TO THE TEMPLE

It was a pretty quiet Sunday evening and my father was dressing up. I knew his routines on Sunday evenings, to visit the Shiva temple. Every time he left to the temple, he used to ask me if I wanted to come with him. Usually I decline the offer, not that I am an atheist, but I do not believe in temples. Now, I asked my father if I could come. His face betrayed emotion and he was visibly surprised. As we approached the Shiva temple, the road narrowed suddenly, by people and footwear on either side. After a hunt for a small niche to park the vehicle, my father asked me to drop the slippers near the bike so that it would be easier to retrieve later. I did not realize the significance of the statement until I saw a plethora of footwear on the half constructed temple entrance. There were about 100-150 pairs of footwear, reducing the entrance way to half the original size. The crowd grew strong as we labored past the entrance.

To our right were three people. The first two gave a very distinct impression of beggars, asking for money. The third was a woman had a big basin type vessel over which a yellow cloth had been wrapped around. The woman alone, to my surprise had many 100 rupee, 50 rupee and 20 rupee notes whereas I could find nothing but coins on the other two beggars. Only then I realized that the woman, who was mouthing something mechanically, was collecting funds for the construction of the temple which was under process. I smiled inwardly and thought what the difference was between the two of them and this woman.

I lost my father for a moment or so and rushed past an old woman to find him join a queue. The queue was originating from the main altar of the temple. Unlike the Churches, the Hindu temples have many deities and every temple has one main deity which was Shiva, here, whom we were queuing up to worship. To my left was a makeshift stage where a couple of people were distributing Prasadam (an eatable which is supposed to have been blessed by God, merely by placing it near the statue). There was a queue for the Prasadam too. I sighed and turned to my right where there was another deity and of course, people thronging to worship.

By this time, we had reached the altar and I could see the queue folding up. As we were trotting through the altar, I was looking at the ceiling. It was decorated with many statues on the sides and many paintings overhead. There was also a familiar painting of the Astrological symbols. By this time, we had reached the fag end of the queue and my father began praying frantically and so did the people around. I had my hands into my pocket and was casually looking around and found few curious glances. I then realized that I had to fold my hands in the prayer gesture and that was the reason for those glances.

I am Agnostic and not much of an idol-worship man. As we exited the altar, I asked my father why one has to visit the temple to worship God. I asked him if God is everywhere, why go to a temple? He tried to pacify me saying that God was concentrated in temples and I laughed it off. We reached the end of the Prasadam queue and got our Prasadam. It was a sweet, Panchamirdam (A mixture of many fruits with sweet liquid). We went around the altar where there were many little deities. As we reached the other side of the temple, there was another Prasadam queue and I guessed the item there was Chakara Pongal (Sweetened rice). I did not have an appetite for it and my father was diabetic. Yet we got a scoop of the Prasadam in the leaf goblet with intentions to take it home to my mother who would first make a worship gesture towards the cuisine and then have it.

My father next moved onto the Navagraha Sanhidhi where there were 9 statues and people circled the statues. As we were going around it, there was a woman in front of me who was busy talking with her husband as they were going around complaining ‘There is no ghee in the Chakara Pongal’. I conjured up a mock smile as she met my eyes and turned around thoroughly disgusted. To many people, temple was place to picnic and I could find many groups who shared that vision. In the spacious, deity-free stretch of the temple I saw groups of people sitting and happily munching their Prasadam. Most people who were sitting and chatting were over 30 and the younger folk were busying playing Catch and creating havoc around the temple.

The whole place was filled with mike announcements made from the make-shift stage by a woman about donating money to the temple construction. We waded through the strong influx of people into the temple to reach the road. As we left home I began thinking how God has been commercialized. I did not get the answer to the question as to why God should be worshiped only in temples. I had many more in my mind. If temple, like many people say, is for attaining peace of mind, then it is absolute rubbish. With important mike announcements about donating money, kids playing games, people complaining about no ghee in their Prasadam, one can hardly even think about peace of mind. The amount of money at stakes is becoming alarmingly high.

Why for God’s sake does a temple have to have wealth in Millions? People have fallen prey to commercialization and now in a larger scale, it suddenly seems appalling. May be these were the after effects of a movie I recently watched called OMG (Oh my God) which also describes about commercialization, but it is nothing more than the truth. Just then, I woke up from the reverie, yanking my hand reflexively as I touched the hot Prasadam in my hand. Instead of taking it to home and feeding them to the haves, I should have given it to those Have-nots who were sitting outside, begging for money.