Bad days for the Lord of our Good Luck

In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak, reshaped the annual Ganesh festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. He visualized the cultural importance of this deity and used Ganesh Chaturthi as a National Festival to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and build unity between them in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. The festival facilitated community participation & involvement in the form of learned discourses and served as a meeting ground for common people of all castes and communities, in a time when social & political gatherings were forbidden by the British Rule to exercise control over the population. It was an important festival during the Peshwa rule in Maharashtra, but acquired a more organized form all over India during the Swaraj movement (Freedom struggle).

What started as a movement for freedom struggle has taken gigantic proportions today. Religious belief has been replaced by commercial motive. It has become a big industry in itself. A small section of crowd has been replaced by large serpentine que. The traditional mud idols have been replaced by Plaster of Paris statues. Small idols have been replaced by tall and huge ones.
Of concern is that these murtis (large and small) are made out of PoP and coloured chemicals, which causes significant water pollution when immersed in sea water.

Plaster of Paris (POP) is not a naturally occurring material and contains gypsum, sulphur, phosphorus and magnesium. The idols take several months to dissolve in water and in the process poison the waters of lake, ponds, rives and seas.

The chemical paints used to decorate the Ganesh idol contain mercury, lead, cadmium and carbon and this increases the acidity and heavy metal content in the water.

Several accessories used during the Ganesh Puja like Thermocole, plastic flowers, cloth, incense, camphor and numerous other materials are dumped carelessly adding more strain to the already polluted rivers and lakes.

Careless dumping of Ganesh idols in waterbodies blocks the natural flow of water. This results in stagnation and breeding of mosquitoes and other harmful pests. The polluted water causes several diseases including skin diseases.

The pollution from Ganesh Chaturthi idols also damages the ecosystem, kills fishes and water plants. In many areas, the same polluted water gets pumped into homes.

People drink and dance to loud music on the streets showing absolute disrespect to Lord.

The day after immersion, it’s a pathetic sight to watch at the sea shore as parts of the Ganesh Idol which was worshipped ends up being beaten, dismembered and left to fall apart in the water.

Check the following links which contains pics of Lord Ganesh taken the day after the idols are immersed in sea water.
NOTE: It is illegal to publish desecrated images of Ganesh idols. Hence, links to other websites, which contain such images are given here. The intention is to show how disrespectful we are towards God and how Hindu faith is being abused. This is purely to create awareness and not hurt sentiments.
Image 1
http://fractalenlightenment.blogspot.com/2007/10/pros-cons-of-ganesh-chaturthi.html

Image 2
http://basia.blog-city.com/colors_of_asia_pink.htm

Image 3
http://vivekchavan.blog.co.uk/2007/09/14/aware_indians~2977247

Image 4
http://trak.in/tags/business/2007/09/19/polluting-ganesh-festival-idols/

Image 5
http://www.fropper.com/posts/6972

This is not the way to worship. No other community behaves this way with their God. In the name of worship, we have made a mockery of the entire tradition. Over so many years, we lost our values and traditions and we have pushed ourselves into doing business and making profits with religious issues. We should change our behavior to continue respecting God and keep our tradition running.

So what should one do?

1. Use a small idol for immersion and worship a permanent stone idol every year. Let us keep the idol small and the theme Big.

2. Return to the traditional use of natural clay idols and immerse the idol in a bucket of water at home.

3. Use eco-friendly idols made of paper pulp, clay, flowers etc that easily dissolve in water and do not break into pieces when immersed.

4. Instead of immersing it in sea water, use a tub or a water tank. Artificial ponds are available across Mumbai and we can use them. http://www.ecoganpati.com/artificial-ponds.html

5. Do not paint (or at least over paint) the idol. Avoid using chemical colors.

6. Do not use items such as plastic for decoration.

7. Avoid using crackers and loud music.

It is not necessary to be fancy about our Lord. Lets just show respect to the lord of our good luck.