Two men who reportedly dumped a garbage bag in a western suburbs’ creek last week, claiming it was for religious reasons, have caused a community uproar.
A Facebook user posted on an Altona page that her son interrupted the pair dumping a bag in Skeleton Creek, which runs through Point Cook and Altona Meadows before flowing into Port Phillip Bay and is a creek of Aboriginal spiritual significance.
She said her son took a photo of the men’s car, which prompted them to retrieve the bag before they followed her son to the family home. The men showed them the contents of their bag – ash, brass candle holders, wax, boxes and packaging – and tried to justify their actions, saying it was a requirement of their Hindu faith.
“The two men said the contents of the bag were items used in a religious event and had to be put into water,” the Facebook user said. “[My family member] informed him, ‘not in any waterway of Australia was this acceptable’.
“If Hindus must dispose of their religious items in water, then hire a container and send the bloody stuff back to the Ganges and leave our creeks, rivers and oceans alone.”
But a Hindu community leader described the men’s actions as “really strange” and their claims as inaccurate.
Hindu Community Council of Victoria general secretary Bhakta Dasa said it was extremely rare that an item had to be discarded for religious reasons.
And, he said, this could be done in an environmentally-friendly and lawful manner.
“As far as the actual injunction is concerned in Hindu scriptures, it’s only very, very sacred items … like, say, for example, a deity or an icon,” Mr Dasa said.
“But that doesn’t include candles or boxes or anything like that. It’s only when it’s a religious icon like a statue of one of the demi-gods or gods.
“It would happen once in a century perhaps or very, very rarely. It’s not that you would discard an icon whimsically,” Mr Dasa said.
“I’m part of an executive of a major temple here in Melbourne and we have things that have to be discarded at times, but we do it in a way that’s actually environmentally friendly and conducive with our society here.”
