Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

"Ganpati Bappa Morya! Pudhchya warshi lavkar ya!!" they all were shouting their lungs out. A small boy hearing the loud sounds of loudspeakers and watching the people dancing and singing with the procession of a huge Ganesha idol asked an innocent question to his mother. "Mamma, why do they immerse lord Ganesha in the river, and, how can someone be so happy parting with their own God?" The mother of the child was taken aback by the innocent question. She did not have a convincing answer to the question. All she could tell her boy was "Ganesha comes, stays with us for 11 days, and then with HIM takes back all the worries and problems of His devotees." The small child was not totally convinced, but, at his age he was more bothered about his school, his friends and his childhood games. Year after year as the festival returned, this question kept haunting him.

Many years passed; the small child is a grown up man now and he has found some convincing answers to his question. Hindus worship the Supreme soul in everything around them. But, for majority of people it is not possible to worship this formlessness. They need some form to worship, pray and to seek blessings. Thus they made the form of Ganesha using clay and water. As it is a cycle of life, the cosmic law that the form gives way to the formlessness again. Thus, the clay through which the idol is made has to be given back to where it belongs. That’s the reason why the Ganesha idol made of clay is submerged into water to symbolize the concept of Moksha, or liberation, in Hinduism. That explains the immersion, but, one still needs to seek answers for the association of celebratory enthusiasm that is associated with it. Not much can be explained about it apart from condoning it as a trend started by some enthusiast, which stayed with us as a religious fervor.

Now, when this significance of Ganesha festival and immersion is compared with the way most of us celebrate the festival today, there is a lot that has changed. The creators of the idol are using easy to mold POP (Plaster of Paris), so that they can give eye catching shapes and colors to the idol and making a hefty profit in the process. People also like to see Ganesha in variety of forms, shapes and colors, and human inclination for such idols has grown many folds over the years. The idols which ideally should have been smaller in size and made of clay have become humongous in size and shape and normal water soluble clay became obsolete for idol creation. The transition from clay idols to POP idols was the beginning of an era when we started affecting the nature with it. We are polluting the rivers by immersing water insoluble POP made idols. The toxic colors that are used for decorating the idols are again making the life of creatures in the river, hell. The water in those rivers is slowly becoming useless for human or animal consumption.

Every year we all see the ill effects of Ganesha Immersion and still things are getting worse rather than showing any signs of improvement. In the name of Religious sentiments we all are actually polluting mother earth. Why don't people realize that we are spoiling the creation of the same Almighty in this whole process? Will any mother give blessings to the people who are killing her children? Then how can we expect the blessings of God when we are actually spoiling the nature.

Here are a few simple suggestions for improving things in the years to come. The government should totally ban the creation of Ganesha Idols that are made of POP and there should be a size limit for idols that we actually immerse in the rivers. Ganesh Mandals should re-use permanent idols for the procession and symbolic immersion of small Eco friendly, clay-made, Ganesha idols should be done. If we look at the significance of the immersion as explained above, we are not at all deviating from it. There should also be a complete ban on loud speakers. Traditional dhol-tashas make the festivals worth watching and an enjoyable affair. Now, how difficult is to follow these simple suggestions?

Note: This blog was published in the September 2012 edition of our company Newsletter.