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The police trying to manage the Visarjan crowd as the two sides moves in opposite directions. In its true form, Ganesh Chaturthi was always eco-friendly until we tried to cut costs and make idols bigger to satisfy our inflated egos. However, traditionally i dols were always made from mud. Idols today are being made from mud, making them “eco-friendly” a term that many ‘mandals’ are trying to associate their celebrations with. The concept of the idols created with mud returning to being mud, encourages one to think beyond materialism and pause to evaluate the meaning of life after dissolution. In this case, the idea of immersing the Ganesha idol on the last day was to depict the cycle of creation and dissolution. However, in the bid to make our festivals glamorous we have left behind the true spirit of it, which was to bring the creation closer to the creator. The essence of this is that the spirit of any festival that we celebrate should inculcate a mutual respect for the environment and the society that we live in. “Patram Pushpam phalam toyam, yo mey bhaktya prayachchati Tadaham bhakt yupahrutam asnaami prayataatmanaha” For instance, the Bhagavadgita (9.26) states: The religious scripts, mythological stories, and rituals have attempted to emphasize the importance of preserving nature by respecting it. Although, during the British rule such social and political gatherings were discouraged. It was a platform for people from all castes and communities to celebrate together. Promoted by Tilak, Ganesh Chaturthi facilitated community participation in the forms of intellectual discourse, poetry recitals, plays, concerts, and folk dances. His vision was to create a melting pot of ideas and encouraging unity in a society divided by castes and religious beliefs. It has been accepted that the freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak changed the way we celebrate this festival.
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But this Ganesh Chaturthi, let us look back at what we set out to accomplish when we started this journey of “Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav” and what we have truly ended up achieving. September 5th marked the beginning of Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival that celebrates the birth of the elephant God Ganesha.