21,000 women set unique record in group chanting of Ganesh name

A record 21,000 women participated in the group chanting of Atharvasheersha, the prayer of Lord Ganesh, at Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Mandal on the Rishi Panchami day on Thursday morning.

The group chanting of this prayer is an annual event organised by the mandal since 25 years. The event is organised by Shubhangi Bhalerao, and her husband Arun Bhalerao. Shubhangi trains women priests. In 2008, 19,000 women had participated in the event. In 2009, the event could not take place due to swine flu epidemic in city. Around 15,000 women participated in 2010.

Minister of state for home Satej Patil, his wife Pratima, mayor Vaishali Bankar, scholar from Yavatmal Swanand Pund Shastri, commissioner of police Gulabrao Pol, mandal veteran Shankarrao Suryavanshi, mandal president Ashok Godse, secretary Manik Chavan and treasurer Mahesh Suryavanshi were present.

Students of  Hujurpaga school were presented the award for the best team which chanted Atharvasheersha during last year’s Ganesh festival. Gayatri Brahme, a second year BA student from SP College, had come from Sahakarnagar to participate in the event. She is participating in the event since last nine years. Her mother Gauri Brahme is a disciple of Shubhangi and Gayatri also joined the group.

Sunita Kekane, a housewife from Bhandarkar Road, who is participating since last four years, told DNA that she experiences a sense of fulfillment after participating in the group chanting.

Minister Satej Patil expressed the hope that Ganesh festival in Pune will take place without any untoward incident and lauded the efforts by the mandal in organising the event on a big scale. He hoped that the police department should not be forced to file case against any mandal.

Bhalerao said it was a birthday gift for him that so many women took part in the event. Mandal president Godse said he was carrying forward the tradition introducing social welfare measures started by his father Late Prataprao Godse.

Pol clarified that the police department will not impose restrictions but mandals should cooperate in celebrating the festival without causing any nuisance to anyone.

Record of mantra
After an appeal by the mandal, almost 10,000 women had sent slips containing Lord Ganesh’s mantra ‘Om Gan Ganapataye Namah’.

As per the mandal’s estimate, the mantra may have
been written at least 44 crore times. Bhalerao said their team has counted around 5,000 slips and the mantra has been written for around 25 crore times.

A box containing the slips was handed over to Bankar by Shubhangi Bhalerao.