This is the season of “Ganapati Bappa Maurya”. Millions of people across the country & the world are celebrating the event & paying obeisance to the deity of good fortune & better luck.

I had the opportunity to see the famous Khairatabad Ganapati, 58 ft tall, at Hyderabad. An immaculate statue of this size tells about the hard work & dedication of artisans & ‘bhakts’ who made it possible. The statue was to be immersed in Hussain Sagar Lake the next day. Curiosity overtook me & I thought of having a look at the lake where the statue was to be immersed. Unfortunately it was not a pleasant sight.

Hussain Sagar Lake is a huge & beautiful water body in the midst of Hyderabad city with its own permanent statue of Mahatama Buddh. It is a serene place where you can walk or jog on the paths & the tracks around it & feel nearer to the elements of Mother Nature. Water too is reasonably clean.

As already mentioned my visit to the lake front wasn’t actually pleasant. There were scores of small & big cranes stationed around the lake with their booms strutting skywards distorting the beautiful landscape. Since it was afternoon there were not many Ganapatis being immersed, but the sight was pathetic. Cranes had broken up the paths & the tracks. The reinforcement material used in the statutes that had already been immersed was being fished out of the lake & scattered all around. Flowers, leaves, twigs, disposable plastic glasses & filth of all type were rotting on the road side. There was dirt & rotting material lying in the water of the lake itself.

The spectacle was pathetic.

I could not understand what ‘we the people’, as a Nation, are up to. And when I say ‘we the people’ I mean the Hindus to be specific for Hindus constitute 80% of the country’s population. I am also of a firm belief that if a majority of the 80% population of the country decides to make this country & its environment a place to live in there can be no stopping & the rest will certainly follow.

The tradition of Hinduism is ‘faith’ & ‘devotion’. Its tradition also worships nature in all its diverse forms. That is why several rivers of India are given the stature of a mother. Similarly India too is called “Bharat Matta”. The underlying thought of earlier Indian sages in creating such equations was to propagate an idea that all creations of ‘nature’ should be cared for, respected & not defiled or polluted.

The area around Khairatabad Ganapati was more of a commercial market where all types of commodities & polluted eatables were on sale. There were sadhus with cows, disfigured & desperate beggars looking for alms, men & women clicking selfies with the Ganapati in the background & thousands of people moving in & out of the place in a disorderly manner. The police force though was trying to ensure that there was some semblance of discipline. The Ganapati in all His majesty was looking at the throngs of crowd below with unblinking eyes & with a huge ‘ladoo’ in one of His hands that, I am told, was to be auctioned at the end of the day. There was nothing like cleanliness in the entire area.

Returning back after taking a detour of Hussain Sagar lake a question regularly kept on rankling my mind was that if this was Hinduism….?

I am sure this is not Hinduism. Hinduism respects environment. It respects & loves all His creation & creatures. It calls for faith & devotion. It calls for respect for downtrodden & to all humanity. It preaches that God is present in each & every human being & all its creations. It also preaches that as humans we should help the deprived & the weak. And above all we should protect environment including all water bodies from pollution & misuse.

And here we are immersing in the Hussain Sagar Lake not one 58 ft tall Ganapati but hundreds of big & small ones without caring for its consequences on the lake, or the creatures living in it, nor for the surroundings. There is no ‘faith’ or ‘devotion’ for the idols either. They are just ‘thrown & pushed’ in such an unsavory manner into the lake, without batting an eyelid, as if they were an unnecessary burden & not a part of our ‘puja’ for last so many days.

Similarly hundreds & thousands of these idols are also immersed or ‘thrown’ into the lakes, rivers & oceans all across the country.

Is this really necessary? Is it really necessary to build such huge Ganapaties? Couldn’t Ganapaties be made smaller in size & with material that is easily & ‘respectfully’ disposable? Is it necessary to convert such a sacrosanct festival to a ‘tamasha’ with loudspeakers blaring at full volume & bands playing tunes that do not conform to the sanctity of the occasion? Why should there be unruly mobs following the idols for immersion? If they are disciplined it is absolutely perfect.

Hence, I feel that Hindus should have a relook at the method of celebration of these festivals & reform their celebration to the needs of the present times. Present time is crying very loudly & demanding that water bodies & rivers of the country must be protected. Today’s celebrations should not result in extinction of our rivers & lakes for our future generations. The celebrations should be disciplined & reflect the ethos for which they are organized. I have not understood, for example, as to what has playing tombola to do with Ganapati celebrations & announcing the numbers on a public address system that carries the voice kilometers away.

For the celebrations to reform it is the Hindus, as individuals, who need to reform first. It is not Hinduism that needs a reformation for, I believe, no one today knows what Hinduism is. With hundreds & thousands of religious books written during thousands of years & in so many languages there are bound to be contradictions. The situation is further compounded as there is no single authority to which one can turn to understand the Hindu religion & various subtle aspects of it. As an example I can mention that no two Hindus have a same set of processes & procedures for as simple a ceremony as marriage in a family. In short, for a common man, Hinduism is what he perceives it to be & he practices it the way he has seen it being practiced during his life time within the parameters of the tradition followed by his ancestors & the neighbouring communities. Revolution in communication has brought societies together & every community is picking up traditions from here & there & incorporating them in their own.

[Gita of course is the guiding principles of life but how many people read it much less understand it?!]

As such Hindus should bring in reformation in the way they live & celebrate their festivals . This is especially important when temporary idols are erected during festival season for a very short duration & are required to be immersed eventually.

In my opinion, during the festivals there should be emphasis on:

• Cleanliness first. When Ganapatis are moved out of the ‘pandals’ for immersion the garbage left behind by the devotees in the form of discarded eatables, flowers & other ‘puja samagri’ is unimaginable & nobody seems to bother about it. Filth & garbage is considered to be quite normal & clearance is left for the municipal committees to handle. While the organizers of the festivals spend thousands & lakhs of rupees on organizing the ‘pandals’ & other paraphernalia it should be their responsibility to clear the muck left behind.
• Reduction in the sizes of Ganapatis & Maa Durga idols (“sharad” Navratris are just around the corner) so that they are manageable & are immersed in lakes, ponds or rivers by human hands without using mechanical means. Human hands bring in a sense of piousness & respect to the process that no mechanical means can. For immersing an idol that one has worshiped for days together some sense of respect & devotion is naturally essential.
• The idols should be made of mud alone & whatever material is used in their formation should be biodegradable.
• Whenever puja is conducted it should be with rapt attention, even if for a very short time. We Hindus generally forget the sanctity of the occasion. Puja is left to the pujari & the ‘yajman’ with everyone else doing everything else except puja. I had the occasion of attending a Christian marriage ceremony in Kerala recently & while the ceremony was on, under the benign gaze of the statue of Jesus Christ, the bride as well as the bridegroom & large number of guests ensured that they were a part of the process & listened to the priests in rapt attention. It was really appreciable & enjoyable at the same time. This is unlike the Hindu marriage ceremonies where everyone is generally to himself.  Religious functions in Sikh community too are held with a great degree of discipline.
• Why should crackers be used at all in these functions? They are not only responsible for environmental & noise pollution but also leave behind large quantities of  filthy & burnt out paper spread over a large area.
• Used disposable glasses, plates & other such material should be suitably gathered  & disposed. Usually this material is left at site of ‘pandal’ & over a period of time become a cause for choked drains & pipes.

I believe that if the points mentioned above are followed during the pujas the festivals will be a treat to mind as well as soul. It will leave the environment much healthier & water much cleaner. It is very important that we protect our water bodies from degradation, pollution & extinction. Let us take a step forward in this direction.

I will again emphasize that if Hindus, who are 80% of India’s population try to improve things around themselves this country will change for the better & everyone else shall follow the lead thus making the Nation a better place to live in.

The natural corollary to this is that if Hindus do not take initiatives in this direction they will be responsible for the environmental degradation in the country & consequent catastrophe, God forbid.

Ganapati of Kharatabad, Hyderabad

Garbage in the Hussain Sagar Lake

Cranes parked on the periphery of the Hussain Sagar Lake for immersion of Ganapati idols