I remember this festival being celebrated in a calm and serene atmosphere during olden days. Not just this, but almost every festival had some real 'festival' touch in those days. It is hard to digest to see what has happened to all our festivals nowadays. 'Political' mileage has become the underlying goal of all our celebrations/festivals. We have this new found idea of erecting huge Ganesh statutes in every street corner (copy of Marathi culture). You may ask - whats in it ? Well, its not the common man or the local area association that put up these statutes. Its the people who like to earn big money in politics who do all these things. NONE of the sincere devotees are members or part of any of the Temple committees - its always the local politicians !! The erection of Ganesh statutes is only the beginning of a bigger 'tamasha'. These Ganesh statues remain at the street corners for one week and after that they will be taken in procession to the ocean where they will be immersed during the week end. The procession and the route that it takes are other sensitive issues. Right from erection till its immersion, this festival has all the political contours and NOT an iota of 'bhakthi'. Religion has become a victim of politics. At one end, we have/had people who benefitted by talking against religion (read Hinduism) and at the other end, we do have people who use occasions like Vinayaka Chathurthi to fulfill their political ambitions. Either way, we should realise that we are being 'used'.
4 comments:
I dont know about the first part of tamasha, because I dont indulge in those activities, but the real troubling factor to me, is the IMMERSION part. Thousands of idols, made of POP and other harmful chemicals are dumped into the water bodies. None seem to realise the long term damages. Govt should ban such spoiling activities like Immersion, If need be the total pooja should be banned.
Who are those political people, Gowri...?
Subbi/Ganesh Sir, I know what you want me to answer!! But it is NOT just one particular party/org (that you are referring to) indulges in this tamasha. Lot of local politicians are involved as well. Secondly, I hope you guessed right those whom I refer to in those last lines as Hindu bashers.
Sorry, Gowri. I do not know about Chennai. I am in Coimbatore. The only group that has organised such disruptive processions is RSS sponsored Hindu Munnani. And the BJP people are part of it. We are driving a KM more to reach our office. This will continue for few more days. As you rightly said, this is being done without the consent of locals.
The festivals have a tradition. Infact, we had put up a greeting banner for the Muthalamman temple that had wide participation in our area, where our Theekkathir office is there.
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