It’s been over a year since I stopped blogging,so why not take the name of god and start all over again ;-)
Here I am with a
topic which can stir up arguments in the blink of an eye - “Belief”. In
particular, belief in God!
Although I’m an atheist, I belong to the category
of people who think it’s best to remain passive, instead of making a commotion
about your preferences. This decision of passiveness developed from my family
background where questioning rituals was considered rude. With this prologue, I
shall start the story which triggered this blog.
During our visit to Odisha recently, we managed to
visit a couple of temples and the whole experience put me in retrospect. This
visit being my first to the northern part of India, put me in awe at the change
in treatment of the pilgrims in Odisha. One of Buddha’s saying comes to my mind
right now: “The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind”. As a kid I always
wondered why we need to go to temples and pray to God since it seemed like a
noisy place where we had to fight to have a glimpse of the idol! Hence for me an
ideal temple definition turned out to be “a place where you can make peace with
the outside world and within yourself too”. I’m not ruling out the possibility
of the existence of such temples, but going by my limited knowledge – They are
turning into places where pilgrims are ripped of money and divided by caste, leave
alone peace of mind.
Following prior warnings about the way things work
in temples in this part of the world, we had to experience it to believe it. In
the Lingaraj temple in Bhuvaneshwar, the priest caste known as the Panda’s usually
wait outside the temple complex praying for their prey. At first, they did
speak kindly and narrated the history of the temple and the rituals carried out
on daily basis. The horror began when they took us inside the main temple where
we were delegated to a few more panda’s for the pooja. Following a couple of mantras
in Oria accented Sanskrit; the panda asked us to donate money for the dhaan.
Long story short- we had to walk out of the place as we were almost terrorized
to pay the money or be cursed for life.
Unfortunately the day seems to have come, where priests curse you if you do not pay them substantial donations. The famous Puri temple appeared like a business center where every transaction requires a consultant, rather than a place where people go in search of sanctity. Yes it is true that everything comes with a price in today’s world, but why put a tag on GOD?! The Almighty, who has supernatural powers, can cure diseases; can get you out of hardships, seems reachable only to the class which can afford the prices set by the priests!
All these certainly reawakened the thought – “What
do people really look for when they visit temples?”
