localities of Tripura, Assam and Bangladesh) people becoming the most important
festival for Bishnupriya Manipuris day by day. This is against the thought and philosophy of our ancestors and also much against the very philosophy of Gaudiya Vaishnavism our people adopted. There are solid reasons to oppose the observance of Durga -
a) According to philosophy of Chaitanya Vaishnavism nothing short of prem(love of god) can give us the pure state of salvation. The ultimate aim and purpose of human life is the attainment of the spiritual form of Krisha. I had asked some ISKON gurus and devotees they told me that when you are devoting toward the Lord himself, you dont need anymore devotion toward any shakti like Durga, Kali, or whatever.
b) Durga is a meat-eating blood-thirsty deity, so Durga puja require animal sacrifices, which cannot be carried out by a non-meat-eater conservative manipuri Vaishnav.
c) Durga celebration is very costly, expensive and going to become costlier day by day. Even in the rural areas the picture is very terrifying. A community with a very low average income spending 50/60 thousands of taka or even more money for observing a very unimportant ritual of vaishnavism with a luxuries manner. Whats the benefit we get from that? Our eminent great leader late Bimal Singha was against the celebration of Bengali custom Durga puja.
d) Only handful of brahmins benifits from Durga puja and they succseed in keeping alive the pourahit rules.
Durga orininated from Saivism and historical materials available till date doesnt give us any proof about Saivism or the phallus cult of Indus valley at Manipur before 18th century. The main tanets of Saivism, viz, Pati, Pasu and Pasa are lacking in Manipuri thouht. No kapalikas,Kanphates, Aghories, Bahikathas found in either in Manipur or in our people ever.Saktism also a very recent origin, came to occupy our religion by the hands of some manipuri brahmins by misidentifying manipuri traditional goddess Nompok-Panthoibi/ Leimaren /Imagithani with Durga. Apart this none of our folklore suggests that our forefathers ever had any pronounced worship of male/female reproductive organ together with shakti which was a local culture of tantric hindu people of Bengal.
Just give me one good reason why should we continue worshipping the mayang goddess Durga?
