Ganesh

Have you ever been in the position of whether to take an idol as a gift? The other day, I (Liss), was shopping with a friend (from Walmart Land) who is getting married. We were buying all the stuff for her Indian style Wedding (i.e. Wedding sari, bridesmaid’s saris, bangles, jewelry, and bindis). We went to the bangle store that I always go to so that she could get her Wedding jewelry and bangles. At the end of our time there they wanted to give her a wedding present. So, they brought out an 8 inch “Ganesh” (a H’s god that brings prosperity and good luck). My friends at the bangles store were very excited to give this to her as she starts her new life as a married woman. I had to quickly decide if I should take it and throw it away on the way home or risk hurting some friendships that I have had for a long time and deny it. In my split decision, I decided not to accept the gift but instead explain to them that in the Holy Book we are not to worship other gods or idols and that TBMU is the only One we should worship. Which they followed up by saying “Ok, I’ll give you a Buddha instead.” I then had to explain that we don’t have images of any gods, even TBMU, in our house and that we could not except this gift as well. They then began to ask questions about how we worship and I explained as much as I could. They were satisfied with my answer. They even said sorry for offering us the idol in the first place! I told them they didn’t need to be sorry. How could they have known since they have never read The Holy Book and know nothing about TBMU? My friend ended up with a statue of a man and a woman hugging under the moon! We left the store with a better relationship than before and were able to use that very awkward moment to share to 7 people about TBMU.

Here is a photo of Ganesh