Laxmi Maa amidst the rubbish in Guyana 2023

 

Rubbish 

Diwali morning early and I come out to go mandir. Place quiet, nice and cool. 

Aunty V is out with her dogs - one on the chain, one with three legs running around. Someone had chopped off the fourth leg, Aunty V took the dog in and looked after it. 

Is a kind of blessing, to witness this kindness to the animals.

Walk towards the seawall. Rubbish all over. 

The Diwali motorcade was successful the night before, thousands of citizens  coming out to support and enjoy the spectacle. 

 The citizens left the rubbish all over. Not sure which HIndu scriptures say that people should worship and then litter the place.

Seawall would have been nice to look at.without the rubbish.

Laxmi Maa with the rubbish 

Minibus passes the Kitty roundabout. There are Diwali decorations , the pink lotus. Important symbol - the lotus- for growing in mud while not having mud on it. 

The ground is littered .. plastic bottles, bags, cups. Signs of the prosperity in Guyana and more to come.  

And then I look up and realise there is a murti of Laxmi Ma.. seated there in the rubbish. 

I could have stopped the bus, instead of going to mandir, come out and clean up the rubbish and so. That kind of action is also worship.

The wind probably blew the plastic bottles and bags and cups and so , maybe people did not litter the place intentionally. 

I don't know if the roundabout was sanctified to put the murti there but people are desecrating it, as they do the whole Earth generally as wealth flourishes. 

Last time I went to motorcade, it was the year of two Diwali dates. 

I know that all worship is good. The ISKON chanting of the Maha Mantra comes on the breeze twice as the float passes streets away while I watch them live on Facebook. 

But..it lil weird for me to 'watch' the floats while people selling carcass and meat and alcohol and bombs and so on. I eat carcass but not around Diwali and other Hindu dates. 

But there is some glass barrier between the people liming and enjoying the spectacle, and the mandirs and others showing the Hindu religion.

Diwali used to be quiet and nice.

Diwali is this noisy spectacle now.. cultural tourism product as the President said while worshipping at another Diwali event- and Aunty V's dogs and other dogs and animals must hate Diwali. 

Guyana is developing. and to hell with peace and quiet and tidy environment.. we have wealth, wealth evidenced in beautiful spectacles and mass events which draw people together , many of whom leave their rubbish behind.

"Hindus worship wealth"

"Hindus worship wealth" the man tells me. The Swami explained that going after wealth is not bad, though wealth with destruction of other values like clean and safe environment is not good. 

I imagine that the Diwali bombs are the Government's gift to the citizens to allow them to blow off and express their rage and anger. 

Nothing in the Vedic scriptures about Diwali and rage and anger.

But Hinduism is diverse, different ways of worshipping and celebrating. 

Laxmi Maa and wealth

An 85 year old woman talks about the mangoes and the bananas in her yard. Doctors advise her one hour a day as blood pressure is low but 'I come down and get carried away'. 

The reserve near her "I got permission to plant trees"..  sourie tree and other trees which are no longer present in Residential areas as concrete low maintenance development buildings come up to show the wealth.  Gardens require maintenance and as many of us wealthy people are finding out 'people don't want to work' or do the work we don't want to do or can't do.

"The soil is fertile there" .. I am the only one planting, the rich people have extended their properties."

So wealth in Guyana 2023? 

Wealth in how much we can consume and dispose of, or wealth in how much we can grow, sustain, produce? 

A tomato plant springs up in my gutter near to the septic tank. I am not sure which waste channel the seed came down. 

I decide, let me try a thing, move the plant, and it looks like it catch. I got one tomato from the previous plant before it died. I could buy tomatoes from Brazil if I want with the wealth I have , but given how the Earth is going what if Brazil stop sending tomatoes to us?

Wealth without waste

I hope that all those decorations at Mashramani, Diwali, Christmas are recycled, reused. 

I know fairy lights only last two years for me and then have to be dumped so I don't bother. I could buy more with my wealth.

Can we show wealth now without waste? Sadhguru has this Save Soil project which is about the soil and food security. Pandit Deodat Persaud and others have written about protecting the Earth, the environment. 

Imagining a Diwali and the practice of Hinduism which pays people not to terrorise animals and humans. 

Imagining a Diwali and the practice of Hinduism which is  about transforming wealth  to not terrorising animals and humans,  to encouraging sustainable and reusable decorations, about events which do not leave rubbish to blow at the feet of any murti in public space.