Newsroom24x7 Network
Bhopal: Panguni is the last month of the year as per Tamil calendar. Hindus offer prayers to Lord Murugan to mark the Panguni Uthiram festival. The documentary on Panguni Uthiram, produced by Nobles Knowledge Alliance and premiered online by Newsroom24x7 Live Stream, begins with the special pooja this year in Bhopal to mark the traditional religious festival.
This pooja is done twice a year – in February and then once in three years in the month of March. In the fourth consecutive year this pooja is performed in the month of April.
The main feature of this pooja as it is conducted here is that it is performed by those whose prayers are answered by the almighty, As an offering, on fulfillment of their prayers, the devotees pierce their bodies with the trident, spikes and spears. They also pierce hooks on their body to draw carts and also hang 108 lemons with the help of hooks that are pierced through their skin.
A devotee is shown lifting a “kavdi” and another walking on a sandal of nails with his body pierced all over. He has just completed three years doing this. Everyone can’t do it. One has to be blessed to do it, says the priest who is carrying forward the tradition of Panguni Uthiram – a religious legacy that continues within the family.
This ritual involves a 27-day fast when the devotees eat only once a day. During this period they go in a trance and only after that they experience the spell of “Shakti” and they do not know what is happening around them. The ritual lasts for 8 days and this is the time to invite, propitiate and with respect bid farewell to the Gods.
The priest figuring in the documentary began by pulling one chariot, the next year it was three, then five and finally six. He said that he has done this to ensure his wife recovers from a serious ailment which the doctor had said that it can’t be cured. According to the priest his wife is now fine and it’s due to God’s blessings. She was almost on death bed and he offered his prayers to Lord Murugan. And there she is by his side fully recovered.
People, the priest said, ask many questions. His only assertion to them is that they should follow the path of bhakti, offer prayers to lord Murugan and one is bound to be blessed. “Panguni Uthiram is celebrated in Bhopal and through this festival we display the power of Shakti:, the priest emphasised.
Through this documentary Newsroom24x7 has objectively presented the rituals as they are performed. Nothing has been said in the documentary for or against and to promote the body piercing tradition connected with Panguni Uthiram.
Newsroom24x7 