A jaggery and spice : Eco-Friendly Ganesha : Photo Source : Eka Akshara on Facebook
A lot of people have been requesting me to speak up against the water pollution caused by immersion of pratimas of my dear Ganesha after Ganesha habba..
First of all, in our home, we use only a “pure mud” pratima of Ganesha. Second, we don’t immerse it. We save it on our bookshelf and reuse it the following year. We make a tiny little cone of wet turmeric powder, as our pasupu vinayakudu and keep it in our garden after the puja.
Technically the only allowed materials for Ganesha Pratimas are Gold, Silver and Mud! Plaster of Paris is not there in the list of allowed material! anyway no one will immerse a gold or silver Ganesha and immersing a “pure mud” Ganesha will cause no harm..
I can assure you that Ganesha is very happy with this procedure because He loves the fish and other living things in the ponds and lakes. He loves a clean environment, He love Varuna Deva (Water) and Vayu Deva (wind).
In fact He would be very happy if we reduce all our polluting activities to a bare minimum, including industrial wastes dumped into Ganga Maata, the smoke from our vehicle and kitchen exhausts and the littering near our anganavaadis to mention but a few things.
Pollution is pApa – it is karma with a bad consequence. Cleanliness is pUNya – it is karma with a good consequence.
We need to make sure that the people who make a living out of creating new and beautiful Ganesha Pratimas will be taken care of in some way and will have an alternate way of life.
jaya gaNESa! Om namah s’ivAya!
Sudheendra writes about the sustainable solution followed in Sirsi:
Dear Satya,
“I dont think immersing idol is not sustainable. In fact, in places like sirsi (and shimoga, bhadravati), government allocates water-wells which are big enough to get even biggest ganapati. the point is these small places have already shunned visarjana of idols in open water sources which modern city people have forgotten.
In fact, by doing so, the idol-makers just dig up the well every-year to get the mud and re-make the idol. this way, it becomes a sustainable affair between idol purchaser and makers. “
So Go Back to making Mud Ganeshas! And immerse them in specially site aside places. In Bangalore Sakeny tank there is a separate immersion tank.
Excerpt from Samadhyayi’s Blog:
