20 Sep 2022
Smt. Priyanka asked: In the discourse on Ganesh Chaturthi, it is mentioned that statues of God cannot be made with clay for worship. It is said that Ravana used to do this and ultimately perished. Swami, can You please explain why is clay condemned? A lot of statues are made with clay nowadays and is being marketed and encouraged as eco-friendly. When I gave the same reason to someone who wanted to make an idol made of clay, they were not convinced. They said, "How can clay bring misfortune or be bad? Isn't it better than paper made and other synthetic products which are not eco-friendly"? When I said that even Shri Adi Shankaracharya condemned it and that we can use whatever idol is already there, they didn't say anything and finally the clay idol was not made. But, can You please explain the reason behind condemning the use of clay? Also, if someone really wants to make a statue for the puja, what can they use instead of clay? At Your divine lotus feet, Priyanka
Swami replied:- My intention is totally misunderstood by you and was misrepresented due to which your friends found a strong ground to reject your proposal. There is nothing bad in the clay material. The statue is made of clay so that when the statue is immersed in water, it will dissolve in water. Here, the point to be condemned is to immerse the statue in water after the worship and not the inauspiciousness of the clay material because clay is not inauspicious at all. The immersion of the clay statue is inauspicious. Now, people are immersing statues made of plastic material and you should not say that the plastic material is also inauspicious. Whatever may be the material of the statue, the immersion of the divine statue in water leading to its destruction is wrong.
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