Spread the word – show our respect to our dear deity.

We are witnessing posts, images & videos here and there on situation at the seashore, rivers, near lakes post Shree Ganesh Idol immersion / Visarjan. 

We all need to do more on this issue.

First of all – those who are worshiping big Murtis & Idols and immersing them in water bodies need to understand that the real Shree Ganesh Chaturthi vrat or Pooja is all about worship, bhakti, saadhna and love for god, the vrat doesn’t talk about such big Murtis or Idols - it talks about small pratima or Murti or Idol which is handmade and after immersion or visarjan should completely dissolve in water.

What is currently happening is very heartbreaking. People are not realizing that what they are doing with the Idols or Murtis is disrespectful towards those Idols.

Real Pooja is where we create a Murti or Idol and then do praan pratishtha means we invite the supreme godly power through the five elements / panch mahabhuta who are representing that godly power to come & be present in that Idol or Murti. 

Once this praan pratishtha is done then we perform other pujas, we pray, we celebrate, we feel happy and make others happy, sharing Prasad or Naidaidya is that feeling of sharing happiness, joy sharing the blessings. And then we do aarti – aart means passionate & from bottom of our hearts - so aart kariti iti aarti. That is our communication with god from our hearts as in most of the aartis we sing glories to god and we ask god to protect us, give us good health, wealth & wisdom. This is the overall pooja summary. But what we are doing is we are celebrating with the  big Murtis or Idols with all chemical colors, and then irresponsibly we immerse them in river or sea or lake without even taking ownership of what happens post that.

There are so many videos & images where we can see the government employees who are supposed to clean that are not treating those idols with respect. 

What we can see that after the visarjan the beach is full with the broken idols and those are not at all treated with respect.

Are we not responsible for those Idols or Murtis post Ganesh Visarjan?

Why very few people are bothered about it? Why so many still doing that though they can see whats happening to Idols or Murtis post viasarjan?

Its really commendable that  many people are coming forward and starting with eco friendly idols & murtis - thats what even the real vrat is expected to be done, they are doing visarjan / immersion at home.

Advertisement from Chitale  https://youtu.be/l3YEkYepTeM is very good & important, it is in alignment with the Dharma, Adhyatma (real Hinduism & its Spirituality). We all need to work on this.

If we go back in history and check we will see that number of people who bring a Ganesh Idol at home and celebrate Ganesh Festival is increasing – in past say fifty years back or hundred years back there were only few families from particular region & community who used to bring Ganesh Murtis or Idols & celebrate Ganesh Festival – later Lokmaanya Tilak made this festival a social event – his intentions were all good, as British rulers did not allow common Indians to gather and talk & discuss about freedom – Tilak used this religious event as an opportunity to gather people and accelerate the freedom movement.

This festival has given us many good leaders, even many artists have got opportunities in this festival to show case their talent. 

This festival gives an opportunity to celebrate our heritage, I love Pune anyways but during Ganesh Festival Pune becomes a different land – the beauty, the joy and the contagious enthusiasm in Pune during these days is unparalleled.

We strongly need to preserve our culture, spread the good things and enjoy. But we must stop bad practice. We should have big group recitation of Atharvshirsh, Aarti, more functions, cultural activities but we should stop this improper treatment of the Murtis or Idols post Visarjan / immersion. That is our responsibility. That is our duty. What kind of worshipers we are if we let that happen?

Let us work together on promoting the eco friendly Murtis or Idols which will get dissolved in water easily – that too at home. Let us all use pure water, put chandan and flowers in it and then do the visarjan – later add that soil to trees – spread it in gardens and then through those plants, through those flowers & trees Shree Ganesh will bless us forever.

Spread the word – show our respect to our dear deity.