CHHATH POOJA: BHAKTI OF TODAY FOR AN AFFLUENT TOMORROW

Chhath Pooja has become my emotional anchor ever since I left my village home in 1976 and the State of Bihar in 1983. I have been sort of getting back to the SHIP DECK off and on like a bird flying high over the sea.
Can't help going to the Ghats on the Hindan Canal in Ghaziabad's Vaishali or Vsaundhara or on the Yamuna in Delhi.
The First Aragh or the Offerings to the Setting Sun has always raised a question with both cultural and spiritual moorings.

How come a region that gave to us the first ever pan Indian political empire and had some of the best universities of the time and yes the greatest sages ( Buddha & Mahavir) and scientists ever, came to worship the Setting Sun that is symbolic of the Power on its way out?

The people as embodied in their culture have not lost faith in Future Buddhas or Chandraguptas or Nalanda Vishwavidyalayas or a Deerghtama to whom is credited the famous Rigvedic hymn:
Ekoh Sadvipra Bahudha Vadanti...
( The Truth is One and only one though it is interpreted differently by different people. )

That eternal wait for a bright future is best expressed by the CHHATH POOJA wherein the glorious past is as living as the Present that is awaiting a face lift in Future.

That feeling of pan Indianness is also deeply embedded. You shouldn't be surprised when you see a sign board bannering AKHIL BHARTIYA SANGATHAN with no members from beyond the district where it is located.
A Bihari is destined to think everything that is only pan Indian with a significant future role for him/her. No separatist movement could gain ground there.

So the CHHATH POOJA is symbolic of everything that WAS good about Bihar and everything better and divine that would someday happen to it and thus to the country.

The BHAKTI of today is for the organically connected affluence of tomorrow...
It has made them unique. ..nostalgic about a better and divine future that can as on date is attainable through education only. ..an average parent goes to any length ( selling of land or jewellery or house) to ensure proper education to his or her ward. They are found in hordes in JNU, DU, IITs, JMI et al.
So a HAPPY CHHATH to us all!