Of temples and the modern world

Well I am not much of a temple goer. Believe more in myself as a spiritual being rather than a religious being. But one cannot let go of the rituals and beliefs specially the ones which one is born with.

So as usual, its a ritual to go pay my respects to the dieties every year I begin a new age. Usually I go to the old Ramaswamy Temple which has mostly all the Gods and Godesses at one place and there is a beautiful feeling of divinity in that surrounding and the rites are traditional as well.  I always leave with a very good feeling inside me everytime I visit with this temple.

Now, this year, for some reason, the vision of Shiva’s eyes of the Shive mandir of erstwhile Kemp Fort just kept coming to my mind. And I thought well this would be a good time to visit with this temple. I had been there couple of times and have taken my relatives there too. It was quite a pleasant experience.

So off I went with my friend to pay our respects. And my oh my, I was unpleasantly surprised.

1. Enter the temple. Buy Pooja packets. Which cost us 25/- per packet.
2. Then go and take a ticket for Archana. 10/-
3. After we enter, Ganesha Archana goes well. ( no money for that)
4. Then we thought we will go through the cave and pay our respects to the different Shiv Lings.  Well, pay 10/- again.
5. Inside it was like one of the theme parks or scary house with the life like models  moving up and down and sideways. Ok it was scary for me to see a stone or a snake model jerk up.
6. Out we went and queued in for the Archana. The pandit took our puja packet even before we reached the front and by the time we did, he had broken the coconuts and the rest and gave back our stuff. I was like what about the mantras. He said : We do not do Mantras. Aarti is in a different place. We could do abhishekam ( which according to them is take milk ( which you have to pay another 10/-) and say what we want in our minds with Om Namah Shiva and pour it over the Lingam)
7. Then we went to the Aarti section. The pandit standing there did not even bother to perform an Aarti. On asking, he griped : Madam, I stand here for 12 hours a day. Dont expect me to say mantras. I am not doing it.
8. Well I thought it was their job description to do this and well I have never come across temples who refuse to do the Aarti.
9. So much for divinity.  From what I have learnt and seen in this part of the country, Abhishekam, Archana and Aarti requires some time from the pandit and the devotee.  It does not happen just like that.
10. The best option was to just sit and pray your own thing and come back. So well in future, I would do just that.  Was not unhappy about the money but the attitude of the temple guys who could do better. It feels like I was going to a museum and not a temple.
11. Sigh.. so much for religion and rituals. I would prefer to go to the old traditional temples anyday.

I thought Isckon was commercial. I think this one beats all.