Temples are the seats of divine energies where we all throng to purify our spirits and be blessed by the Almighty. Oftentimes, the number of pilgrims visiting such temples increase in turn boosting the popularity of such places and attributing a special divine relevance to them. Last week, I had been to the Pushkara Snanam in the divine Godavari river that flows through A.P. and Telangana, covering the shrines that lie on her banks. A few incidents that happened to me personally (not mentioning the stampede that took place in Rajamundry) gave not a spiritual, but a disgraceful feeling lingering about the people living in and around the premises of these temples. Except for the first incident that happened last year, these are a few of my experiences that shattered my divine expectations.
Incident 1 - Srikalahasti Temple in Andhra Pradesh
The bad feeling started right from the parking lot when rudely speaking parking attendants hosting private tenders charge exorbitantly for parking your vehicles inside the temple premises (around Rs 75/- for a car). Disregarding that, once led inside, we visited the temple with the shrines of several idols with a priest designated to offer teertha and prasadam to the visiting devotees. I was bowing to the holy idols and also to the supervising priests by falling at their feet, seeking their blessings. While I did that, I offered a small amount of money (Dakshine) to each of them. After about 4-5 idols, I passed the queue and came across a priest who was standing in front of a Ganesh idol with a plate on his side that had a few currency notes and coins. With my usual habit, I bowed to the lord and bent to fall at the priest's feet. He immediately moved away and said, "Bow to the Lord," followed by a murmer, "Mee karmaalu maakenduku!" which means "Why do we need your karmas?" I was ashamed by his gesture and walked away without looking at his face. If he was unfit to not bless me fearing my karmas, was he a collection agent begging with a plate in the name of God?
Incident 2 - Dwarakapuri in Andhra Pradesh
A newly constructed temple with a lot of beautified statues made out of plaster of paris, this temple is a sure shot eye candy to all the devotees visiting this temple. Right from entering the temple, the employees in the temple throng to you holding a ticket book in hand that has different prices for, say, taking pictures in phones, handycams, video cams, leaving the footwear, surrendering your phone in a locker, surrendering your bag in a locker, etc. It was obvious that more than keeping you hands free to visit the temple, they looked for sources of drawing revenue from everything that you had, including a water bottle, all for money. Oh! Even the bathrooms, resting rooms, and the toilets! You have to pay for everything here. It's okay to pay within the rules of management, but the problem is when these people talk to you in a rude and disgusting manner, not considering that you are a pilgrim longing for a divine blessing. A cleaner woman started abusing me for wearing slippers inside the temple complex (not inside the shrine) where a lot of people including the management wear their footwears and walk around. I pointed out to her slippers and she tried to justify that she was cleaning and was allowed to wear it. I lashed out equally at her and answered back in her own language questioning how different she and I were in front of the same God. She later received an earful from her manager for misbehaving with the pilgrims.
Incident 3 - Godavari River Bank, Rajamundry, AP
After the Pushkara Snanam, we headed out to where our buses were parked but were soon overwhelmed by the inflow of lakhs of pilgrims rushing to take a holy dip. My brother, uncle, and I had to hold on to my grandmother and protect her from the mercilessly pushing devotees who, despite noticing that there was a weak old woman in our group, kept on pushing. We requested them to not push but it fell on deaf ears. We had no other choice but to push them back in rugby style to make out way out until we got an auto rickshaw (overpriced, of course). After we got into the bus, we learnt that five unfortunate people had lost their lives in this frenzy of pushing around.
Incident 4 - Rally, Andhra Pradesh
The temple complexes are situated opposite to each other and there are rails that are set up to guide the pilgrims to visit the temples, for those entering and exiting. After visiting one complex. I was heading towards the other one when I was confronted by a young man about 20 years old, who was dressed like a pilgrim going on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala, holding a portrait in one hand and begging with a scarf in the other. About 5-6 kids, aged around 3-8 surrounded me and started begging. I understood they were all from the same family and taking out my purse, gave him a Rs 10 note and moved ahead. The children followed me begging and I told them to follow me to the temple where they were offering prasadam in case they were hungry. But they backed off after that. After finishing seeing the second complex, my mother told me what had actually happened as she was behind me, watching everything. After I handed the note to the boy and moved on, he indicated a girl in the group who later triggered the kids to follow me begging and in turn, distracting me and flicking off my wallet. I have a habit of keeping a hand on my pocket where I keep my wallet, for which the girl had backed off earlier, unsuccessful in her attempt to steal my purse. I went back to the boy who was still standing there, and told him, 'I tried helping you by giving you money and you wanted to rob me instead? Are you aware that you are committing this in the middle of two temple complexes? What would you do tomorrow if you met with an accident and would permanently lose your limbs? You'll come back to the same place begging! Beware of your actions" He had nothing to say and quickly realized his mistake.
Incident 5 - Bheemavaram, Andhra Pradesh
After completing the darshan, I came out and waited for my bus to start. It was a terribly hot day and I saw a frail puppy sniffing around for any traces of food and water in front of a shop and licking of a few drops of the water that was for sale. Yes, people sell water in these places and it is not FREE. The puppy weakly examined and collapsed with disappointment. My brother had offered me a cookie which I had half eaten until I noticed the puppy. I crushed it and gave it to the puppy in front of it and a few crumbs fell on the ground. The puppy ate it and picked up the tiny rocks that had traces of the cookie, chewed and spat them out. My brother, who was disheartened to see it, went to the shop and bought a pack of biscuits and lifting the puppy from where there were moving vehicles, placed it in front of the gate of a house where it was safe for it to eat. He went to the can where the water was sold and wet his hands with a few drops of water. The shopkeeper shouted at him saying it was for sale and not for use. He apologized and returned back to see the puppy happily eating the biscuits and wagging its tail. Soon, the owner of the house, a woman, came from outside and noticed the puppy eating at the corner of her gate and gave a nasty look towards us, which clearly suggested that she thought we were feeding a useless dirty puppy in front of her precious house. We ignored her look and my brother went again towards the can. The shopkeeper shouted again from where he sat and my brother said, "Sir! The water was leaking so I tightened the knob." The shopkeeper kept quiet after that.
These are only a few incidents that I have mentioned here, but the entire experience, more than filling me with a divine satisfaction, filled me with disgust for the people staying in these premises who blindly believe in going to temples and taking holy baths to wash away their sins but not by honestly earning a living, selling normal water in the name of mineral water, and getting pissed at the sight of feeding a poor animal. Someone having visited the temples with high inflow of devotees would relate to my experiences here. If they haven't realized such basic rules of existence, they will forever remain the farthest from God and its realization despite lying on the temple porch and calling themselves blessed souls.
Incident 1 - Srikalahasti Temple in Andhra Pradesh
The bad feeling started right from the parking lot when rudely speaking parking attendants hosting private tenders charge exorbitantly for parking your vehicles inside the temple premises (around Rs 75/- for a car). Disregarding that, once led inside, we visited the temple with the shrines of several idols with a priest designated to offer teertha and prasadam to the visiting devotees. I was bowing to the holy idols and also to the supervising priests by falling at their feet, seeking their blessings. While I did that, I offered a small amount of money (Dakshine) to each of them. After about 4-5 idols, I passed the queue and came across a priest who was standing in front of a Ganesh idol with a plate on his side that had a few currency notes and coins. With my usual habit, I bowed to the lord and bent to fall at the priest's feet. He immediately moved away and said, "Bow to the Lord," followed by a murmer, "Mee karmaalu maakenduku!" which means "Why do we need your karmas?" I was ashamed by his gesture and walked away without looking at his face. If he was unfit to not bless me fearing my karmas, was he a collection agent begging with a plate in the name of God?
Incident 2 - Dwarakapuri in Andhra Pradesh
A newly constructed temple with a lot of beautified statues made out of plaster of paris, this temple is a sure shot eye candy to all the devotees visiting this temple. Right from entering the temple, the employees in the temple throng to you holding a ticket book in hand that has different prices for, say, taking pictures in phones, handycams, video cams, leaving the footwear, surrendering your phone in a locker, surrendering your bag in a locker, etc. It was obvious that more than keeping you hands free to visit the temple, they looked for sources of drawing revenue from everything that you had, including a water bottle, all for money. Oh! Even the bathrooms, resting rooms, and the toilets! You have to pay for everything here. It's okay to pay within the rules of management, but the problem is when these people talk to you in a rude and disgusting manner, not considering that you are a pilgrim longing for a divine blessing. A cleaner woman started abusing me for wearing slippers inside the temple complex (not inside the shrine) where a lot of people including the management wear their footwears and walk around. I pointed out to her slippers and she tried to justify that she was cleaning and was allowed to wear it. I lashed out equally at her and answered back in her own language questioning how different she and I were in front of the same God. She later received an earful from her manager for misbehaving with the pilgrims.
Incident 3 - Godavari River Bank, Rajamundry, AP
After the Pushkara Snanam, we headed out to where our buses were parked but were soon overwhelmed by the inflow of lakhs of pilgrims rushing to take a holy dip. My brother, uncle, and I had to hold on to my grandmother and protect her from the mercilessly pushing devotees who, despite noticing that there was a weak old woman in our group, kept on pushing. We requested them to not push but it fell on deaf ears. We had no other choice but to push them back in rugby style to make out way out until we got an auto rickshaw (overpriced, of course). After we got into the bus, we learnt that five unfortunate people had lost their lives in this frenzy of pushing around.
Incident 4 - Rally, Andhra Pradesh
The temple complexes are situated opposite to each other and there are rails that are set up to guide the pilgrims to visit the temples, for those entering and exiting. After visiting one complex. I was heading towards the other one when I was confronted by a young man about 20 years old, who was dressed like a pilgrim going on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala, holding a portrait in one hand and begging with a scarf in the other. About 5-6 kids, aged around 3-8 surrounded me and started begging. I understood they were all from the same family and taking out my purse, gave him a Rs 10 note and moved ahead. The children followed me begging and I told them to follow me to the temple where they were offering prasadam in case they were hungry. But they backed off after that. After finishing seeing the second complex, my mother told me what had actually happened as she was behind me, watching everything. After I handed the note to the boy and moved on, he indicated a girl in the group who later triggered the kids to follow me begging and in turn, distracting me and flicking off my wallet. I have a habit of keeping a hand on my pocket where I keep my wallet, for which the girl had backed off earlier, unsuccessful in her attempt to steal my purse. I went back to the boy who was still standing there, and told him, 'I tried helping you by giving you money and you wanted to rob me instead? Are you aware that you are committing this in the middle of two temple complexes? What would you do tomorrow if you met with an accident and would permanently lose your limbs? You'll come back to the same place begging! Beware of your actions" He had nothing to say and quickly realized his mistake.
Incident 5 - Bheemavaram, Andhra Pradesh
After completing the darshan, I came out and waited for my bus to start. It was a terribly hot day and I saw a frail puppy sniffing around for any traces of food and water in front of a shop and licking of a few drops of the water that was for sale. Yes, people sell water in these places and it is not FREE. The puppy weakly examined and collapsed with disappointment. My brother had offered me a cookie which I had half eaten until I noticed the puppy. I crushed it and gave it to the puppy in front of it and a few crumbs fell on the ground. The puppy ate it and picked up the tiny rocks that had traces of the cookie, chewed and spat them out. My brother, who was disheartened to see it, went to the shop and bought a pack of biscuits and lifting the puppy from where there were moving vehicles, placed it in front of the gate of a house where it was safe for it to eat. He went to the can where the water was sold and wet his hands with a few drops of water. The shopkeeper shouted at him saying it was for sale and not for use. He apologized and returned back to see the puppy happily eating the biscuits and wagging its tail. Soon, the owner of the house, a woman, came from outside and noticed the puppy eating at the corner of her gate and gave a nasty look towards us, which clearly suggested that she thought we were feeding a useless dirty puppy in front of her precious house. We ignored her look and my brother went again towards the can. The shopkeeper shouted again from where he sat and my brother said, "Sir! The water was leaking so I tightened the knob." The shopkeeper kept quiet after that.
These are only a few incidents that I have mentioned here, but the entire experience, more than filling me with a divine satisfaction, filled me with disgust for the people staying in these premises who blindly believe in going to temples and taking holy baths to wash away their sins but not by honestly earning a living, selling normal water in the name of mineral water, and getting pissed at the sight of feeding a poor animal. Someone having visited the temples with high inflow of devotees would relate to my experiences here. If they haven't realized such basic rules of existence, they will forever remain the farthest from God and its realization despite lying on the temple porch and calling themselves blessed souls.
This is the real AP(animals planet)
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