rishvat lene ka aur dene ka!

if any of my family members ever read this, i'd probably be packing for another as Kritya calls "lotta barefeet, sweaty, crowded temple visit". i have just returned from a whirlwind tour of temples spread across south TN and the experrience has opened my eyes to many issues which see me challenging age old rituals in my head... The concept of "rishvat" or bribes seems to be one which has not even spared the Gods of this nation. To firmly root out corruption, one must fear, it could be the fear of a small cell or fear of damnation in hell. But when u belong to a country which consists of people who will travel half way across the world if need be to "Please" their gods for a favour, it gets u thinking, is it possible to actually do so when the ppl hav included the Gods themselves in the loop??

Temples i firmly believe hav become companies that IT majors can compete with nowadays. To believe that God is omnipresent and then pay 100 bucks to get special darshan in a temple u travel miles to get to is a black mark on the millenia old faith. Every temple we went to had some official or the other who asked us for our address to which they could send "Prasad" or blessings for of course appropriate sums. The amounts vary propotionally with the size of the temple and so do the waistlines of the holy men:)

This reminds me of a story by RK Narayanan, which involves the pledging of hair for the quick recovery of a young man. This was pledged when he was incapable of doing anything himself and the ending is quite hilarious. A must read. The concept of karma and dharma have found many interpretations and unfortunately, we i feel have taken one that doesn seem to be doing any good for the needful!