Five things I hate about going to temple

The views expressed below are purely emotional outcome of my personal frustration. Reader’s discretion advised

1. Dress code: Why don’t people realize that they are going to a TEMPLE? For heaven sake it’s a temple and not a theme park. You don’t have to be so casual in your dress code. In fact the word “Casual” is too low to describe the clowns show. This is also one of the most debated topics amongst my friends and most of the times the other side will shut me down by telling – “the problem is with your mind and you need to look them “properly”. I never bothered to explain them… it’s not about winning the argument. I know, and for that matter everyone knows the truth.
2. Special Dharshans: If in the eyes of God everyone is equal – why do we have special darshan queues? Why should someone be special before god? What is that you are trying to prove? Your money’s power? Your societal influence? This is no place to prove your power, for you are standing before him who created YOU. By all means, you are depriving someone else’s time and effort using your money!!
3. Commercialization: This one is connected with above – off late commercialization of temples is reaching its heights. It’s one of most promising business with guaranteed profits, for we have lots and lots of peoples who are ready to buy anything if you sell them in the name of God. The most recent example is “ISKON”. People who have visited it will understand what I’m talking!! For others I will give you a fair idea of how it will look like… the temple is beautifully built using state of art designs and astounding creativity.. All is fine till we see the darshan. Once you are done with the darshan the “way out” passage is so carefully designed to take you through a series of shops (food stalls, book stalls, cd stalls, icecreams, panipuris, samosas, handbags, t-shirts, popcorns!! etc.) there is no other way out of the temple!! And every one has to go through this even if they don’t like it..
4. Enthusiast worshipers: Some people are so involved into god that they don’t even allow others to worship. They are completely engrossed into HIM and don’t even bother to give way to others. People behind them have to literally shout/push them to move forward. In scientific terms, the speed of their walk is directly proportional to the distance between them and idol. As the distance lessens, their speed slows down. And at one point they’ll be on a complete halt!! And we have to wrestle with them to move them out of the way… At last, the piece of mind is lost… how do you expect someone to worship wholeheartedly when we have people like this.
5. Mobile phones: Last but not the least!! Needless to say the tortures this instrument is causing!!

"Search for the god within you" .......and i ain't atheist.

And that has made all the difference!!

This is about a small incident that happened a week back… which proved that I’m still a student who has lots to learn from others…. And this time it was my favorite teacher.. My Dad!!

My parents came down to Bangalore last week… it’s now an unwritten rule that my parents comedown to Bangalore every month (or at least once in every two months). This time we went to Shivaganga – It’s a shiva temple on top of a hill about 50kms from B’lore. It is quite a peaceful place to visit with family… ok back to topic… The only way to reach the temple is the fleet of steps engraved in the rocks… We were returning back after the wonderful darshan. I was walking a head of others and noticed a banana peel which some enthusiast worshippers has dropped down in the steps. After seeing that I cautioned my family members who were walking behind me… everyone placed their steps carefully when they neared the zone… One after the other every one safely crossed the zone… and now finally it was my dad’s turn… He neared the zone… stopped for a sec… bent down.. took the banana peel and throwed it away towards the hill side… I felt a slap on my face… he saw me.. smiled and continued walking down…. And that has made all the difference!!