In Hinduism, it's an accepted practice, and sometimes even recommended, to have an image / statue / icon of your favourite deity in your altar so that you something to help you focus your thoughts on it. There's an elaborate set of rituals on how one must take care of such an object, which is considered not different from the very God whom it represents. In other words, the image / statue / icon IS God. For those of you coming from Christianity or other reasons, this may seem quite heathenish, but that's quite all right, considering your credo. Anyway, it's not my intention now to expound on idol worship and its pros and cons.
I'm here to talk about (rant, if you will) something that ticks me off. Quite a lot! With such a wealth of meaning behind the use of idols, it's a disgrace when one dances brazenly in front of an idol, that too under the guise of devotion. It speaks of many things - stupidity readily comes to mind - but what I mainly think of is the insolence of the whole thing. Wait, let me come to the point.
It's the Vinaayaka Chathurthi (Ganesh Chathurthi anywhere north of South India) season and in this moronic city, the morons take to the streets and start their kootthu (that's revelry in Tamizh). If revelry is their primary motive, I wouldn't be filled with so much loathing, but when they display the God's idols and then play "Dhoom machaale" and then dance in a demeaning way to the beat of that song (a rather mindless one at that, I must add), I find that my tolerance has been breached. What takes the cake is the organisers of these so-called religious festivities get drunk in the nights before the revelry starts!
When are we ever going to learn to be truthful to a concept or an ideal? These humans! Yuck!
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From what I have heard and read , Ganesh Chaturthi (& many such hindu festivals) are popularized by Lokmanya Tilak, in order to increase people’s awareness of the freedom struggle and to defy the colonists who had banned public assemblies . Patriotic songs were played to inspire the mass. It is at its most elaborate in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and other areas which were former states of the Maratha Empire
ReplyDeleteThese songs(NOISE) predictably got worse with time. Last year, i was in mumbai during visarjan . In my flat the procession was to start by 12 pm , the first which they played at 6 am was "Khaj ra re". Then onwards the saga of such party songs continued with maximum sound. I found I could no longer work. I could no longer think, no longer write, no longer do much more than just listen to the thump and clash which reverberated along the entire street. The drumming and the booming at some point seemed so much like they were happening inside my head . I fail to understand ther reason for playing those bollywood numbers , we aren't short of bhajans and chalisas
Ganesha himself stands for wisdom and intellect. Freedom, wisdom and intellect however seemed to be the last attributes which the horrible sounds emerging from the road reflected