GANESH CHATHURTI
About a humane festival that began in respecting the mother earth and fellow creatures.I want to share with you all about an interesting festival which is being celebrated in India during the second week of September every year. It is celebrated on the name of a deity who has an elephant head and human body, and whose transport medium is a mouse.The celebration is called ‘Ganesh Chathurti’.
During the festival, we bring home an idol, worship it and then immerse it in water.
Unfortunately, all other religions thinks that it is an Hindu festival but it would be interesting to know that it is an human(e) festival and the tradition began in respecting the mother earth and fellow creatures.
In ancient times, agricultural communities were conscious of their dependence on the fertility of the earth, because they knew that it is the source of all our food. During the monsoon, as the overflowing rivers deposited fresh fertile soil on their banks, farmers and their family would bring home a handful of this soil and worship it. They would offer gratitude to the earth in this way and when their ritual was over they would bring back this soil to the banks of the river and immerse it back in the flowing waters.
This ancient tradition has been many transformations; the mound of earth took the form of Ganesha-an elephant god who is supposed to be the lord of earth element- which is one of the five elements that make up everything in nature-fire, water, air, earth and ether.
A farmer need not belong to one belief or religion. Earlier people made their idols from the soil of earth they brought home and slowly it got replaced by sculpted idols made by craftsman. Unfortunately today earth was replaced by inorganic materials like plaster of paris and of chemical paints which contains heavy metals like lead and mercury ; millions of such idols are dropped into water, polluting the river and the sea during the celebration.
It is painful to note that a ritual that began in gratitude to the earth and life form is now causing an environmental damage!
Let us avoid everything that is toxic to all life. Let us save our mother nature to save our children and fellow creatures.
1 Comments:
Living in cooperation with Nature is a little difficult at first if one is not experienced in it but it is not so long ago that most of humanity lived with Nature. The legends and myths are replete with stories about Man's history with and against Nature. Since humanity has moved farther and farther from cooperation with natural life, more problems and diseases have cropped up.
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