In the past I have read numerous on religion and related issues. I know this is a area for endless argument. But I know for sure that this topic atleast for our generation, this has endless advantages. This topic serves as a good recipe if you want to make new friends or network ‘certain’ business clientele or sometimes, to keep out some irritating characters or even worse, give a vent to even pent up frustrations!! Why, mayawati used this to even reason out her electoral loss in UP!!!!!!!
Religion provides arbitrage for everyone. What appauls me is how it has fostered insecurity among human beings for generations. Religion is like a longeing cavesson(noseband for a horse to keep it under control) tied around a human mind to ensure he doesn’t think beyond the obvious. Take for example, the imams, the clerics, the popes, the saints, pujaaris and the rabbis. They have an explanation for every perceptible event on this planet from a religious perspective. They can rationalize every event that happens to you by some logic. Their favorite term is “God wanted it this way!!” Shockingly, here is one thing about god that they don’t believe in! Try telling them this; “God appeared in front of me and gave me a wish” !!!!!
They other day I visited a famous temple near Hyderabad along with my mom. Every visit to temple never ceases to amuse me. There are 5 wonders of temples in India. These 5 wonders are the fundamental components that make it ‘famous’ piligrim centres. I describe them to you here.
1) Beggars: Temples in India are both places of historical facts and breeding ground for ilhealth, filth and stupid mindless practices. To me, it is a wonder as to how even after 60 years of governing, the Indian government is not able to get rid of the countless beggars lying about aimlessly at the gates, hoping that atleast someone will take enough notice to drop them a cent or two. What is even more heart rending is that these downtroddens reproduce alarmingly. The little ones have more or less been damn by fate to succeed their parent beggars to succeed at these door steps of hope. Here, beggars breed beggars!
I have heard that beggars are never allowed inside a temple. It is a wonder that this breed of beings probably spends their whole life around the spirit beyond and probably, closest to it, but never gets to see it. Did you know that the beggars are religionless in spirit, unlike the others? Next time around when u visit a temple try asking names of those welcoming u at the gates, you are bound to hear an abdul or an Anthony.
2) Queues: The most essential feature of a temple to be “famous” is its queues. The degree of fame of a temple is directly proportional to the length of queue of people visiting it. Also, in South India, the sanctity of a temple is closely correlated with its degree of fame. If a temple is crowded then it must be an extremely holy place.
“I got the darshan in just 30 mins” said my mom her face gleaming with the pride. Just as I wondered, she continued “I didn’t even have to take the 100 rupees queue”. Temples these days, have come out with a very innovative business model. Earlier, when everyone was equal in eyes of god(or his stone equivalent!), everyone had to stand in a queue to win the visibility of the idol. There was no money to be paid to see the Idol. But, with time, some became more equal than others. Hence, came the concept of free queues and paid queues. This particular temple had 3 queues a free queue that could take 2 hours to see the god, a 50 rupees paid queue that will help u by pass the queue for half the distance helping u reduce queue time by half, and 100 rupees queue that will take you till the edge of the queue by means of which you can see the idol with minimal queue time. Btw, a queue in a temple is never straight. You have smart people who always trying the jump the queue.
Its amazing how much this country would have progressed if all the smartness was channeled in the right direction.
3) The administrators: Another wonder of temple is its administrators. Temple administrators come in a variety of formats. Some are volunteers; some are full time employees, while some are dispute settlers. While all have a single goal of making maximum money, each one use their own unique ways of accumulating wealth. The politics in mutt is an untold story. It’s a huge racket of betrayal, infidelity and cheaters. Needless to say, there are millions of us who still touch their feet praying something good happens to us. Call it the age of ignorance.
4) The Rumor mills: Each piligrim centre in India is a component of millions of story that does rounds about it. The rumour mills of Indian temples operate in full capacity churning various stories, which often becomes the trigger point for a temple to become more famous. “When parvati jumped into a pyre, her body parts were broken into 12 parts. Out of it 2 parts fell in this place” says one story. Even wikipedia has a story about it. I asked my mom where the sources for all these stories are, or why I should believe any of this is true. She quipped, “If you believe in god then you shouldn’t ask all these stupid questions”. Blame it on my education!!!
5) Faith:
For 45 minutes the queue didn’t move. An aged lady standing in front of me seemed unperturbed by the continous expressions of restlessness in the huge line waiting to get a glimpse of the almightly. Clad shabbily in an almost greenish saree, she was probably in her late 60’s or early 70’s. You could say from the look of hers, that she might have never seen a school in her life. Her each step indicated the degree of burden of body weight her trembling barefooted legs carried. She had a very painful look on her face. It didn’t seem to come from the pushing or shoving of the boisterous and rowdy crowd that are typical of temples. Neither was it from the constant bickering caused by her grand children, She had her eyes continuously focused towards the shrine.
Her facial expressions changed continuously. She seemed like she was talking; talking to someone whom I could neither see. Nor could I hear any words.
It was another 1.5 hr before we were inches from shrine. In a few minutes the old woman before me would get to see the sanctum of idol. A mother standing behind me in the queue was now totally tired keeping her new born from crying. Another teen, seen in the casuals, was mumbling a film song. Patience in the air was wearing thin by the second. All these didn’t matter to her. With each step her strength increased and her face gained in peace. It didn’t matter to her that some volunteers eager to get the queue going were physically shoving everyone out of the shrine sight. One would be lucky if they could get a glimpse of what was inside. As the queued moved closer to the sanctum of god, the old lady was now in the reaching distance of the hundi (or a box where one drops his/her contributions invariably money..whatelse!!). She had a 20 rupee note in her right hand and 3 new two rupee notes in her left. With pain she reached out to the hundi and simultaneously closed her eyes. She made a mental conversation again that was reflective of her face. She paused for a few seconds before being woken up by the forcing hand of a volunteer. As pushed her forward, instantaneously, she released the twenty rupee note into the hundi. While a few people protested the unruly behavior of the volunteers nothing seemed to disturb her conversation. Neither did she protest nor did she get angry.
As she came in the sight of the idol, her conversation paused. Instead she tried to make way for her grandchildren.
When it was my time to see and pray the god, I could get a peek for few milliseconds. I found that the chamber of god was dark. Even inside the sanctum, one could see there were people other than priests. The sanctum was surrounded by a family consisting of 2-3 adults and 2 small kids. They were all surrounding the idol placing hands all around it. They must have paid more than 100 rupees to get into the garba gudi, since no one else in the queue was allowed this close to the idol. While, one directly seemed to be coughing on the idol, a kid was sneezing on it.
But it didn’t matter to me. I had seen my god. The undeterred faith of the old woman was hard to miss.
I don’t think she really got a glimpse of her god because the volunteers wouldn’t let her stand and see. She was too easy to be pushed out by the young and strong volunteer and within no time she moved out of the shrine through the exit and vanished from my sight.
Religion provides arbitrage for everyone. What appauls me is how it has fostered insecurity among human beings for generations. Religion is like a longeing cavesson(noseband for a horse to keep it under control) tied around a human mind to ensure he doesn’t think beyond the obvious. Take for example, the imams, the clerics, the popes, the saints, pujaaris and the rabbis. They have an explanation for every perceptible event on this planet from a religious perspective. They can rationalize every event that happens to you by some logic. Their favorite term is “God wanted it this way!!” Shockingly, here is one thing about god that they don’t believe in! Try telling them this; “God appeared in front of me and gave me a wish” !!!!!
They other day I visited a famous temple near Hyderabad along with my mom. Every visit to temple never ceases to amuse me. There are 5 wonders of temples in India. These 5 wonders are the fundamental components that make it ‘famous’ piligrim centres. I describe them to you here.
1) Beggars: Temples in India are both places of historical facts and breeding ground for ilhealth, filth and stupid mindless practices. To me, it is a wonder as to how even after 60 years of governing, the Indian government is not able to get rid of the countless beggars lying about aimlessly at the gates, hoping that atleast someone will take enough notice to drop them a cent or two. What is even more heart rending is that these downtroddens reproduce alarmingly. The little ones have more or less been damn by fate to succeed their parent beggars to succeed at these door steps of hope. Here, beggars breed beggars!
I have heard that beggars are never allowed inside a temple. It is a wonder that this breed of beings probably spends their whole life around the spirit beyond and probably, closest to it, but never gets to see it. Did you know that the beggars are religionless in spirit, unlike the others? Next time around when u visit a temple try asking names of those welcoming u at the gates, you are bound to hear an abdul or an Anthony.
2) Queues: The most essential feature of a temple to be “famous” is its queues. The degree of fame of a temple is directly proportional to the length of queue of people visiting it. Also, in South India, the sanctity of a temple is closely correlated with its degree of fame. If a temple is crowded then it must be an extremely holy place.
“I got the darshan in just 30 mins” said my mom her face gleaming with the pride. Just as I wondered, she continued “I didn’t even have to take the 100 rupees queue”. Temples these days, have come out with a very innovative business model. Earlier, when everyone was equal in eyes of god(or his stone equivalent!), everyone had to stand in a queue to win the visibility of the idol. There was no money to be paid to see the Idol. But, with time, some became more equal than others. Hence, came the concept of free queues and paid queues. This particular temple had 3 queues a free queue that could take 2 hours to see the god, a 50 rupees paid queue that will help u by pass the queue for half the distance helping u reduce queue time by half, and 100 rupees queue that will take you till the edge of the queue by means of which you can see the idol with minimal queue time. Btw, a queue in a temple is never straight. You have smart people who always trying the jump the queue.
Its amazing how much this country would have progressed if all the smartness was channeled in the right direction.
3) The administrators: Another wonder of temple is its administrators. Temple administrators come in a variety of formats. Some are volunteers; some are full time employees, while some are dispute settlers. While all have a single goal of making maximum money, each one use their own unique ways of accumulating wealth. The politics in mutt is an untold story. It’s a huge racket of betrayal, infidelity and cheaters. Needless to say, there are millions of us who still touch their feet praying something good happens to us. Call it the age of ignorance.
4) The Rumor mills: Each piligrim centre in India is a component of millions of story that does rounds about it. The rumour mills of Indian temples operate in full capacity churning various stories, which often becomes the trigger point for a temple to become more famous. “When parvati jumped into a pyre, her body parts were broken into 12 parts. Out of it 2 parts fell in this place” says one story. Even wikipedia has a story about it. I asked my mom where the sources for all these stories are, or why I should believe any of this is true. She quipped, “If you believe in god then you shouldn’t ask all these stupid questions”. Blame it on my education!!!
5) Faith:
For 45 minutes the queue didn’t move. An aged lady standing in front of me seemed unperturbed by the continous expressions of restlessness in the huge line waiting to get a glimpse of the almightly. Clad shabbily in an almost greenish saree, she was probably in her late 60’s or early 70’s. You could say from the look of hers, that she might have never seen a school in her life. Her each step indicated the degree of burden of body weight her trembling barefooted legs carried. She had a very painful look on her face. It didn’t seem to come from the pushing or shoving of the boisterous and rowdy crowd that are typical of temples. Neither was it from the constant bickering caused by her grand children, She had her eyes continuously focused towards the shrine.
Her facial expressions changed continuously. She seemed like she was talking; talking to someone whom I could neither see. Nor could I hear any words.
It was another 1.5 hr before we were inches from shrine. In a few minutes the old woman before me would get to see the sanctum of idol. A mother standing behind me in the queue was now totally tired keeping her new born from crying. Another teen, seen in the casuals, was mumbling a film song. Patience in the air was wearing thin by the second. All these didn’t matter to her. With each step her strength increased and her face gained in peace. It didn’t matter to her that some volunteers eager to get the queue going were physically shoving everyone out of the shrine sight. One would be lucky if they could get a glimpse of what was inside. As the queued moved closer to the sanctum of god, the old lady was now in the reaching distance of the hundi (or a box where one drops his/her contributions invariably money..whatelse!!). She had a 20 rupee note in her right hand and 3 new two rupee notes in her left. With pain she reached out to the hundi and simultaneously closed her eyes. She made a mental conversation again that was reflective of her face. She paused for a few seconds before being woken up by the forcing hand of a volunteer. As pushed her forward, instantaneously, she released the twenty rupee note into the hundi. While a few people protested the unruly behavior of the volunteers nothing seemed to disturb her conversation. Neither did she protest nor did she get angry.
As she came in the sight of the idol, her conversation paused. Instead she tried to make way for her grandchildren.
When it was my time to see and pray the god, I could get a peek for few milliseconds. I found that the chamber of god was dark. Even inside the sanctum, one could see there were people other than priests. The sanctum was surrounded by a family consisting of 2-3 adults and 2 small kids. They were all surrounding the idol placing hands all around it. They must have paid more than 100 rupees to get into the garba gudi, since no one else in the queue was allowed this close to the idol. While, one directly seemed to be coughing on the idol, a kid was sneezing on it.
But it didn’t matter to me. I had seen my god. The undeterred faith of the old woman was hard to miss.
I don’t think she really got a glimpse of her god because the volunteers wouldn’t let her stand and see. She was too easy to be pushed out by the young and strong volunteer and within no time she moved out of the shrine through the exit and vanished from my sight.
