Mumbai: As the festival to honour the goddess comes close, devotees start preparations to celebrate Navratri in different ways. One of the most unique ways of festive celebrations is seen in Mumbai where devotees cycle their way for almost a thousand kilometers to Kutch to seek blessings from Ashapura Mataji. Over the last four decades, multiple groups have started observing this way of devotion in a hope to get their wishes fulfilled.
Spanning a period of nine nights, the annual festival of Navratri, which literally means nine nights, is celebrated by Hindus in honour of Goddess Durga. The Ashvini Navratri celebrated during the Hindu month of Ashvin that falls around September or October is considered to be the most important out of the two Navratris observed by the community. The festival has a special significance among devotees who undertake different ways of worshipping to please the goddess.
A group of men from Dadar’s Hindmata area have been cycling to Kutch’s Mata No Madh for the last four decades. Shree Ashapura Mitra Mandal Hindmata started with just two participants forty years ago but this year a total of 111 devotees have started their journey to cycle 949 kilometers and seek blessings from the goddess. On Sunday, the cyclists were given farewell by the mandal’s members and local residents from Hindmata Chowk with an assistance car to fulfil their basic needs.
The cyclists, who had reached Gujarat’s Modhera Sun Temple on Friday, will reach Mata No Madh on the first day of Navratri on October 3 after a journey of 11 days. Carrying a picture of the goddess along with them, the cyclists also perform morning and evening puja with devotional music along the way.
Hindmata group has been one of the most well-known troops which cycle till Mata No Madh during Navratri and are therefore also invited by various organisations along the way which serve the cyclists with food, energy drinks and other requirements.
Vikramsinh Jadeja, a member of the mandal, said, “A lot of people join the group as a form of devotion after their wishes are fulfilled. People join the group from five years to nine years according to their commitment. Two brothers in the group have been participating in the annual cycling trips for 31 years and 27 years respectively. People from other cities also come to Mumbai and join the trip.”
