My mother wanted me to take her to Tiruvalluvar for a darshan of Lord Veera Raghava Swami ( moolavar ) and our Kula deivam yesterday. My wife made it plain that on a Sunday morning, the last thing on her mind was visiting a temple. So, off I went with my mother.
After my trip, I have come to the conclusion that some temples are doing their utmost to make even strong believers loose their interest in visiting temples.
- Car park near the temple tank is either a urinal, or has become one...difficult to decide the order. The stream of guys yanking their dhotis up and letting out their dongs is amazing. Bank opposite the car park is an area where tonsuring is done. I am amazed that in our land, how come men cannot control their bladder, but, women seem to. Is there some biological phenomena behind this ? Or, is it that in India, guys get this sudden urge to empty their bladder, the moment they see a bush or a car park ? One has to decode this urge, and I am willing to sponsor a study on "moothrology" by any interested sociologist or biologist.
- The temple tank ( kulam ) was majestic...it is huge and easily would be 500' x 500 ' ( L x B ). Am sure in the good old days, it must have been a wonderful scene. But now, it is nothing but a huge filthy ditch. There is a belief that if you throw a pack of salt, pepper and jaggery into it, Lord Veeraghavaswamy would cure you of any disease. The amount of plastic covers strewn around must be seen to be believed. Added to this is clumps of hair lying all around. Boy...the mess is inexplicable - nowhere in the world would anyone find plastic covers, with salt, pepper, jaggery and also human hair in the same spot. Since my mother insisted, I walked down the steps to the kulam and threw salt and stuff, and when I turned back, I saw a goat approaching me gently....I think it wanted jaggery from me.
- Without any warning at 0730 in the morning, the temple priests decided to close the doors of the sanctum sanctorum. A priest generally yelled out that the "nadai" will open at 9.30 am. The approach to the santum santorum is through barricades, obviously put up to regulate movement on a crowded festival day. But, on a normal day, when the crowd is thin, I wonder what purpose it serves. Anyway, we had to move through the barricade and wait for about 2 hours. The darshan itself lasted hardly a minute, and then we came out.
- Have you guys thought about the fact that in all the temples, the sannidhanam is kept dark and dingy....I cannot figure out why it should be so ? Why can't they keep it bright and well lit ?
- The moolavar is made out of raw granite stone, and over 100's of years, smeared with variety of stuff, and the quick karpoora arathi helps you see a black mass and nothing else. Also, many devotees close their eyes a few seconds into the arathi, and mutter slokams, and by the time they open their eyes, the arathi is over, and the place is dark. So, I wonder what they would have seen in the few seconds. The paradox, looked at logically is huge - people travel long distance, wait in long queues, and then close their eyes when the time for darshan comes. Why ?
- In the queue for darshan with us were also some newly wedded couples, and some women with babies in their arms. Many women had "manjal" ( turmeric ) smeared all over their face. My mother struck up a conversation with one of the women, and in the 2 hours that we waited in the queue, my mother virtually extracted that lady's entire family history. I do not know when you guys last saw a woman with manjal smeared all over the face....but, I happened to see many of them that day, and I tried to imagine how a manjal smeared naturally yellow chinese face would look ! The worst combination could be a woman with manjal smeared face, with a freshly tonsured head smeared with sandalwood paste. I saw a few like that too. More than its medicinal properties, I think women in the good old days used turmeric primarily to ward off testosterone urges of their men.
- We enquired about prasadams, and we were told that we can buy it from a counter outside the temple, but, after 2 hours ! I told my mother that prasadam from Grand sweets was a better option.
- The army of beggars outside the temple is amazing. I am convinced now that there is a business mind that controls the beggars.
On the way back, I talked to my mother to figure out what she got out of the trip, and whether she noticed the filth and squalor. She replied that 1 minute darshan was worth the pain. My rational mind is unable to accept this logic.
In any case, I think in the years to come, if this is the state in which temples are going to be maintained, the next generation may not go to temples at all. Alternately, perhaps there is a huge opportunity waiting to be tapped in "temple management".
