1989 Ganesha Visarjana

1989 Ganesha Visarjana
Baker Beach San Francisco
Sept. 7

The Shakti Mandir along with Michael Bowen, Maitreya Bowen, Corky Engel and Basul Parik participated in the annual Ganesha Visarjana Festival.

The festival celebrates Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings, the Remover of Obstacles and the God of Wisdom and Intelligence

'The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's murtis (devotional representations of a deity) privately in homes and publicly on elaborate temporary stages. Observances include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, prayers and kirtans. Offerings and prasada from the daily prayers, that are distributed to the community and include sweets such as modak as it is believed to be a favourite of Ganesha. The festival ends when the diety is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea, called visarjana.
In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 murtis are immersed annually.'

This is an AI upscaled video made from the original Sony 8MM SD video footage.