Untitled
Unequal before God?
All religions, without exception, speak of equality before The Creator. Each one of us, we are told from our childhood, has the same status before Him. Rich or poor, male or female, He treats us all at par; that is what we hear: and this is at it should be, according to our scriptures and teachings.
Yet, I am made to think otherwise when I read of the deplorable practice ' approved or underhand ' that is being followed in some temples that have a large number of devotees queuing up to have the darshan. While some big temples have institutionalized the practice of charging money from the devotees to have a quick darshan, breaking the queue, some others have been following the same practice in a more subtle way. So, if you are in a hurry to pray, you pay: the more you pay, the faster you get to pray, and the sooner you leave, without having to sweat it out with the hoi polloi, without being pushed and pulled around, without soiling your clothes. They even give you a receipt, I gather: a record for posterity probably, to show your grandchildren that you met Him, as a privileged one, paying a bribe: can I say that?
So, what happened to equality before the eyes of God? Is it that some are more equal before Him than others just because they have more money? We read in our ancient scriptures of the severe rigours that devotees had to undergo to receive His blessings, how they used to undertake extensive vrata, penance, and extreme austerities to get a darshan, and even then, how tough it was for them to be blessed with His darshan. Yet, people were willing to undertake the severest of rigours and austerities for that One Moment to be in communion with Him!
Then, how come the so-called devotees of today want preferential treatment ' an effect of globalization and liberalization? And more importantly, how is it that the so-called `agents of God' devised this ingenious way of fattening the temple coffers (or is it their bank balances?), much against all that our scriptures have taught us? Is it not a kind of apartheid that is being practised as between `haves' and `have-nots'? Why should someone who has more money decide that he should jump the queue for a darshan, and should be `helped' to do so by the `agents' when there is no religious sanction for such a discriminatory practice? Are we not guilty of violating everything that God has ordained when we distinguish between the rich and the not-so-rich and the downright poor?
