Musings...

Yesterday was yet another ' Ganpati Visarjan' day. Every time, I have my objections to this whole procedure. The festival was started as a way of uniting people during the British Raj, by Lokmanya Tilak. It was meant to serve the purpose of reminding people that we are one as a nation and that we should put aside petty differences in worship of one God. True, the spirit of harmony is present even today - we have all heard of the legendary Lal Bagh Ganpati which stops in front of a mosque on it's way to the sea, but haven't things gotten way out of hand now?

The simple clay idols (which when immersed in the sea didn't pollute it or harm the sea-life, other than perhaps raising the water level eventually, which isn't really good for the ecology) have been replaced by monstrosities made out of Plaster of Paris, and Oil Paints. In order to gain their little spot in the limelight, people also resort to tactics like making Ganpatis out of Chocolate (last year) or Dal (this year)!! I wonder what they do with that - immerse the idol and waste 'food' or give it street children to eat - which would be blasphemous! But then isn't the idea of making an idol out of chocolate, itself blasphemous? Not to mention highly ridiculous? And then there's this competition for the 'richest' Ganpati -read gaudiest display of wealth, invested wrongly - where is this wealth when we talk of the country's progress? Does the Lord truly want all this? Does He need such an obvious display as proof of our belief in Him?

Then comes the noise. I know people feel festivals are times to celebrate with great pomp and cheer. But there are people who like to sleep at a sensible hour and not be woken up by the clashing of the 'lezhim' and the beating of the 'dholak' at midnight. What about the people who live by the sea..I live close to it so I have an idea what the ones right by the sea have to go through - the noise keeps them up through the night.

The immersion, is yet another story! Most do not know this, but at Versova the bigger idols are placed on a plank balanced between two boats, then the boats go out into the sea, find an empty spot, and Lord Ganesha is kicked into the sea! Am I the only one seeing this as an insult? The same idol is thrown back by the sea in bits and pieces for days later and ends up in the garbage truck of the BMC. And ofcourse the beach is littered with the remains, flowers, plastic, thermocol and what-not for months.

What are we achieving by all this? Can't we worship God in a way that would truly be holy in every sense of the term? In a way that would not harm other people, organisms and the environment? Some how in view of all this the feelings of awe and humility I should experience when in front of an idol, just vanish. C'est triste!