her true form
is in the form of Shakti or Energy.
She doesn’t have a human form. Parvati and Durga are her avatars. The
Devi mounted her lion and marched
towards the daemons to fight them.
Mahisha was wonderstruck by the
goddesses beauty and the will to fight. When he asked the goddess to marry him, she declared that she wanted to meet him in a battle field.
After a long battle, the goddess decided to end the battle then and there, the Goddess
then summoned her discuss (given to her by Vishnu), that was an clone of the SudarsanaChakra. She launched it at Mahishasura and beheaded him. Thus, the terrible buffalodemon, who had terrorized the Gods with boons obtained from Lord Brahma, met his end
at the hands of Durga.