Lord, Please Don’t Go!

 We talk too much to our Gods. It’s time we start listening to Them.

Photo by Abhijeet Gaikwad on Unsplash

Disclaimer: This is with malice to no one’s religious feelings. I am a hardcore Hindu theist, in my own way, of course, a firm believer in the existence of a Super Intelligence popularly called God all over the world.

So, finally, he departed after a solid 10-day (September 10–20) of pomp, show, gaiety, and…and hullabaloo! And, believe me, I am still grieving over his departure. I simply loved (not feared) him, and I still do, since my childhood. His persona is such, you just can’t help adoring him. Yes…right! This is about Lord Ganesha, the one and only elephant-headed God from Bharat!

Just as an aside, when I started learning Vedic Astrology as a pastime (it is absolutely fine if astrology doesn’t make sense to you, kindly bear with me a little!), I realized that I am a Virgo ascendant with Mercury as my ascendant lord. The ruling deity of Mercury is Lord Ganesha. Both signify intelligence, princely childlike purity with blissfulness, everything that is green right from a leaf of green grass to a green planet, and especially a reservoir of intelligence (big elephant head, you see!). So, I have all the reasons to love Him.

This year, His grace and benevolence towards me exceeded all my expectations as He chose to be enthroned just next door to me. Of course, I was excited, but unfortunately, my agnostic daughter was not.

“Dad, what is this? You know I have online work meetings in late evenings, sometimes early mornings; how will I handle my work with their non-stop loudspeakers and repeated devotional songs running continuously for hours?”

“Yeah! I understand, even with my chemos going on, I too need some peace, but then you shouldn’t say such things for Him. After all, He is God. Just manage, please…!” It is really hard to break through the orthodox cultural fears you are raised with; I felt vulnerable.

“And what about COVID safety stuff? There will be so much crowd near our house and your immune system is already so low due to chemo.” She seemed really worried.

“ — — ” I had no justifiable reply.

Fortunately, this time our Lord could not find a street corner in our just a small two-street-twenty-house colony; so instead, He was allotted a vacant house, thanks to the national-level politics within the colony over petty issues resulting in India-Pakistan kind of a division of such a “huge” community.

Kindly allow me here to digress a bit. Coincidentally, this division took place exactly on the eve of Indian Independence Day (15th August, i.e. just a month ago). Isn’t that great? The local leader arrived to hoist the Tricolor with shrewd mirth on his face. After all, he could successfully accomplish the separation of the colony and maintain peace. By respecting everyone’s sentiments he could save all his votes. As a bonus, he could get a chance of hoisting two flags instead of one. What a victory! A few questions truly boggled this ex-soldier’s mind, “Where the hell country is going? Why this bugger is hoisting the flag, why not anyone like me who sacrificed his youth for the country unconditionally? If just twenty houses can’t remain united, why do we talk so proudly about the unity of our country?”

Anyways, coming back to our Lord. It was His first day in my neighborhood and my usual check-up day at the hospital. Before getting into Uber, I intended to take His blessings, so I approached Him. My bad, the idol was still unveiled! Frankly speaking, I was not too disappointed. After my friendship with cancer, I have become used to appointments and disappointments. But, on my way to the hospital, I could find Him all over the place, in all sizes and colors, the not-so-eco-friendly PoP (plaster of Paris) Ganeshas, the eco-friendly clay Ganeshas, etc. Here again, to my disappointment, I could notice that people were still preferring the elegant-looking oil-painted PoP idols over less attractive, less artistic, not-so-good-looking clay idols. I started wondering whether we have drawn any kind of intelligence from Him at all! Schools, YouTube, and other social media platforms have been sincerely advocating for eco-friendly idols, but I failed to see any evident change in people’s thought processes. This was so disheartening! When will we start applying what we learn, at least that is really good?

How harmful is PoP to the environment can still be a matter of research and deplorable arguments for some, but where is our common sense? And if it still exists, why don’t we use it? Unquestionably, these big or small, PoP idols are clogging, clouding, and polluting our so scarcely leftover water bodies with chemicals, oil paints, and heavy metals. Ironically, our actions are defeating the very reason for worshiping our Lord!

It was morning rush hour. We were moving very slowly. The deadly crawling traffic reminded me of the forthcoming immersion of our Lord’s idols, which despite all painstaking efforts will bring the traffic to a screeching halt. But ironically, there are only two entities who can do this charisma — politicians, and Gods! I always pity our such powerful police force whose maximum time, strength, and energy are wasted in managing our shits. But, can’t help it, they are public servants, after all, you see!

Lokmanya Tilak transformed Ganesh's worship to a struggle for freedom. He turned this into an annual national festival to unite fragmented Indians from every walk of society, thus instilled awareness against slavery to British Rule. He used eco-friendly clay idols for this purpose. He would never have imagined that a festivity of freedom struggle would ever turn into an unstoppable religious frenzy, so destructive to our Mother Nature! True, freedom should come with at least some discipline and intelligence.

Here is what we should do:

1. Let’s strictly use either eco-friendly clay idols or technology. So to say, some kind of computerized projection of Lord’s image on a big screen, thereby eliminating immersions, pollution, and traffic jams. After all, COVID has made us real tech-savvy.
2. Let’s not turn our Lord into mushrooms springing up in every nook and corner, instead have some respect for him. Only one big celebration in a five-kilometer radius should be allowed. I think that will be a real demonstration of unity in diversity. Home worship is anyway everyone’s constitutional right.
3. Let’s not make Him a thing of mortality. We buy Him, bring Him, worship Him, expect blessings from Him, then brutally drown Him dead with His head broken, hands broken, sometimes half immersed lying on the sand. If he is our Lord, he should be treated as immortal. Rather, let’s build temples for him so that he gets rid of this vicious cycle of coming and going, something that we humans are destined or condemned to.

Photo by Joshua Alan Davis on Unsplash

4. Lastly, I think the most basic traits like unity, integrity, co-existing with diverse cultures and religions, preserving the planet for future generations, etc. should come from within the society. If these need to be imposed by law, they get into dirty dimensions.

I think it is better if You stay. We still need to siphon out a lot more intelligence from Your reservoir.

So, Lord, please don’t go!