Towards eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi

ll Hari Om ll

Towards an eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Festival is the most popular festival of Maharashtra. It is a festival which is celebrated with full enthusiasm as everyone brings Lord Ganesh at their homes. It is a great fun to have Lord at our home. Consecration of Lord Ganpati, Worship, Aarti, recitation of melodious hymns, etc. everything is delightful. Finally when the day of immersion arrives it fills our hearts with sadness. Finally we bid adieu to the Lord by praying to Him return again next year and the earliest.

 
But in our happiness we are oblivious of the harm that we cause to the environment. We unintentionally pollute and add more dirt to our surroundings.

Most of the Ganesh Idols these days are made up of Plaster Of Paris (POP). The Colours used for painting these idols contain poisonous chemical substances. Also these idols take a long time to get dissolved in water. During this process water gets contaminated due to destructive gases and toxins which are released from POP. Often on the next day of immersion we can see the pieces of idols of the Lord lying unattended on the seashore! This POP problem has one alternative which is of use of pipe clay for idol preparation. However in reality it is difficult to prepare these pipe clay idols, moreover they are very heavy in weight.

Hence as a permanent solution to this problem, Shree Aniruddha Aadesh Pathak started making eco-friendly Ganesh idols from kneaded paper pulp collected under the Raddi Yojana (Waste Paper Project) featured under the 13 Points Plan formulated himself by Sadguru Shree Aniruddha Bapu. This was first started in 2003. In first year itself the Foundation prepared 300 eco-friendly idols. Since then every year the count of these idols has been increasing. In year 2010 the Foundation successfully prepared 5500 Ganesha idols of kneaded paper pulp, and the count is increasing every year. The colours used for making these idols are strictly prepared from non-toxic materials.

This unique project involves the making of Lord Ganesh idols from Paper pulp (Papier Maché). These idols are made from shredded paper of ‘Ramnaam’ notebooks used by the devotees who write Ramnaam and deposit the notebooks in the organization Aniruddha’s Universal Bank of Ramnaam (AUBR). Ramnaam books are recycled to paper pulp to prepare eco-friendly idols, thus combining worship, faith and religion with social awareness in a unique way.

The ingredients used in these idols are paper pieces, natural adhesive called dink, whitening powder, shankha jeera powder, soap and oil mix, adhesive, papier-maché and polish paper. Papier-maché completely dissolves in water without releasing any type of gases.

Members of Shree Aniruddha Aadesh Pathak (SSAP) enjoy support of certain companies, which develop non-hazardous eco-friendly paints, thus controlling pollution immensely.  Idols prepared in this fashion dissolve in water within a few hours.

These idols, which were initially prepared only in Bandra are now being created at 46 places all over Maharashtra. SAAP has trained more than 1600 volunteers, who can successfully make these eco-friendly idols. Trust imparts free training to all interested persons, organizations and schools who want to help save the environment.

  

 

 

For details kindly go through the following link

http://www.aniruddhafoundation.com/eco_friendly_ganesh_idols_devotional_services.php

Let us all contribute in this save the earth drive by bringing home eco-friendly Ganesh idol. For booking the idols kindly contact nearest upasana kendras, or visit Eco-friendly Ganesh idol counter at Shri Harigurugram, New English School, Bandra.

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