Celebration of Feminine Energy -Raja Festival-Odisha is a Real Eldorado

{If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest day when man began the dream of existence ,it is India.....Romain Rolland.}
 

Mensuration is a physiological issue not a spiritual phenomenon It is still considered as a social  taboo and shame.   There are lots of prejudices  against menstruation in the spiritual dimension. Quite a   substantial  segment  of women it is reflected as a psychological makeup.  We are born from that.If that   is   impure our very birth is impure and the entire cosmos is impure. 

Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world. Odisha, in the eastern part of  India  is often underrated despite of its rich architecture ,beautiful landscape, ancient history with great cultural heritage. The world knows is as the land of lord Jagannath.This land of mesmerizing beauty celebrates brilliant festival like Durga Puja and Ratha Yatra..I am skeptical whether the world knows about the unique and progressve festival called the Raja festival. Raja comes from the sanskrit word Rajaswala ,meaning a menstruating women.This is a very special festival for the farming families.It is a break for all the people because after the arrival of monsoon everybody's work becomes more important as the earth become more fertile. Festival celebrating women hood and the feminine energy is celebrated for three  days with great enthusiasm and grandeur. The women take rest  having Pitha made out of steamed  rice.They enjoy for three days doing lots of fun. They seize those precious moments often on  the  rope swings in the banyan trees and listens the lyrical folk songs. Young girls are treated   as  princesses and offered new dresses, delicacies. The day before first day is called sajabaja or the preparatory day. It is believed that the divine wife of Lord Jagganath/ Vishnu,Bhudevi takes rest as she undergoes  menstruation for the first three days and she is given a ceremonial bath on the fourth day.This day is known as Basumati Snana.

The first day of the festival is called Pahili Raja.The second day is called Raja Sankanti and the third day is called Basi Raja.

It is not a discriminatory issue,  this is being said that women cannot enter the temples at that time.It come from a different set up,we need to understand this. Look back to thousand years back. What kind of sanitary facilities she had. The level of physical activities in those days were tremendous. That's why it was a wonderful gift for her to take break for three four days from the physical activies.That's a time where she needs to be protected,taken care of,somebodyelse cooks for her. She sits and enjoys alone by herself. But over a period of time somebody made a discriminatory process. This has nothing to do with the spiritual world but only valid for the practical issues. Superstitions and bigotries -No fundamental sense of life.

Eldorado is a mythical of city  of fabulous wealth or opportunity. In other words Eldorado is a city of untold riches, which is hypothetical. People of Odisha and everybody should know that Odisha is  the city of  real Eldorado.