Trickle down economics

I HARDLY ever go the temple. I went last week at the urging of a friend because they had a free lunch for Ram Navami. And I must say that the food was most palatable. I suspect most people go to the temple for the same reason.

The reason I do not go is because all the rituals being performed seem so meaningless and hypocritical. Swami Vivekananda rightly said, “rituals are the kindergarten of religion” and we should have left that school a long time ago. And yet we cling to them for no good reason.

I believe that God resides in us and there is no need to seek Him/Her elsewhere. But I have more mundane reasons for not going also.

Several years ago, one of my daughters, her husband and children had come from the US and wanted to visit the temple. My son-in-law wanted to buy a book, but did not because the cashier told him that the price was $40. A pujari that I knew happened to come by and I complained to him about the excessive price. He said, ‘no, the price is $10’. Then one of my granddaughters turned to me and said, “it is so sad that they steal at a place of worship”. My daughter wanted to offer some prayers so we bought a“tattu”. It was $2. And the cashier put the money in an open cash register without ringing it. I asked him why he was not ringing the purchase and he said the register was not working.

So when I read the news in one of the dailies that there was gross misuses of funds at the temple, it did not surprise me at all. It merely reaffirmed my suspicions. Since the alleged misuse was reported in the media, it became incumbent on the national president to make the standard statement that the matter was being investigated and an official statement will be released at the completion of the investigation.

As I was reading this, I remembered a poem Rabindranath Tagore has written, Go Not To The Temple. A couple of lines seem especially relevant – “Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart.” But who I am to judge. Perhaps the temple has its own version of “trickle down economics”. ARVIND MANI

Nadi