Eco Friendly Ganeshotsav Celebration

 

Saturday Inspiration and Khyati, the girl with prosthesis is what you should wait for 👧

Today is the ausicious day of Bhadra Pad Shukla Chaturthi (As per Hindu Calender) which we also celebrate as Ganesh Chaturthi 🙏

No wonder, children to elders all have their own charm to celebrate this festival every year. For children, it is a mini vacation. It is an opportunity for elders to believe a divine spirit is coming home to be with them like a family member while for senior citizens it is one more reason to chant holy mantras and indulge themselves in "Satsang" - meeting with the purpose of remembering almighty and thy's name.

All these age clans are my inspiring models and I am going to inspire you by compiling what all I learnt in this Ganeshotsav Celebration - Celebrate this festival entirely - An Eco Friendly way!

After seeing mother nature healing after forcible lock down, there is a risen in number of ideas of Eco Friendly way of Celebration. Since last couple of years there was quite spread awareness with regards to Eco Friendly Idol worship of Lord Ganesha. Still due to restriction of the size, pattern, style, height and ofcourse pride of having highest Idol competitions, Eco Friendly Ganesh Idol acceptance was still at lower pace.

Look at the magic of lock down this year (As I say blessing in disguise) that not only Lord Ganesha arrived at all the houses with its Eco Friendly clay formation but also people turned to Eco friendly expressions and celebrations.

Eco Friendly celebration is not just about having Ganesh Idol Eco Friendly but entire celebration should be Eco Friendly. What all things included when we discuss celebration in any festival?

1 - Ganesh Idol selection from artists or making Ganesh Idol of worship by own self

2 - Decoration 

3 - Pooja or Arti or performing various rituals

4 - Prasad

5 - Visarjan

1 - Ganesh Idol selection from Artist or Learn to make your own Ganesh Idol of worship

As it says - where there is creation, there is end and thus I cover Idol Selection or making & Immersion ideas together.

• Chocolate Ganesha Idol worship : Made up of - Chocolate and food colors, Visarjan - in Milk

This will serve the purpose of distributing - Healthy Prasadam for family or community while doing the Eco Friendly Immersion.

Few Unique brains collectively presented for your future selection:

👉Here is this wonderful baking beauties - Ekta & Gunjan - Ocean Cake Bakers (The Ocean Baking Beauties) promoting Chocolate Ganesh Idol under the Save our Planet Movement inspired by our Present Prime Minister Hon. Narendra Modi ji.

👀PS - It is made by both sisters - Ekta & Gunjan by their own self and we can see their love for promoting nature conservation ideas for celebration of each festival.

👉None the less, here is ISDI, The Chocolate People (Is Di Chocolate People) offering various designs, options of decoration and all customization you can imagine of...It simply says their passion and devotion towards nature and Ganpati Bappa's arrival to your home the way you want!

• Clay Ganesha Idol worship : Made up of - Clay and Natural colors, Visarjan - in Plant Pot

This will serve the purpose of all the faith of having Lord Ganesha at home till Visarjan with zero carbon foot print. - As Immersion is done in Plant Pot we will grow a plant contributing in the Green space growth of our country.

👉Ms. Meeta Suraya from Meeta Kruti has made a kit which contrains, clay, eco friendly colors, seeds to embed in the idol. Ms. Meeta also conducts online classes so that one can make own idol and have this pleasure of celebrating the festival from start till end.(Eco Friendly Ganesha DIY kit by Meeta Suraiya)

Show stopper idea is that visarjan (immersion) has to be done in plant pot as there are seeds embedded in idol. A beautiful plant will be grown of the divine energy transformed as it changes it's form from Clay to a plant!

👉Whereas, there are some amazing inspiring people who made this video - Learn to make Clay Ganesha demonstrating the preparation of the Clay Ganesha Idol and asking to train and educate kids to adopt this method for celebration of Ganeshotsav.

2 - Eco Friendly Decoration

👉There is this beautiful lady Ms. Shubhangi Chitre; who decorates beautifully her Bapa's sthanam (place) with the little brain child of her daughter Tanu. They had made Paper Flowers and stuck them on wall such that they can always Re-Use them or Re-Cycle them, Great Job Tanu!

 

Shubhangi also inspires her to follow traditional prayers. (She does it every year without fail)

👉Let me also introduce you all with my friend Seema Khare, who believes in rituals like Bhav Pratishtha (Calling Lord at Home) of her Silver Ganesh Idol every year and perform Pseudo immersion in faith by putting idol in water for a while and then wipe it and putting back in the temple again. I call it - "Simplicity is the highest sophistication" Thank you, Seema, to show the world that Lord Ganesha arrives to your home to stay with you and thus do it all that you love to do when such a divine vibration arrives at your home. Dear friends, This conversation is between you and Thy and it's completely okay if during pandemic lock down you are unable to call the loved ones for community prayers in this festival. 

On my request Seema clicked a picture of her simple yet most beautiful celebration time.

3 - Prayers

For performing all rituals like Pran Pratishtha, Aarti, Visarjan and recite certain stotram we need scolar Brahmin or Pandit or Poojari ji. If during pandemic lock down you are unable to approach Shastri ji, I inspire you to learn those shloka, stotra and sutra and recite yourself. Do not only recite them but understand it's meaning either by attending some discourses or also you may learn Dev vani Sanskrit to understand what is the meaning of each mantra you are reciting. This will bring science behind each ritual you are performing and with logical conviction, your devotion towards festival will be manifolded. 

If you want to start from somewhere to learn what to recite during Ganeshotsav, here is "Shree Ganesh Atharva Shirsha Stotra" link of YouTube. and there are many Ashram or Publications books available from which learn yourself and sing daily and not just during Ganeshotsav. It's very effective and meaningful. Some day I will talk about this stotra as a dedicated topic of my Saturday Inspiration.

4 - Prasad (Sacrament)

👉Apart from making healthy sweets for Ganpati Bappa, there is one rock star idea I got from a Travel Trade professional, Ms. Dimple Limbadia who is following her passion to encourage home creations. She has initiated a movement - Sow Karo India, Grow Karo India and creates Marigold Seeds embedded Modak made of clay. This is one amazing Prasadam Idea where in all the relatives and friends can be given a Clay Modak with seeds embedded in Prasad and contribute in the creation of Green Layer in our country.

With this I begin this Ganeshotsav Festival with Unique ideas, devotional thoughts, selfless love for human kind, respect for mother nature, consciousness to learn Sanskrit to understand the meaning of all divine stotras and lastly sanity of serving community in the form of Prasad.

May Lord Ganesha brings sanity, righteousness, bravery, intellect, selfless love, consciousness, devotion, divinity, spirituality, humanity, respect for nature, sensitivity and all that is needed to be good to this lovely precious Mother Earth!