Oh, My God!

I am not an atheist. By the experience of events surrounding me, I am messed up if I am agnostic. 

A few years ago, probably during 2005/2006, after I had dharshan at the Balaji temple, Tirumala Hills, I was moving along with my family in the free prasadh queue. (Prasadh is generally referred to edible food first offered to the deity and then distributed to the devotees and others.) Puliyodharai (Tamarind rice) happened to be the free prasadh that day.  The man before me in the line, after receiving the free prasadh, asked for more. The bare-chested volunteer, after a quick negotiation, accepted a 100-rupee note with alacrity, swiftly left the counter, removed the towel that was draped around his dhothi, flung it on the camera which was fixed to monitor such unfair practices, returned quickly, stuffed the “divine rice” hurriedly packed in a palm leaf and pushed it into the hands of the “buyer” and completed the “transaction”. He retrieved the towel from the camera and continued his work as usual.

If this could happen in the biggest and the richest temple, elsewhere, the less said the better.

Some time ago, I accompanied a “person” to a hill-temple (this time, it is in Mysore).  It was a Sunday, a tourist spot, and the accompanying queue was obviously long.  The “person” flipped out a 500-rupee note and stuffed into the palms of the security staff at the temple.  The access and the treatment was instant and different.  After the dharshan, the staff ensured that the “person” was garlanded by the priest (who was taken care separately), given the fruits,  flowers, and sacred ash, vermillion …. My embarrassment to have accompanied this “person” is a different matter.

How does God react to something of these sorts happening in His/Her own premises?

Again, when VIPs visit for two or three hours, the general queues are in for a prolonged pause, much to the annoyance of the commoner, who at times even waits for a day or two.  We have 1.2 billion people. Everyone wants to get ahead in the queue and not waste any time.  People with more money ‘win’!  

When these types of 'special' dharshans are entertained, does God approve of George Orwell’s equality (All are equal, some are more equal)?  Who gets more of God’s grace?  Is it the “person” who jumped the order through nefarious means, or the one who followed “dharma dharshan” (general queue)?  There are many such experiences you and I would have undergone.

Let us , for once,  reflect on what we are doing.  We all know God is omnipotent and hence present everywhere. So, there is no need to bribe others in order to worship Him.  But we do!  We engage ourselves in blind competition forgetting the basic concept of God.  If God would have been something which could be achieved through money, people like  ……. (you may fill in the blank with your choicest name of the VIP/celebrity) would have relocated the deity and decorated Him in their living room instead of visiting the temple.

With an ardent devotion towards God, you go to Tirumala and end up having darshan for hardly a couple of seconds.  But what precedes this and follows after that  certainly leaves a disturbing impression.  You could experience corruption in every form.  Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) has become a corrupt institution.  Devotees get a very raw deal.  The fence itself eating the crop is there for all to see.

Religion, once upon a time, did not differentiate between rich and poor and somehow our priests and volunteers have managed to corrupt that as well.  When the most sacred places are not spared, how do you expect fairness in other public spaces?

This also raises another point.  When, in the first place, people accept the need for middlemen to reach God and worshipping is an investment in the expectation of something in return, then why the hypocrisy of shouting against corruption?  Logically, we are bribing God through various means to get the desired result and when somebody is taking that opportunity to make themselves rich, we are feeling betrayed!

Is blind faith breeding ground for corruption?  We all know that God is not only in temples but is within. Temples are supposed to be nothing but  holy places, with peaceful environment so that devotees can sit and pray peacefully.

Whoever pays more gets more nearer to God.  What is this logic?  Is it happening only in India, where in the name of God one can make money?

One school of thought, however, argues that it is an ultimate test of faith, and visits yield fruits only if there is an element of pain involved.  Does it mean that the temple officials should be corrupt?

Until and unless awareness at the grass root level do not come, corruption and mismanagement cannot be averted.  Everybody in authority from temple administration to civil administration to politicians to vendors to brokers are cahoots in design.

Priests/ volunteers give prasadham as if they are giving from their pockets, literally that guy throws that into our hands with a serious and frowning face.  Even the laddus prasadh is sold in black market.  After that, does the prasadh retain its sanctity?

The touts flock in and around the temple and shrine, who are flourishing by unethical means, should be kicked out.

How can it escape from corruption when it is functioning like a large business house giving biased and preferential treatment to rich and resourceful people?

Is it wrong that we better stay confined to our homes or visit the temple down the lane and be true to ourselves?  Don’t you agree with me that God will praise my “bhakthi” (devotion) and shower His blessings rather than taking the questionable route? 

If the people working there take money through corrupt means, it means they are not scared of earning God’s wrath.  Right?  Or they don’t believe in God? Atheists? How, then, such people are appointed? Those who recruit them are also of doubtful characters?  Don’t they believe that corruption in the name of God  is irrevocable sin?

The same Lord Balaji resides in our neighborhood too.  Why hesitate?  Why discriminate?  Why not visit and also patronise our local shrines?  

Stay at home and pray God.  If you cannot find God at home and heart, where is the guarantee that you will find elsewhere?

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was wrong in saying “Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it.”  It should have been “Corruption is my birth right and I will do it.”

I don’t know if I am right or wrong to ask: Why should we go to any temple where darshan has to be bought or bribed?  The minute someone says that he/she controls access to God, and that too for money, you can understand you are being cheated.  Why not donate, instead, to poor friends or relatives, rather than bribing the middlemen?  Isn’t it true that service to humanity is service to God?  (Please don’t read me wrong!)

Who should find a solution? God or Human?  

Even at the risk of being redundant, I affirm I am not an atheist. 

One thing is clear. I am confused.