The controversy over the Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Bachchan post-marriage trip to Tirupati reopens an evergreen question: can our temples of worship—sab ka maalik ek and all—really roll out the red carpet to those who drop greenbacks in their wake while keeping His (and Her) less-endowed devotees waiting in the wings tch-tching about the injustice of it all? Can devotees be discriminated between ordinary mortals and not so ordinary VIPs? Or is it a good thing to allow the celebrity businessmen, sportsmen, cinema stars to quickly have their darshan because it won’t create hassles for them and for us? Or is this all much ado over nothing, like so much else in our lives?
Also read: SC allows special darshan in Sabarimala
Why not? !Just a different point of view….
We travel by A/C 1st, I Class, 2-tier, 3-teir, unreserved depending on what we can afford although destination is same. Don’t we? We watch the same movie sitting in stalls or Balcony. We walk, board a bud, ride a sccoter motorcycle, or drive a vehicle depending on our affordability to visit the same destination. We eat almost the same food from Roadside stalls to restaurants and 5 star hotels giving different price for the same food, say Idli . When everything is market-oriented , why should this be different?If darshan is made free and one rupee ,quite a few will cross over to 1 Re. queue as they won’t have any qualms to pay as they can afford it!
Mr. Ramachandran,
One thing we should remember is buying materials that we need will directly depend on our resourcefulness, whereas the faith belief cannot be purchased and we should never show our superiority over others. This is an insult to mankind. In a temple/ religious place we are only trying to establish contact with the ever pervading almoghty and submit ourself to him. The wealth, name, materials, popularity should have no place here.
Going by your mail if there is a billionairre who can afford to buy this temple (if there is a seller) for a price can he keep this temple for himself. Can this society tolerate this. We should respect the sentiments, faiths, beliefs of the poor masses who are more in number and bulk of the funding is also done by them. Their hard earned money, time energy needs better treatment. If vip’s want to visit the temple they should have the courage and time to spend time like a common man. Otherwise this whole exercise of puja, worship etc., by him becomes a show businesss. I strongly feel that vip’s should understand this and act accordingly. If these vip’s cannot do anything good to the masses at least they should refrain themselves from causing inconvenience to them.
These rich VIPs think everything can be brought. The financially less endowed have no choice in the matter. All of us know these truths.
What about the temple authorities themselves? Why do they start slavering each time they see the greenbacks and decide to turn the Lord’s mansion to the highest bidder?
Should temples too be at the beck and call of market forces? I am not a Hindu basher but this behaviour is not so obvious in churches and masjids.
Gaby mind your language !
Even at Tirupati, why then there are different class of lodging ? Then why allow cars ? Why have different type of Religious Rituals at Tirupati based on filthy money ? Provide better amenities to the poor from the money you get from the rich. One can discern over the years it is being actually done. Then why should a President or any one else visit on tax payers money and time and get special treatment ? If Art.15 guarantees Religious Freedom, then why should the Govt. and Muzari Institutions interfere in management of Temples ? Even Art.14 which guarantees equality before law is understood to treat on the basis of class they belong. As such it is perfectly alright as Mr. ERR says to have a distinction even in Temples if need be. What actually needs to be stopped is likes of Shankar Dayal Sharma making umpteen forays to the Temple and doing urulu seva etc and wasting tax payers money.
My impression as a devotee is that money talks even in temple’s sanctorum. Witnessing the behaviour of the priests and members of temple administration sucking up to VIPs and politicians I have concluded that they consider the deity an inanimate piece of stone and they are enpowered to do what they like. Where do the poor stand in all this- in a mile long queue watching God giving instant and long darshan to the VIP, the rich and famous and wonder.
Made me remember Basava’s vachana – ಉಳ್ಳವರು ಶಿವಾಲಯ ಮಾಡುವವರು ನಾನೇನು ಮಾಡಲಿ ಬಡವನಯ್ಯ…
Not much has changed over the last millenia.
WHY WORRY?
worship at home if you believe in God.
If you are not a believer, whole issue should not concern you at all!
after all tirupati is not running on anyones tax money…running on money collected from devotees…
instead, have debates on
free power distributed to farmers, subsidies at the expense of taxpayers money
freebies given to so called weaker sections at the expense of taxpayers money
ERR – Your comparisons are nice but there is one basic difference. In trains the A/c compartment in which you and me travel moves aling with the 2nd class or unreserved compartment. Similarly on the road the cycle moves equally to the car and so on. And in movies the same movie is seen by you and the person in the ‘Gandhi class’ at the same time. So these are very wrong comparisons.
The point to be discussed is Can VIPs have preference at the cost of the ordinary people. In my opinion they can have preferred treatment for whatever good or bad they are. But they have no right to inconvienence the common man. And this is applicable not only in temples but in every walk of life. And Security is being used as an excuse for all these. And we Indians have it in our blood to involve ourselves in idol worship.
Shiva – You have hit the nail on the coffin by quoting the vachana of Basaveshwara. Probably he was a visionary.
Thanks all of you, folks for nice replies!I just want to add, if the VVIps ,say, the Bachhans, had come and stood in the line, would ANYBODY be able to have Darshan, Darshan of thirumala I mean , given our craze to have a close look at Film stars and susequent mobbing,Could anybody guarantee their safety. Because they are celebrites should they lose the privelege of visitng temple or church like any common man ,safely.The answer seems to be since they donate large sums, which are again used to provide facilities for common man, allow them at night so that they have the darshn with minimum fuss.If we ask film stars to stand in queue ,with no security, the crowds will ONLY try to have Darshan of celebrites, shake hands with them and forget Lord Thirumala also!
in spite all the vachanas and examples given, the fact remains that money talks be it Tirupati or puttaparthi….
I agree, those who have money should be able to buy special tickets (more the value of ticket, shorter the queue) and have darshana faster.
Value of time = (amount of money earned)/time.
Since richer the people more the value of time, they should not waste time standing in the queue.
Poor people’s time is not so much valuable and then can stand in long queues & waste their time for darshana.
There is a big insult to common man when they pray God in temple. Simply scouts & guides push the people with hands and wantedly all young boys touch the women. Can’t they simply tell devotees to move quickly. Why should they enjoy sexual touch in front of the God? It is a big crime. They must be prosecuted for these kind of abuses. If some body asks a question, they will get angry. If they can not control thier anger, why should they work for God? People working there are very harsh. They must learn how to treat Devotees before they serve. Do they accept really if it happened to their own daughters? They should go under professional training on how to treat the public. They must respect the public.
The media made a noise about Abhishek and Aishwarya. But they kept their eyes and ears closed when common devotees were literally forced to stay in the waiting galls for 48 hours when Sonia Gandhi was to visit Tirumal recently. If one is a believer one does not mind any inconvenience. Even thirty years ago going to tirupati was something special, people climbed the hill on foot. There were no organised Darshans. Today everything has been made easy. We have nothing to grumble about so we think of Abhishek getting special treatment. In any case, unlike other religions, my God does not force me to attend prayers or poojas. If I dont believe, I can always stay away.