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An Atheist's Ganesha

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Balajee, Aug 29, 2014.

  1. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Hey happy Ganesh Chaturthi to ye believers. And fellow unbelievers, do not let the religious tag prevent you from tucking into the goodies. But beware of developing a Ganesha-like pot belly.

    Though an incorrigible atheist I share a love-hate relationship with Ganesha that has existed since my childhood. Even now every room in my house has a Ganesha statue , not all of them acquired by me.

    In my childhood, my mother tried to make Ganesha my role model. I, at least in her opinion was a very skinny kid (Looking at photos of those days, I think I was a perfectly normal kid sizewise, at least. But my mother, to my detriment had other ideas.

    She used to din into my head how Pillayar Ommachi (Pillayar is the Tamil name for Ganesha and Ommachi is kidspeak for God) had such a nice . healthy figure while I looked skinny. Every kid should follow the example of the elephant-headed lord, she kept reiterating.

    And she left no stone unturned to ensure that I acquired a “healthy” ganeshish look.. My breakfast every day comprised an egg’ with dollops of honey, malt-flavoured shark liver oil and full cream milk . Lunches and dinners were laced with ghee., Deep fried snacks, big fat potato paranthas dripping with ghee , matar-paneer with the paneer fried , (do I need to repeat?,) in ghee formed frequently recurring parts of my diet, not to speak of ghee-laden (Oh I am getting bored repeating this) suji halwa..

    Before you could say Om Ganeshaya Namah 108 times I acquired my mother’s idea of a healthy look and only a trunk was missing to complete my turning into a Ganesh clone. If you have seen photos of Mukesh Ambani’s kid you’will know what I mean. He is the exact replica of my childhood days.

    Dad knew that my mother was taking me down a dangerous path but he didn’t want to get into an argument with momma dearest. As he knew it was a waste of time. My dear mom had very rigid, dogmatic notions about everything including health. For her healthy food was synonymous with rich food. She was totally calorie unconscious. And any questioning of her ideas was bound to lead to a serious domestic strife.

    So he tried in his own way to burn the extra calories by encouraging me to participate in sports. But that was the wrong approach with a kid who preferred to sit and read a book rather than go out and play.. Finally he threw down the towel and left me to my fate.

    This led to a very lopsided development. When kids of my age were reading comics, I was reading Tales from Shakespeare, Erle Stanley Gardner and P.G.Wodehouse. but while they were burning their calories with outdoor activities I was extending horizontally.

    But I gradually realized that Lord Ganesha was a very bad role model . Immortals gods can afford the luxury of potbellies but not poor mortals like me. I took to brisk long walks to get rid of my tons of fat.

    After marriage when my wife staged a domestic coup d’etat and took over the kitchen. My diet plan changed and with some prodding from her I joined a gym in my club Yoga, aerobics and regular workout on the treadmill and weights training helped me lose the truck tyre around my waist. So it was finally goodbye to Ganesha look.

    Even now though I work out regularly in my home gym, I also go to the historic Lodhi Garden near my place regularly during weekends. The main purpose of this is not just exercise but to get what is known in my home as EEs. That is the abbreviation for educative experience.s Every time I go there, I see huge guys who could be easily mistaken for massive rolling balls from a mistance. When they near you they look as if they could even make Lord Vigneswara burn with envy as they easily beat him in the belly sweepstakes.

    These guys are my EEs. By their very presence they educate me about the need to control my weight.

    Even now when I get up in the morning I look at the Ganesha Idol perched on my TV before I leave for my workout. The guy is again a role model for me. This time he reminds me that I should not look like him.

    Apart from my weight issue, I am also fascinated by the symbolism of Ganesha. He is part man part beast . And in his hand he holds the goad that is used to control the elephant.. His figure sends out a clear message that the means of controlling the beast in us is with us. and all we have to do is to find it. What a pity if the entire humanity had found its goad, whole lot of misfortunes ranging from rapes to wars could have been prevented.

    .
    But, Ganesh Chaturti has the dubious distinction of being the first Hindu festival to be turned into a public show. While this fever was prevalent in Maharashtra, it has spread to several states. Making a song and dance out of your religious belief has become the in thing now.

    The most nightmarish part of it is the immersion of Ganesha idols big and small in water bodies. At a time when potable water is becoming increasingly scarce resource immersing idols looking colourful with their toxic chemical paints in rivers and seas only adds to water pollution. Before you yell at me that sea water is not potable, let me hasten to add that the toxic chemicals from the idols could endanger marine life.

    And oh oh, why the hell can’t people keep their religion in their private spaces instead of poisoning our air and water and blasting our eardrums with what people like me feel is noise and the gullible oops sorry the devout feel is religious music?
     
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  2. god2014

    god2014 Gold IL'ite

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    Nice write up, your mom could have told you to develop the brain like ganesha who is smart and handles issues with ease. Body building like ganesha made you to bad role model..
    As you mentioned in last para, its people who made this practice of throwing off the idols and polluting the lake, ganesh never told us to do so, we humans doing it in the name of god, we must change this practice so that many other beings live happily in water bodies.
     
  3. Kamalji

    Kamalji IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear balaji
    Yes healthwise ganeshji is not a goog role models. Agreedcabout the niise n t he pollution.super post.
    Regards
    Kamal
     
  4. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    god2014 Ganesh never told us anything. We creae gods according to our needs and invent rituals for them. This reminds me of an interview by godman Jaggi Vasudev to a Tamil TV channel. The godman candidly admittd that humans create gods. "IF you have a plumbing problem and you are given everything except a spanner to repair it that you need desperately, you long for a spanner. When the spanner is given to you after a long time, then the spanner too is your God" he said.
     
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  5. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Kamalji, if the early Christian church had known about Ganesha, they would have made him the symbol of one of the seven deadly sins-- gluttony. I believe that the practice of religion must be like having sex or going to the loo--a very private matter between a believer and what he/she believes in . Makaing a public tamacha out of it is like group sex in the middle of the road or a whole lot of people excreting in the open together (The last phenomenon of course inot unknown in India).
     
  6. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Balajee,

    I agree with you that Ganesha should be a role model for self-inquiry and not physical appearance. I also agree with you totally that there is no purpose in immersing Lord Ganesha in water especially knowing that His statues were immersed in chemicals that are hazardous to the health of human and marine lives. Lord expects to gain knowledge and convert it into wisdom and people refuse to even use common sense by immersing the Lord in water and that too after taking Him in a procession disrupting a lot of traffic.

    Viswa
     
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  7. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Viswa the problem is religion has become a source of ignorance and superstition than of knowledge and wisdom..AS I told Kamalji religion should not be a public spectacle as it is an intensely private matter like having sex and going to the loo. It concerns only the believer and his/her beliefs. I remember some environmentalists who opposed immersion of the idols in rivers and sea in Maharashtra were beaten up few years ago.
     
  8. chillbreeze

    chillbreeze Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Nice post Balajee. You are absolutely right about the pollution caused by our so called rituals and functions. Just couple of days back I was wondering why our ancestors (not just Indian, but Egyptian and other civilizations as well) included beast form in the Gods they worshiped. You have given a valid explanation of the symbolism. I also agree that praying/practising a religion is a strictly private matter. Wish people around us understand it and that I can make people around me read the snippets posted today.
     
  9. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Very interesting as well as entertaining post Balajee. I love seeing Ganpya Bhau just the way he is - roly poly and cute, but then that is because I know He is not going to get a heart attack or high cholesterol. We mortals are not as fortunate as Him. So let us follow Him as a role model in all other respects except size.

    The Ganesha festival was started with a particular reason in a particular context. Unfortunately, all that was forgotten and it is now used as a means to extort money from people and use the ill gained money in creating a nuisance to the very people from the money was obtained!

    All I can do is to pray to Ganpya Bhau to give good sense to all these people.
     
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  10. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Balaji,
    I agree with Satchitananda.Pot belly symbolism is altogether different and need not be confused with diabetic and over cholesterol patient.Somebody started somewhere and ended in pollution.
    There are as many atheists in the world as there are theists.
    this has been there ever since the beginning of Universe.Interestingly atheists and theists show the same reasons being so.There is a very very thin line of demarcation between theists and atheists as propounded by Research scholars of Saiva samaya saiddhantha Kazhagam in South, an interesting study.
    As long as one has real self confidence,core love and service as objective, it does not really matter whether he is theist or atheist.- a separate way of thought process.

    Your mail has an in-depth study though it is lighter apparently.
    Thanks for the wonderful write up.

    Jayasala 42
     
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