The Day I Worshipped Ganesha with a Broken Light Bulb
By Ritu Primlani
In this day and age, we humans live fragmented lives in cities of fragmented logic. My favorite story is when my friend Linda Van Houten of Juneau,
“I have heard the bears are dying out in Alaska,” he said. “So I have brought my son here,” he continued, “to shoot one before they are all gone.”
Or the time I sat with an Indian couple who were doctors in New Jersey. The wife told me how she was working with Indians with HIV in
She replied, “He is my husband, if he wants me to have kids, I’ll bear them for him.” The doctor, frantic now, said, “Don’t you understand? If you have unprotected sex with him, not only will he die, you will die, and your children will probably die too.” The woman said, “No, he’s my husband, I’ll do what he says.” I wiped a tear from my eye. I thought how passionate this woman is about her work! And then the good doctor took me upstairs to show me her jewellery, and showed me a bear claw. I was taken aback. I said, “Er… what is that?” Her reply was, “Oh, that’s a bear claw.” I said, “But don’t you know how they got it? It wasn’t like they ran after the bear and clipped its nails!!” She said, “Yes, but what can you do?”
From that day forth, all my mother in Alaska has to say to piss me off, is, “Yes, but what can you do?” And I go scarlet … each time.We live fragmented lives in cities of fragmented logic in a further fragmented world. We are not told that the detergent we use has neurotoxins in it, that the electricity we use will likely cause Polar Bears to starve. We don’t know that everything is interconnected, and we insist on acting like nothing matters, that we can do what we like with no consequences.
And isn’t it interesting, Indians who have known the sanctity of life, who were known for their minimal consumption in the ancient medical and lifestyle traditions of Ayurveda, Yoga, Homeopathy, and Jains who are so kind they do not even eat garlic— lest they kill the plant that provides them food— today have been hit by sophisticated consumption that leaves us entirely ignorant and unconcerned with the true impact of that which we consume. Taking a cloth bag to do grocery as our parents did is too much, and changing light bulbs to energy efficient ones is crowded out with so many other things that are more important. More important than the lives of oceanic creatures who get to eat, drink, and choke on our plastic bags; in some areas of oceans broken down plastic is more prolific than zooplankton. It’s not in our backyard, when we dump plastic bags into the ocean, but it is the air they breathe; it is their home. We don’t know that when polar bears die out, we are next in line. Can you imagine! One species on earth of the millions habiting it is responsible for killing off most others? What hubris! What a claim to fame! We can’t live without our animal and plant brothers and sisters.
We don’t care for them today because we don’t know how they help us live. And even if they didn’t, don’t they have a right to a healthy and long life?When did we change from being responsible adults to five year olds who don’t care what they consume, what they break, and throw things away like they are disposable? Each generation, it seems, asks us to go faster, do faster, talk faster, eat faster. More labor saving devices, less time. It seems we live in a bubble of denial, where doing right by the survival of mankind is an option, not integral to our daily lives. How far would our lives go when we keep damaging all life around us? Having no time to care is tantamount to not having time to make sure our children survive. Not caring is not caring whether our grandparents and our children live or die.I am not asking you to care for the environment; that would be a mistake. I am asking you to look at your life and ensure the survival of your own children, your nieces and nephews. We aren’t doing anyone any favors. We are not noble if we love and care for our trees. We are merely thanking them for giving us life (for where is oxygen maintained?). We are not heroes if we don’t buy plastic. We are just making sure we don’t poison our waters to the point where we can’t drink them. We are not vigilantes if we refuse toxic chemicals. We are merely making sure we don’t drink those chemicals later on.
Look at Ganga, the most sacred of rivers in the world. A study actually showed that the oxygen capacity of Ganga was higher than other rivers, indicating that it had the ability to purify greater than other rivers. Can any city in
Don’t we see that Ganga is our artery that brings life-giving blood to our bodies that is part of that greater body, without which we cannot survive? Don’t we see that trees are our lungs? How long can we mutilate our host, how long can we keep demanding from our mother earth till she has nothing to give? And give she will, as mothers do, with her last breath. What kind of children are we, to demand such horrible things of our mother that kills her to give us? What have we done to help her lately? To show her that we love her? When have we said, mother, here, take this, rather than whining “I want, I want, I want” constantly? When have we said, no, I won’t ask for this because this will inject poison into you, mother, and I don’t want you to get sick, I want you to be strong and healthy?
When did we get so myopic that our sanctity is cloistered in our temples, churches, mosques, and gurudwaaras? Isn’t God everywhere? Let us stretch our sanctity into our daily lives. Let us liberate our prayer from the walls of our temples into our homes and businesses. Would our God accept us as a devotee if we kick and beat her other creations? The ground I walk on is sacred. Right now, right here. This is my religion, this is my God, this is my mother. And till the day we walk that walk, and talk that talk, let us not delude ourselves with the notion that we are worshipping our Gods with sweet-smelling incense; we are worshipping our Gods with broken light bulbs.
Ritu Primlani is the founder and Executive Director of Thimmakka’s Resources for Environmental Education, a California based environmental non-profit. Ms. Primlani is among the most prominent global social entrepreneurs. She has designed and implemented a program of comprehensive environmental outreach to restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, called Thimmakka Certified Green Restaurants (TCGR). She specializes in critiquing and assisting nation-wide infrastructures that promote environmentalism and social equity. She is the recipient of the national Environmental Leadership Fellowship 2003, United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Heroes award in 2003, the state of California’s highest and most prestigious honor – the California Governor’s Award 2003, the national Volvo Hometown Hero award 2004, the San Francisco Bay Area Community Hero award 2004, the Ashoka Innovators for the Public Social Entrepreneurs Fellowship 2004-07, and has been named among the top 50 most powerful environmental leaders in the United States by Organic Style magazine, and among the top 40 business leaders by the East Bay Business Times, 2005, and the 35 Under 35 award for exceptional businesswomen around the world, World Business Report, 2007.
Ms. Primlani can be reached at thimmakka@thimmakka.org
Website: www.thimmakka.org