The increased usage of Plaster of Paris and some harmful chemicals in the making of Lord Ganesha’s idol on the occasion of Ganesh Mahotsav has witnessed a lot of water and soil pollution; that’s why, for the last few years, the concept of eco-friendly Ganesha has come into the light. People have hugely welcomed this concept. The idol made out of pure clay and other decomposable material does not harm the soil and water resources, and by worshipping this eco-friendly Ganesha, we help our environment get cleaned up.
From the last few years, Rajkot’s Harivandana College is celebrating Ganesh Mahotsav with some unique ideas, and this time, for the 2019 Ganesh Mahotsav, the college, and especially the faculties and students of Botany Department, came up with a unique idea of idol making. A three-feet tall idol of Lord Ganesha made out of seed balls was created with the exhausting hard work for four days.
A seed ball (or seed bomb) is a seed that has been wrapped in soil materials—usually a mixture of clay and compost—and then dried. Essentially, the seed is “pre-planted” and can be sown by depositing the seed ball anywhere, suitable for the species, keeping the seed safe until the proper germination window arises. Seed balls are an easy and sustainable way to cultivate plants in a way that provides a larger window of time for the sowing. They are also a convenient dispersal mechanism for gardeners and people with achy backs!
Mr Parth Bhatt, professor at Botany Department of Harivandana College, took the lead for this idol-making project and gathered more than 20 types of seeds such as Neem, Flamboyant (Gulmohar) and some kitchen garden plants. A total of 22 students from the Botany Department, under the leadership of Mr Bhatt and other college staff, prepared more than 2100 seed balls of various size and then moulded and arranged them to shape the beautiful idol of Lord Ganesha.
Members of the Harivandana College, which was established on Anant Chaturdashi, worshipped the idol, following all rituals. Two classes of the college every day, during this Mahotsav, took on the task of decorating the Pandal and performed aarti every morning and evening. Each class was pre-assigned a particular day and shift when they had to decorate the Pandal with different themes, such as the ‘Importance of Traffic Rules’, ‘Wise use of Social Media’ and Information Technology, ‘Cleanliness and Anti-plastic campus’, etc. and perform the aarti.
After the completion of this 10-day festival, the Visarjan of the idol was formally performed, and then the students planted 2100 seed balls at nearby locations that were meant to convey a strong message to the society that God lives in each particle of this universe. Hence, the Visarjan should be done in a way that would bring new life and lead to new creation.
By implementing this idea, Harivandana College showed the society that a single festival and a little hard work could enable us to have loads of greenery around us.
We happily and enthusiastically appeal to the people to adopt this idea and help the environment to Go Green!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/bE8HyDlZavk
With best compliments,
Harivandana College-Rajkot.