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In a January 7th, 2007 New York Times article entitled, "Offerings to Mother Ganga, Worries About Mother Nature," Dorothea Poggi, founder of the Ferry Point Park West Coalition, commented on the practice of Hindu rituals at a small beach in Ferry Point Park in Bronx, NY: "I think the ritual is beautiful. I just wish they would stuff it in the garbage pail." For more than a decade, Hindus have been accused by many for desecrating the serenity of beaches and rivers. Because some Hindus leave floatables that are not rapidly biodegradable on the shores of the waterways, harsh generalizations are made about Hinduism and its relationship with natural ecosystems. However, we must avoid labeling any group of people based on detrimental practices done by a fraction of the mass. Just as important is encouraging that misguided fraction to alter its mindset and change its traditionally ingrained habits.
Many Hindu families have adapted their worship to include proper disposal ("consecration") of all ceremonial items after they pay homage to the Goddess of the water, "Mother Ganga." For instance, after performing the sacred ritual, many families take home the offered saris (clothing), wash and donate them to charity or give them to relatives or friends. In Queens and the Bronx, many Hindus realize the effects of placing camphor and aluminum into waterways. Thus, while many are reluctant to adhere to restrictions that discourage the placement of all ritual items into rivers/beaches, an increasing number of Hindus have stopped dumping explicitly toxic or deleterious items. This is certainly a step in the right direction.
The Mission Has Started
Many Hindus are working arduously to eradicate negative views of Hinduism based on ecologically destructive habits linked to rituals. While some are writing papers and directing films on the topic, others are physically picking up floatables and items left on the banks of beaches. On September 26th, 2009, the Federation of Hindu Mandirs Inc. USA, based in Queens, NY, organized a group of about 50 volunteers from the Richmond Hill community to help clean up the beaches. More than half of these volunteers included youths from the Shri Trimurti Bhavan, a mandir (temple) in Queens known for empowering young children and promoting cultural identity. The volunteers started their commendable mission at the break of dawn and by the time they left, they had collected more than 100 bags of garbage, most of which had nothing to do with Hindu pujas.
The Federation of Hindu Mandirs is working with members of the National Park Reserve and the hundreds of thousands of Hindus in New York to find an environmentally friendly and spiritually acceptable solution. The Federation, whose P.R.O is Dr. Dhanpaul Narine, prominent community activist, has had incredible influence on the Indo-Caribbean Hindus. I am confident that this organization's worthwhile efforts will go a far way.
The following are photos taken at the beach cleanup sponsored by the Federation of Hindu Mandirs:
Youths from the Shri Trimurti Bhavan to clean up the Jamaica Bay in Queens, NY
Mr. Naidoo Veerapen, Mr. Ralph Mannetta and Dr. Dhanpaul Narine at the Jamaica Bay Clean-up Event.
Mr. Veerapen is the General Secretary of the Hindu Federation of Mandirs Inc. USA. Dr. Narine is the PRO of the Hindu Federation of Mandirs Inc. USA and President of the Shri Trimurti Bhavan. Mr. Ralph Manneta is a NYC Coordinator of beach cleanups.
I applaud your attempt to cleanup after the rituals involved with your religion. This is a very large step and I know it is in the right direction.
(By the way I was mis-quoted in the NY Times, but if it was the push needed to snap us out of the envelope of denial "we all were in" then it could have been a good thing) I don't even use the expression "stuff it" and I would not have said that about the actual ceremony since I do find it a lovely experience.
As far as the debris created from the ceremonies, yes I was very frustrated by the amount and continued layering of this debris with no stopping....to consider the effect.... or why wasn't parks cleaning it????
I could have said "Put it" or "place it" but the "stuff it" part was harshly read and I do apologize if it irritated anyone.
The Ganges river is a water body that has a heavy current in one direction. The river flows from the melted snow in the Himalayas to the Ocean....we have tidal areas in NYC. The water you through articles into goes up and down with the tides.
Therefore the articles thrown in mostly return to our shores and get caught in the Salt Water Marshes. The cloth stays in the rocks "the rip rap walls" that keep errosion from occuring along the shores of our parkland.
The Mollusks that usually grow between the rocks are extremely important filtering organisms for the pollutants that are dumped into the waters through the Combined Sewer Overflows after each rainy day due to "inadequate sewage disposal plants". The mollusks cannot grow on or under the cloth that lines our rocks. Teenage volunteers cannot be given sharp blades to cut away this "9 yards each) cloth as it is imbedded in the sand due to the changing tides.
Photos on www.ferrypointpark.org under hindu button.
I do believe that it is only a matter of a few years before the worshippers will realize the detrimental affect of the now used large aluminum pans (to float the offerings) and styrofoam plates (to float flowers)the 5 yards of yellow white or black nylon/ poly cloth. Don't forget the hundreds of plastic bags that blow away as you empty them of their offing articles in the shore winds. There are also the hundreds of half filled water bottles left behind after using the water in ceremony between prayers. What about the bamboo flags with the fringe that we have found a few dead birds tangled in? The open coconuts are not much of a problem but the unopened ones obnociously bob around until they form a line along the marshes.
(to bad the can't actually grow).
These were once biodegradable offerings thrown into a fast moving river that fed into the sea. Also any cloth that was left in the ganges could be washed and used a a sitting "rug" in the homes of others. Sometimes the cloth is given to an elderly woman as a symbol instead of the water.
Let's not destroy our very precious life giving entities that you worship in your way and we worship in ours.
I believe we are all worshipping the life giving forces of nature each time we pick up trash from our waterways and salt water marshes.
"Lets see more HIndus helping us to catch up to the amount that is thrown in and I imagine they will consider the type and size of their future symbolic offerings...What about you???"
Join the Saturday Spring (May 10th?) and Fall (Oct 20th?) "It's My Park Days" at the parks you worship in to help us pick up the offerings....
Dorothea, thank you for your insightful comments. I respect and commend your cleanup efforts as well as your desire to educate. I will speak about the difference between the tidal water in NY and unidirectional water elsewhere in an upcoming post. Thank you for bringing up this important point.
Another direction I took to try to solve the problem in general was to contact a company that makes "bio degradable Cloth"
From conversations with worshippers, I learnt that the offering has to be "cloth".
I reached out to a few manufacturers and found the car wipes/Diaper Liners is the closest to real cloth because it has a high rag content that has been compressed into a cloth like material. The problem is that the few companies that make this liner are not set up to dye them yellow and they are shipped in large bulk rolls. I thought if I could start up a non profit that handled the sale online of biodegradable yellow cloth I could reduce the impact on the mollusks in the marshes and much more. Oh well... maybe some day...I even thought of having a printed design on the edge in gold...kind of like 57 x 9yards of heavy paper towel....
89999
Kamini Doobay is a recent graduate from Barnard College of Columbia University. She is currently doing clinical research in the field of rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery, NY. Along with her interest in medicine and public health, she is passionate about
...Kamini Doobay is a recent graduate from Barnard College of Columbia University. She is currently doing clinical research in the field of rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery, NY. Along with her interest in medicine and public health, she is passionate about environmental conservation and its relationship with religion and spirituality.
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