The Teej Festival

The Teej Festival and Its Spiritual Aspect

Every year, women celebrate the Teej festival in Nepal in the month of September or October. This spiritual festival is also known as Haritalika. In recent times, it has become more of a social affair than spiritual one. In the ancient times, it was a totally spiritual practice and it served the purpose of the festival. Although it is exclusively for Hindu women, men are also now said to be taking interest as well as part in it. For women, it is a major festival.

 How is it Celebrated?

 

The Teej is for three days. Weeks before the Teej arrives, women begin thinking fondly about it and their mother's home. New Teej songs are composed by singers every year and are made popular through the radio and the TV. The women in cities start organizing social gatherings at party places to enjoy dancing, singing and eating long before the Teej festival arrives. All married women get an opportunity to return to their mother's home to celebrate this festival. Usually, their brothers come to take them home. 

The first day of the Teej is Dar. Women eat as much heavy food as they can and stuff their stomachs and gratify their minds. The next day is for dancing and singing. Women wear their best dress and jewelry and come out into the streets to sing and dance at public places. They sing about their life, its joys and sorrows. By the evening they become totally exhausted; but instead of eating, they go silent without food. This is called brata or upabasa. They keep this for the longevity of their husbands' or would-be husbands' life. Thus ends the Teej; and married women return to their husbands.

The Science behind the Festival

This is a very beautiful spiritual festival. Everything is logical and scientific. The first day is for accumulation of energy to be spent on the following day by necessity. It is also for the gratification of the body and the mind by over-eating. Then, the dancing and the singing exhausts their physical energy and releases their pent up emotions. This prepares women for upabasa.  

Upabasa does not mean fasting. upa means 'near' or 'next to' and basa means 'staying'. So upabasa means 'staying nearby'. The mind in the tired body is no longer able to run far away from one's center now. Instead, as the woman sits comfortably and her body relaxes, her mind comes nearer and nearer and at last, stays near her center or soul. She is able to become thoughtless in this way. When there is no thought left, it is the right moment to make a wish. A single thought or wish made at this circumstance has the support of her total energy or prana. This method is so powerful that the wish becomes material with prana-energy and comes true. 

On the contrary, if the wish is made from the fragmented mind, it brings the opposite of welfare 

Why the women wish for the longevity of their husbands' lives and not for their own liberation is very disturbing.

The Bottom Line

Year after year, women make wishes for their husbands as a sacrifice but few succeed because they do not follow the exact steps seriously and consciously. The science and technique of making wishes is a powerful tool which can be learnt and used for many other purposes too. Women should use this tool for their personal spiritual progress as well. Since it is a powerful tool, it should be always used for the good of all mankind.