How much can you PAY!!!
This weekend i was on a trip to trichy. Usually I dont go to temples other than for accompanying (!!) my family ... We reached there early Saturday morning and then went to the Srirangam temple.. the rudest shock awaited me there. Seperate queues to meet God each lined up differently categorised by Money. Pay 20 Rs and you get to see God before 1000 people.. pay 50 Rs and meet before 400 people.. PATHETIC to say the LEAST.
We went and stood in the Special Dharshanam queue after being scared seeing the "a(dharma)" dharshanam queue paying 20 Rs each. Then comes one guy (yes a typical guy with a kudumi and the sacred(!) thread) and he told us "this queue would take u more than 3 hours".. we were confused and asked him "isnt this the queue for the dharshanam" he replied back "yes but this would take more time, wanna go faster?" we replied "yes and wht should do for that" and he states "anga irukkaravaa konjam adhigama edhirpaarpa .. 200 rs kudungo seekirama poyidalaam ! (The people inside would expect some extra money .. gimme 200 rs and we can go in faster... " i jus gave him a stern look and said "its okie we would stand in line" .. then after about 1 1/2 hours in the line we almost reached the entrance of the diety. There the same guy was there and he even had the guts to ask us "oh ippo dhaan varelaa (Oh now only you are coming!) " i was shocked at the way this person was cooly asking BRIBE when the same thing might be done in private EVEN in a Government office.
One person like that was not going to spoil my mood and off we went inside with the Archana chit... there came a person who took our chit and the coconut and other stuff for Archana from us.. i thought he is taking it from us to hand it over to the gurukal or whatever and when we reached the God, there the same person was waiting with full commitment to help us get what we wanted.. I cudn't help but think that something is wrong.... Meanwhile the gurukal inside the temple was pestering me and saying "podunga dhaaralamaa podunga aayiramo (1000) aynooro (500) paravayillai (put put dont hesitate 1000 or 500 rs is okie) .... i was shocked...... outside only had i seen so many beggers asking me with rights "ayyaa oru rooba picha podunga" (Pls spare one rupee for me) here inside the temple also was the same fate the difference just being a higher amount.... i gave him a far far less amount than he had even imagined and he openly comments "Sanikizhama adhuvuma vandhurukkara aalunga paarthiyaa" (See the people who have turned out on Saturdays) .... we didnt get time to reply to him after being pushed out by the crowd gathering in and ofcourse the gurukal werent making us have a nice dharshanam once they knew we werent giving more money!
We came out and saw the great person who helped us get into this mess with the archana thattu with him...he then took us to a mandapam sort of thing inside the temple and asked our stars/names etc and started telling out some mantrams....... i knew trouble was coming :-) he finished it and as it is without disappointing us started 40 brahmana kudumbam irukku anna daanam pannanum........ (there are 40 brahmin families you have to give them food) I was like "mm why should i?" he told "they are not having money to eat and now only magara jothi is over etc blah blah blah" i wanted to know his expectation and asked him how much?? he cooly told
atleast 10 rs per family !! i cudnt help laughing and we walked out from that guy with great difficulty not before losing 50 rs from my pocket! and from then on it was more of a comedy ((well comedy to think back but cudnt stop worrying how bad our nation is turning out to be and that too the people visiting us would have such a bad opinion on us) trip of all sorts ... every now and then when a poojari came towards us helping us with something we knew something was up their sleeves and mind u they didnt disappoint us in any ways! there was this poojari who helped us put the prasadham into a plastic cover and asked us money !! there was this person who just showed us the direction for "ambal sannidhi" (Goddess place) and asked us money!!
Gandhiji and his paper was the mark of the day........ everyone in and around the temple was jus having one thing in their mind!! MONEY!!! I do accept and understand the importance of money, but fact that the people inside the temple itself seemed to worship it more than God shook me.......
Finally we were out of the temple and we were going towards Samayapuram, yet another temple......... the same policies followed here too!! By then all the happenings weren't surprising to me!! Then finally to finish of the day we were in Thiruvanaikkavil where the Diety of Lord Shiva was inside water....... surprisingly the temple was empty and the Dharma (Free) dharshanam was a good choice..... but after going inside yet another surprise awaited....... If you go through the free dharshanam here you get to see the God through a wall and its holes... there was some group of people who were allowed to go inside through a opening....... upon querying I understood that it was another SPECIAL entrance which you get with 5 Rs... It was a painful sight that so many old ladies and people who had probably come from far to get a glimpse of the God not being able to pay this 5 Rs (in most other places this was far more higher) and get to see God nearer .......
well I knew Money can almost get us everything........but didnt know that God too came with a PRICE TAG!!!
We went and stood in the Special Dharshanam queue after being scared seeing the "a(dharma)" dharshanam queue paying 20 Rs each. Then comes one guy (yes a typical guy with a kudumi and the sacred(!) thread) and he told us "this queue would take u more than 3 hours".. we were confused and asked him "isnt this the queue for the dharshanam" he replied back "yes but this would take more time, wanna go faster?" we replied "yes and wht should do for that" and he states "anga irukkaravaa konjam adhigama edhirpaarpa .. 200 rs kudungo seekirama poyidalaam ! (The people inside would expect some extra money .. gimme 200 rs and we can go in faster... " i jus gave him a stern look and said "its okie we would stand in line" .. then after about 1 1/2 hours in the line we almost reached the entrance of the diety. There the same guy was there and he even had the guts to ask us "oh ippo dhaan varelaa (Oh now only you are coming!) " i was shocked at the way this person was cooly asking BRIBE when the same thing might be done in private EVEN in a Government office.
One person like that was not going to spoil my mood and off we went inside with the Archana chit... there came a person who took our chit and the coconut and other stuff for Archana from us.. i thought he is taking it from us to hand it over to the gurukal or whatever and when we reached the God, there the same person was waiting with full commitment to help us get what we wanted.. I cudn't help but think that something is wrong.... Meanwhile the gurukal inside the temple was pestering me and saying "podunga dhaaralamaa podunga aayiramo (1000) aynooro (500) paravayillai (put put dont hesitate 1000 or 500 rs is okie) .... i was shocked...... outside only had i seen so many beggers asking me with rights "ayyaa oru rooba picha podunga" (Pls spare one rupee for me) here inside the temple also was the same fate the difference just being a higher amount.... i gave him a far far less amount than he had even imagined and he openly comments "Sanikizhama adhuvuma vandhurukkara aalunga paarthiyaa" (See the people who have turned out on Saturdays) .... we didnt get time to reply to him after being pushed out by the crowd gathering in and ofcourse the gurukal werent making us have a nice dharshanam once they knew we werent giving more money!
We came out and saw the great person who helped us get into this mess with the archana thattu with him...he then took us to a mandapam sort of thing inside the temple and asked our stars/names etc and started telling out some mantrams....... i knew trouble was coming :-) he finished it and as it is without disappointing us started 40 brahmana kudumbam irukku anna daanam pannanum........ (there are 40 brahmin families you have to give them food) I was like "mm why should i?" he told "they are not having money to eat and now only magara jothi is over etc blah blah blah" i wanted to know his expectation and asked him how much?? he cooly told
atleast 10 rs per family !! i cudnt help laughing and we walked out from that guy with great difficulty not before losing 50 rs from my pocket! and from then on it was more of a comedy ((well comedy to think back but cudnt stop worrying how bad our nation is turning out to be and that too the people visiting us would have such a bad opinion on us) trip of all sorts ... every now and then when a poojari came towards us helping us with something we knew something was up their sleeves and mind u they didnt disappoint us in any ways! there was this poojari who helped us put the prasadham into a plastic cover and asked us money !! there was this person who just showed us the direction for "ambal sannidhi" (Goddess place) and asked us money!!
Gandhiji and his paper was the mark of the day........ everyone in and around the temple was jus having one thing in their mind!! MONEY!!! I do accept and understand the importance of money, but fact that the people inside the temple itself seemed to worship it more than God shook me.......
Finally we were out of the temple and we were going towards Samayapuram, yet another temple......... the same policies followed here too!! By then all the happenings weren't surprising to me!! Then finally to finish of the day we were in Thiruvanaikkavil where the Diety of Lord Shiva was inside water....... surprisingly the temple was empty and the Dharma (Free) dharshanam was a good choice..... but after going inside yet another surprise awaited....... If you go through the free dharshanam here you get to see the God through a wall and its holes... there was some group of people who were allowed to go inside through a opening....... upon querying I understood that it was another SPECIAL entrance which you get with 5 Rs... It was a painful sight that so many old ladies and people who had probably come from far to get a glimpse of the God not being able to pay this 5 Rs (in most other places this was far more higher) and get to see God nearer .......
well I knew Money can almost get us everything........but didnt know that God too came with a PRICE TAG!!!
Typed by Directhit at 10:52 PM
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