Visarjan is NOT Religion

For a country that has been battling ‘religion’ based atrocities and crimes like dowry, sati, child sacrifice etc we’re extraordinarily naïve and easily misguided. Anyone can push anything under the red carpet of ‘religion’ and rest assured that it will not be touched and if touched, he just has to deliver a loaded speech and trust the ‘public opinion’ to take care of the rest. I don’t need to cite examples here; I’m sure those of you who follow current events know of a few examples for this.

But unfortunately, amongst all the victims of this outrageous trend, the biggest victim is Religion itself. More than 90% of the time, the things that are pushed under the carpet of religion are things that religion doesn’t even mention, or is even actively/ passively opposed to. I have several examples for this too but the one I want to talk about is the one currently playing across the news channels today; Ganesh Visarjan.

For years, I’ve watched people parade the idols to the shore with great fanfare and noise and not once understood why they would dump their God in the same water as they dump their sewage. “Religion!” they say.

WHAT??

When has religion asked you to dump huge masses of waste into the sea and kill a million life forms??

So I asked around a little bit and this is what I found:

Ganesh pooja is an age old practice followed by Hindu families. There is an ‘installation’ pooja or ‘Sthapaana’ where the idol is placed in a specially decorated sanctum. There are special ritualistic poojas that are conducted through the period of the Lord’s ‘stay’ in the house. The ‘stay’ may vary from 36 Hrs to 21 days, depending on what the family has decided to do. At the end of this period, there is an ‘uttar pooja’. The idol is then put back into Its regular place in the house –The pooja room.

So what’s with the Visarjans?

Well, in the independence era Lokmanya Tilak got the Ganesh Utsav out of individual homes and into the whole community where everyone collectively installed one idol and celebrated together. These were called ‘Sarvajanik’ or Community Ganpatis. Tilak had introduced these community celebrations so that they would foster the community spirit and encourage cultural integration when people from the entire community come together for creative activities throughout the festive period. It is also said that Tilak used these community gatherings as a place to propagate nationalist ideals etc under the guise of a community celebration.

Anyway, when the Ganpatis were celebrated in individual homes, the families used their family idols for the purpose and at the end of the festivities, restored the idols back into the regular sanctums. However, with community celebrations, the communities started buying huge idols for this period of celebrations. But once the festivities were done, they had no place to keep the idols. Therefore these idols were sent off into the high seas. Once the community Ganpatis started going that way, people started getting new idols even for their individual homes and then submerging them as well into the sea at the end of it.

Reason?

Well, Hinduism believes that the Sea is the all accepting spirit which takes in everything and restores it into its place in the natural order of things. So wastes from sacred rites, like flowers etc are generally left into the sea. Now this theory held water for as long as the things being discarded did come from a natural origin to be restored into nature. But with plaster-of-paris, plastic and the likes entering stage, the sea has been at a loss to find a place for them. The resulting pollution is something that ALL of us know about (If you don’t, stay tuned to the News TV. They’re gonna start singing a whole different tune once the volunteers and activists go to the beaches to clean up whatever they can after the visarjans are done.)

The morning after...

Now allow me to dissect the situation a little further.

1. The purpose behind the community idols was to integrate the communities; today, instead of three chawls coming together for one ganpati, there are five ganpatis in the same chawl!
2. Which Ganpati would like to be remembered with “Munni Badnaam hui” blaring into his ears and smoke from crackers filling his poor trunk? No scripture ever said that we’re to play loud stupid music and burn up hell on the streets or the Lord will be displeased. In fact, I believe whatever we’re doing in the name of that Lord is probably enraging him.
3. Like I mentioned in the beginning, doesn’t anyone feel a bit of shame before immersing those idols into the sea? If you are calling it a God, are you not dunking the idol in the same water that contains the entire city’s poop? On mentioning this, someone told me that after the ‘uttar pooja’ the idol is void of the Lord’s spirit and is nothing but a statue. Well, then shame on you for throwing that statue so carelessly into the sea and killing millions of the Lord’s children who live in it.
4. How many Gods would take no offence at people charging a fee for a darshan? Pay 1000 and get a VIP Darshan. Pay 500 for a quick line to the front. And for those who can’t pay, stand in the long line spiralling into the streets and wait for hours to get a quarter-second’s glimpse of the idol before being shoved aside. Is that what a God would tolerate? Isn’t God supposed to be the all loving, impartial father of all? Since when has he demanded that money?

You know what the reality is? The reality is that whatever God once existed in all our idols and rites, has long left us. He’s not there in those idols; neither before the pooja, nor after it. He used to sit in people’s hearts and eyes but now money and plaster idols have taken up the place and he’s had to leave….

So what’s the solution? Well, it’s staring you in the face! Stop being perfect assholes and start doing things that actually go alongside the core value of the festival. Have one clay idol installed for a whole community area and use the time to be productive and spread joy. Hold blood donation drives or go to an orphanage or an old home. Or hold a food/ cloth collection drive and donate to someone like the Goonj foundation. Try bringing a longer lasting smile on faces that weren’t expecting one for the whole of their lives. Take time to make this world a better place; and then probably in some lone child’s grateful tears will we find the priceless darshan of the real Lord… with no queues and absolutely free….

 

 

Addition: One of the older Aajis (grandmothers) of the household recently told me another version of the origin of the ritual. In ancient times, in the wait for sufficient rain, farmers went to the mucky river beds and retrieved some clay, fashioned a clay idol of Lord Ganesha out of it and set the idol at a level where they wished the river to rise to. Then in the forthcoming days, they would pray to that idol, asking  him to beckon the water to his feet and promised to let him return to the river bed when the water came to that level. Thus, the Sthapana and the Visarjan… Now look outside your windows… any connection??