It's the most irritating thing to have a post wiped out thanks to technology. Sigh. Can't be helped though.
Starting afresh. A recent visit to Siddhivinayak Mandir reawakened the question within me. Do the people paying 50 bucks to get ahead of the queue where normal people going to the temple wait, get their prayers answered first by God. I mean is it a FIFO queue (my technical minded friends will know what I'm talking about - for the uninitiated its basically that the first to reach is the first to get service). Forget the 50 buck paying variety what about the biggie stars that are ushered in by temple authorities who then go scurrying about to catch the celebs on camera in their temple. Like seriously, is God not listening to the prayers of the people who wait in line? The time is the same for everyone and as far as i know every single religion says that all people are looked upon as equal by God. So why is there a discrepancy in our treatment of God.
That apart, there was a time when I visited Orissa and we went to a few of the temples there. We couldn't carry leather items inside which meant I left my wallet amongst other things with in the car. There was a serpentine queue inside with plenty of pushing and shoving. Not to mention the security yelling at people and goading them on like animals. They even had sticks in their hands which were pretty menacing. At quite a few places there were priests near the dieties who were asking the people in the queue for money. I mean, normally there is a box or a place where you put whatever you want to, but here they were actually asking the people. And when I said that I don't have my wallet, on more than a couple of occasions I got responses from them as to what the heck I was doing there without money on me. This attitude was quite disgusting.
The other thing that really put me off was that some lecherous males were taking advantage of the confusion and the chaos of the crowd and pawing females who had strayed away from those accompanying them due to the crowd. For heaven's sake, its a temple, don't these people have a conscience. The same applies for pickpockets and thieves at the temples.
Spiritualism, religion, praying, these are all very personal and private things and up to the choice of an individual. Violation of this space is very putting off. I can't be at peace if I have someone harrying me on because I've spent 2 seconds in front of God and he thinks that means my appointment is over. Amen.
Starting afresh. A recent visit to Siddhivinayak Mandir reawakened the question within me. Do the people paying 50 bucks to get ahead of the queue where normal people going to the temple wait, get their prayers answered first by God. I mean is it a FIFO queue (my technical minded friends will know what I'm talking about - for the uninitiated its basically that the first to reach is the first to get service). Forget the 50 buck paying variety what about the biggie stars that are ushered in by temple authorities who then go scurrying about to catch the celebs on camera in their temple. Like seriously, is God not listening to the prayers of the people who wait in line? The time is the same for everyone and as far as i know every single religion says that all people are looked upon as equal by God. So why is there a discrepancy in our treatment of God.
That apart, there was a time when I visited Orissa and we went to a few of the temples there. We couldn't carry leather items inside which meant I left my wallet amongst other things with in the car. There was a serpentine queue inside with plenty of pushing and shoving. Not to mention the security yelling at people and goading them on like animals. They even had sticks in their hands which were pretty menacing. At quite a few places there were priests near the dieties who were asking the people in the queue for money. I mean, normally there is a box or a place where you put whatever you want to, but here they were actually asking the people. And when I said that I don't have my wallet, on more than a couple of occasions I got responses from them as to what the heck I was doing there without money on me. This attitude was quite disgusting.
The other thing that really put me off was that some lecherous males were taking advantage of the confusion and the chaos of the crowd and pawing females who had strayed away from those accompanying them due to the crowd. For heaven's sake, its a temple, don't these people have a conscience. The same applies for pickpockets and thieves at the temples.
Spiritualism, religion, praying, these are all very personal and private things and up to the choice of an individual. Violation of this space is very putting off. I can't be at peace if I have someone harrying me on because I've spent 2 seconds in front of God and he thinks that means my appointment is over. Amen.
1 comment:
I agree. I have had similar experiences at most of these big pilgrim places. I feel more at peace with myself praying at the temple-next-door, though that's not an option anymore.
Pardon my commenting spree but I am really generous when I start!
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