Stop making fun of Ganesha

Lord Ganesh is the most revered deity of Indian Culture. Every work – be it major or minor begins by worshipping or remembering this deity primarily. He has a special place in the hearts of most Hindus alike all over the world.

History denotes that worshipping lord Ganesh was a ritual limited only at select few homes. It was an honour for the so called ‘elite communities’ to have the privilege to worship him openly. Later with the influences of several leaders, was the festival of celebrating Ganesh Chathurthi at a mass scale and amongst the public was introduced. The celebration of this festival was seen as a catalyst to boost unity and oneness amongst the people. This festival reached to several parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and other states. It gained instant momentum and its gait spread like a wild fire. With times, the ganesh festival was seen as a major event in the calendar of Indian festival. It started creating mass public presence on the streets and major public spaces. Welcoming the idol with music and dance gained impetus with the years as it spread across several cities.

The ritual procession to welcome and depart the Lord is seen as a major gathering event during the ten day festival. The ambience during such a procession is real experience for those who follow it whole heartedly. But a lot of malpractices, commercialization of the event are also making its ugly presence felt during such sacrament. Nowadays, gathering of public of such a large scale brings along with it unlimited alcohol consumption, dominance and show of political power, use of weapons, unhealthy fights amongst non-sensical groups, insecurity for women are becoming regulars during this mass ritual. Such an  increase of malpractices on a social arena condemn the charm of the festival in public. The decency, holy spirit and whole heartedness of the ritual is limited to a few groups and a few traditional mandals. Instead of shunning such practices, such practices are popularized.

The salt to the injury is that this festival is also looked as a soft target for terrorists. Never do they get such mass of crowd at public places to target at. Thus recent festivals are also marred by a certain attack by terrorist groups. Thus there is always a shadow of fear and attacks during recent ganesh festivals.

Lord Ganesh, being a darling god of most is often seen in several forms and avatars. One can open up any newspaper, magazine flooded during the festival or even otherwise to stumble upon Ganesha in various poses, acts, etc. Imagining Ganesha playing a guitar, on a bike, on the sports field, Ganesha DJing in a disc, as a tattoo etc ridicules the image the deity carries along with it. Creating spiderman like Ganesha, flying ganesha, in a rock band etc and assigning him with anything in the name of ‘art’ is a bad practice indeed. He should not be treated like a mouldable clay with weird imaginations. 

His due respect lies in revering him. Creating caricatures, cartoons, using him as a mascot for several advertisements should stop.

What one doesn’t realize in the meanwhile is that, these pages of newspaper are used as scrap. They are used as wrappers, to sit on, to keep on dirty surfaces, to pack items and many more. So what one eventually does is treats this god as a scrap material by doing so. One must ask for oneself, by these acts are we worshipping the lord in a real sense. Condemning such acts and practices should be stopped to give utmost place to the god and not take him for granted. This creates a representation of a hypocrite.

Stop making fun of Lord Ganesha!!!