Story behind Ugadi

Hi everyone! Do you ever wonder why we have sorrow, anger, disgust, fear in life instead of only happiness? Well, life is a mixture of many emotions like these. Imagine we have only happiness in life and no worries at all. Then, we would simply sit and do just nothing and we wouldn't have any challenges, we wouldn't even want to learn anything and we wouldn't try to solve problems..wait! If we don't have any problems, why would we even bother to solve them right? Well, In India, there is a festival which reminds this millennial fact. You must be knowing what I am talking about and yes, you're right! It's Ugadi which is a very old festival that has been celebrating from ages. Ugadi reminds me of the six-flavoured Ugadi pachadi which is usually made to give six flavours that include jaggery and ripe banana pieces that indicate happiness, neem buds and its flowers for sadness, green chilli or pepper for anger, salt for fear, unripened mango for surprise and finally, tamarind juice that indicates disgust. The significance of Ugadi pachadi is that life is a mixture of all these emotions - happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust and it tells us that we should treat all of them with equanimity.

Ugadi is celebrated in the month of March or April by the people of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It is also celebrated in some other states of India but with different names. It  is observed as Ugadiare Gudi Padava by Marathas, Gudi Padava by people of Maharashtra. It is celebrated as Barhasaptayamana by the people who live north to Vindhya hills and Chandramana or Sauramana by the people who live south to Vindhya hills. The manipuries and Sindhis observe it as Sajibur Cheiraoba and Cheti Chand respectively.

During this festival, the season of spring is believed to have come at its fullest. Buds blossom into flowers, trees look astoundingly beautiful with new leaves, flowers and fruits, thus establishing greenery. We can see colorful and festive environment everywhere. Usually people who celebrate this festival clean their houses and surroundings, wear new clothes on this day, have family gatherings and seek blessings from god to have happiness and prosperity in their lives. They decorate their house entrances with mango leaves to please the gods Lord Ganesh and Lord Karthikeya. It is believed that both the gods love mangoes and the new mango leaves (thoranalu) at their entrances symbolizes good yield. People follow various customs and rituals and they believe that they would get sure success if they start new things from this day.

Story behind Ugadi:

                               

Once Lord Brahma was sleeping as he was exhausted after the hectic work of the previous era. While he slept, he unconsciously opened his mouth and Vedas slipped out of his mouth but he didn’t notice this. At the sight of this, a demon called Hayagriva came and stole the Vedas from Lord Brahma, swallowed them and hid himself deep in the ocean. He did this because the Vedas he had stolen were powerful enough to make him immortal. Lord Vishnu observed this and he decided to come down to earth in the form of 'Matsya avataram' (a fish).

There once lived a king called Satyavrata who was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. Once he went to a river to offer his Sandhyavandana (evening prayers). When he took the water in his hands, a small fish came along with water into his hands. He then dropped it into the water and took a handful of water again. Even this time, fish came into his hands. Every time he took the water, fish came into his hands. Then the king dropped it in a tub but it grew so faster that the tub couldn’t contain it anymore. So the king transferred it into a well but it grew faster and the well too couldn’t contain it. Surprised by this, the king transferred it into a lake but the same thing happened and finally he transferred it into the sea but the fish grew faster and even the mighty ocean couldn’t be able to contain it and at last, the fish revealed himself  as Lord Vishnu. Satyavrata was amazed at this and when asked to desire a wish, he didn’t ask anything for himself.

Then Lord Vishnu told him that there would be a great disaster on seventh day from then and the whole world would be going to destroy because of it. Then he told that if Satyavrata could assemble herbs, seeds, pick up the beings needed for next era, then the fish would send a gigantic boat so that everything could be placed into it and can be saved. Satyavrata agreed to this and did accordingly. Thus, Lord Vishnu saved all the beings in the boat and as the boat sailed, Matsya taught Satyavrata what is Matsya Purana. Then on seventh day, Matsya took its enormous form and killed Hayagriva and obtained Vedas from him. 

Later, Lord Vishnu hands the vedas to Brahma and Brahma starts creating next era on Ugadi. Ugadi is originally derived from a Sanskrit word called “Yugadi” which means Yuga + Adi i.e., the beginning of a New Year/ Era which is why Telugu people believe that it’s their Telugu new year. Yugadi specifically refer to the age in which we are living now, known as Kali Yuga. Kali Yuga started when Lord Sri Krishna left the world which Maharshi Vedavyasa describes this event with the words "Yesmin Krishno divamvyataha, Tasmat eeva pratipannam Kaliyugam".

There is a belief associated with this festival according to Telugu people that Brahma started writing fates of people on this day by creating the whole world. This is why people celebrate this festival in the honor of Lord Brahma despite the fact that Lord Shiva cursed him that no one would worship him after Brahma-Vishnu fight. Another interesting thing is, one year for us equals to one day for Brahma. This festival is celebrated from the times of Mahabharata but it was not celebrated on ‘Chaitra Shuddha Padyami’ which has high significance among Hindus and is considered to be the first day of the year. 

So, this is the story of Ugadi. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it. So what do you like most about this festival? For me, it’s always mouth-watering Ugadi pachadi. Let’s hope this Ugadi bring all goodness and success into our lives. See you next time with another interesting STORY BEHIND THE FESTIVAL.