Isn’t the offering given in the temple, a waste?
While giving bath to the presiding deity in the temples(Abhishek), why is that a useful substance like milk is wasted on a lifeless thing. If God craves nothing but your devotion, why waste any amount of grains or sweet by offering to the deity?
Disbelievers see the offerings in the temple in terms of money, but the devout see them in the semblance of god, culture and identity. In this Rebuttal compiled from the book “Lighthouse”, Pujya Acharya Shri Udayvallabh Suriji gives an eye-opening perspective on how a western influenced culture of wastage has seeped deep into the modern society, responds to the selective blindness towards wastage in society and explains the difference between act of need and act of devotion.
Let’s talk about wastage first…
Luxury Eatables
While one cannot take exception to the concern for the poor or the need to care for them, however, one needs to go to the root of the unfortunate fact as to why the poor are unable to get milk at cheap price. Milk product industries such as chocolate manufacturers, cheese manufacturers, butter manufacturers, milk powder and baby food manufacturers etc. unjustifiably corner milk which can feed lakhs of children. Milk is an item of daily necessity. This milk is appropriated or rather misappropriated by the above industries for their own personal profits. To meet the luxurious requirements of the affluent, the primary necessities of the weaker section of the society are snatched away. These necessities go beyond the reach of the poor not to mention the impact that chocolate has on the environment.
Cartels
Further, milk cartels who want to control the prices, throw away lakhs of tons of milk every year. According to scientific conclusions this also amounts to damage to environment equivalent to creating 1,00,000 tons of carbon dioxide. If you talk in term of equivalent, this amounts to emission by 20,000 vehicles in a year.
Wastage in the urban centres
When people question the “wastage” in offering rice grains, fruits or sweets to the deity, citing the shortage of food for the poor, that argument can also be met on the same lines. Presently, the world is suffering from a high profile wastage culture. Leave alone the global scenario, in India alone the food wastage in a year crosses Rs. 3,57,000/-crores. In the city of Mumbai alone daily (yes, daily) 9.2 lakh kgs of vegetables and fruits are wasted and they do not go to feed anyone.
Big Fat Wedding
According to a report of the University of Agricultural Science (UAS) at Bangalore, the wastage figures for the city of Bangalore (which boasts of a posh city culture) are mind blowing. Bangalore has 531 marriage halls. These halls hosted 84,960 marriages in a year. High quality rich food which was just thrown away after the marriage festivities was 943 tons. This annual royal wastage was valued at Rs.339/- crores. If one would consider Rs. 40/- as the cost of one thali for the poor man’s food, it amounts to throwing away food in gutters that would have fed about 2½ crore people.
Have a look at the modern day grand wedding receptions where between 250 and 300 items are served on scores of counters. Who has got the time and digestion capacity even to taste all the items? Such receptions start with exhibitionism and result in exploitation. Nobody frowns on such colossal waste, nobody even comments about it, nobody takes any stern action, nobody takes any steps to remedy this situation. However, everybody is ready to pounce on the fistful of rice grains or a small piece of sweet offered on a wooden plank to the deity (which of course are subsequently consumed by somebody or the other). People with such mentality are of course not believers, nor they are merely atheist; they are woke pseduo-intellectuals.
Western Festivals
If you survey the scene in the Western countries (from where the wastage culture has been imported into our country), there are special festival for wastage. In the Valencian town of Bunol, there is a festival Le Tomatina, thousands of tons of tomatoes are wasted in throwing them at each other. In some festivals, tons of chocolates made from lakhs of tons of milk are wasted in rubbing the chocolates on each other’s bodies. If one is aware of the hungry stomachs of lakhs of people, what inhumane mentality or a devilish urge of enjoyment would be behind such festivity?
In the game of ice-buckets, people pour buckets of ice-cold water on each other. Can this be called anointing? Can this be called a bath or can it be called pouring cold water on civilization? If people who are out to club religious rituals or traditions with their so-called intellectualism, the true platform for flexing their muscle against wastage is such festivals and not religion.
Supply Chain
Let us leave the world alone! What happens to the food grains grown in this country for which crores of farmers have toiled hard throughout the year? Every year lakhs of tons of food grains get wasted for want of proper storage arrangements. And this has been happening for decades. What should be the topmost priority for the development programme of the country? If the intellectuals apply their mind, that would be enough.
At the time of writing of this article by Pujya Acharya Shri, the prices of turdal in the country are flaring up like wild fire, hovering around Rs.225/- per kg. On the other hand, we constantly hear news of raids on hoarders seizing thousands of tons of turdal and other pulses stocks valuing crores of rupees have been seized. The trilogy of wastage, black marketing and exploitation is very thick. It is a long pending need that someone penetrates this trilogy and think about the poor.
Vicious Consumerism
The modern western influenced culture of wastage has seeped deep into the modern society.
The Food and Agriculture Organization has expressed its grave concern about the growing wastage of food across the world. Some of its findings are;
- 1/3rd of food produced annually is wasted globally.
- This annual food wastage can feed crores of hungry stomachs and that too without any additional burden on resources.
- Cooked but unconsumed food which is wasted adds to 330 crore tons of disastrous greenhouse gases.
- Food grains produced but which are not consumed by anyone uses 30% of agricultural land (140 crore hectare) the world over.
- The water used for cooking of such food which is not consumed by anyone and gets wasted is equivalent to the total water reserves of Volga river in Russia or three times the water reserves of Geneva lake.
Those who criticize a small amount of food grains offering on the wooden plank in temples would hardly be aware of the above facts. The Chief of FAO explains the main reason behind this world wide wastage, saying it is due to the vicious consumerism of the rich and the neo-rich in the world.
Need for Food Security
The UPA government hurriedly passed the food security bill just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the object of ensuring food security for the poor.
A country where 17,546 tons of food grains are wasted, needs food security and not food security bill. If we consider the average daily food grain requirements to be 250 gm. per person, this wastage could feed seven crore empty stomachs.
This is India. The earlier governments spent Rs.75,366/- crores after food subsidy over the years. (Whose money this was any way? Of course of the people who were forced to buy enormously costly food grains). However, no effective steps were taken for proper preservation and distribution of food.
Frugal Indian Tradition
Our traditional culture does not suffer any wastage. We are wedded to a resource respecting culture where the extra chappatis are converted into khakhra(an item of breakfast) or the extra unconsumed rice of afternoon becomes spiced rice in the evening palate.
Jains are a step ahead. They wash their food plates and drink that water ensuring that not even a smallest grain of food is wasted. This is a unique combination of consumption, restraint and thoughtfulness.
The practice of feeding the skin of a banana to a cow or a goat may be vanishing (simply because cows or goats are not to be seen where we live!). However, this practice was testimony of a fact that our consumption was laced with humanity. With such a pedigree how can our devotion be accused of mindless extravagance?
Need vs Devotion
Ok, we get it; there is lot of wastage in the society, but why offer anything to the deity? God does not need the offering of fruits, sweets, milks or other articles for himself
Agreed, God does not need the offering of fruit, sweets, milk or other articles. However, all give and take in this world cannot be measured on the scale of need.
A husband gifting a new dress on the wedding anniversary to his wife is not out of a need but is an expression of feelings. The words ‘friendship’ and ‘valentine’ results in exchange of crores of cards and hand bands. Who bothers about the fact of need in these matters. Under the umbrella of sharing, caring, loving — trade happen at colossal levels. There is not an iota of what is called as need here.
In birthday celebrations, anniversaries and other parties, crores are spent on feeding one’s own relatives and friends, not for the needy and poor. If one would keep in mind, the factor of need and needy, what would the picture be. All these facts lead to one conclusion — need is not the only background or reason for giving. Feelings also play a very major role in giving.
One should not mix Act of devotion and Act of compassion. As overflowing love towards one’s relations, friends or loved ones can result in lots of exchanges, similarly, Bhakti is a special type of emotion. If a person has bhakti towards God his act of offerings should not be viewed from a third person’s perspective but from his own perspective.
Avoid wastage in a meaningful way
If the above explanations satisfy the question raised, let us not stop at that. Let us take some concrete steps against wastage. Let us consider the following five point programme.
- Take steps: to avoid unwanted showing off.
- Do not waste food on your plate, if possible wash your plate after finishing your food and drink that water.
- Use everything to its fullest potential.
- Do not waste the surplus if there is anything surplus, see that it reaches a proper place where it can be used. A Gentleman living in Kandivli is doing something worth emulating. If there is surplus or unconsumed cooked food on the occasion of a social or religious function somewhere, he along with his team and vehicle (tempo) goes to such place, collects the unconsumed food and ensures that it reaches the poor people. In this process he would be feeding fifteen to twenty thousand poor people with a single meal. This process may be kept in mind for every occasion and someone may take responsibility for it.
- Abandon the “disposable”. Use the ‘durable’ as far as possible and not the ‘disposable’. Durable is being replaced by disposable. This disposable culture itself is disposable.
Money may be yours, but resources belong to all
An Indian who went visiting Germany had a very strange experience. His German host had arranged a welcome party for him in a restaurant. This man rose after finishing his dinner, leaving a good amount of unconsumed food in his plate. His attention was drawn to the wasted food. This man arrogantly said, “We have paid for what we ordered, that’s it!”
The matter did not end here. Suddenly an officer from the social security department arrived on the scene. He fined this gentleman 50 Marks and also gave a stern advice, “Order only what you can consume. Money may be yours but resources belong to all”. While parting he had another comment to make, “remember, waste is violence”. If this incident can touch us, waste would not exist. Wasted food is not mere waste of food grains; it is also proportionate waste of other natural resources, time and labour.
For example production of one litre of milk requires one thousand litres of water (consider the water required for growing grass, giving wash to the milch animal, cleaning the floors of the stable, cleaning the utensils and keeping the place hygienic). If one would realize this he would think twice before leaving even half a cup of unconsumed milk.
Let us thank that fistful of rice grain seen on the wooden plank in a derasar. As a result of someone’s comment perceiving waste in that offering, this whole analysis was made with the aim to remind about real waste and one hopes that it would become a strong hurricane of thoughts bringing some meaningful result to curb the waste which we have talked above.
