It is the month of Shravan going on so as a ritual, on every Monday of Shravan a long long long queue of devotees can be seen in all the Shankarji’s temple across India. To say that I am a complete Atheist would be wrong, but I believe in some power which keeps us going in our hardship. Anyways I am not writing this post to give my opinion about the presence of God. I just want to state that wherever He is whoever He is he doesn’t needs to be awakened.
What happened is I went to the Shankarji’s temple on the first Monday of this Sharavan. It was the Aarti time it must be around 7:30 PM. My roommate M was with me and we had decided that we will take a short cut to Bhagwanji instead of taking the lengthy queue. The Aarti is generally a chain of Aarti. I have never understood the reason behind chanting the Aarti of another God/Goddess in the temple of some other God/Goddess but never mind. This temple isn’t a very big temple it’s an average size temple located at a cross road where you can see all class of people from upper class to labor class. The queue in the temple corridor cum garden was approximately 200 meter long. It would have taken us about 2 hours to take the darshan. But we were satisfied with the view we were getting from our standing location.
Since I know almost all the Aartis I figured out that, that session had started 5-10 mins back and it will still take 15 mins more to finish with all the Aartis and mantras. Both of us bowed, our hands together in the namaskar position and we also started our own prayers. What disturbed me was the sound of the loudspeaker, in which the temple trusty and pujaris were shouting, yes shouting the Aartis on top of their voice. Some of them were beating drums; a couple of them were ringing the huge brass bells. It is not that I was surprised by all this, I am an Indian and I have seen this from years after years. But that day it made me think on it. On the way back home, only the ringing of bells and the sound of drums was there in my ears. Instead of feeling the serenity of praying in the temple I could hear the roar of drums. Do we really need to sing and chant like this in front of the almighty? This was at least a middle sized temple, in the big temples there are automated drums, and bells and other musical instruments which are started at the time of puja. The sound is so powerful that it can be heard from long distances. But I don’t think that the almighty would want his Bhakts to increase the noise level to this extent. When the discs and bars are open and play loud music they are closed down, but no one will say a word when the whole day whole night procession will be carried during the Anant Chaturdashi of Ganesh festival. It’s not just this, it’s the same during the Ram Naumi the chariot is pulled by the devotees and same loud prayers and it’s the same during the Vijayadashmi. And there are many other festivals and occasions.
We don’t need to call him like this. He is there always close to our hearts’. He can hear you even when you do not solicit him for help. Like SRK has said in Swades “Ram tere mann mein hai ram mere mann mein hai, dil se Ravan jo nikale Ram uske mann mein hai”.
Another thing I got odious about the temple was the flowers and garlands and the all the Nirmalya being collected after the devotees have offered it to God. In almost all Indian rituals God is offered with lots of flowers, leafs of different trees, whole coconut, and other elements of puja. In huge temples like Balaji and many other places of pilgrimage, tons of Nirmalya is flanged in the rivers. Why rivers why not in the garbage dump, because it’s the sacred waste and it cannot be thrown anywhere and it shouldn’t be compared with garbage. Just because it is written in our holy books we need to offer 108 Bell leaves to Mahadev on every Monday of Shravan. Where are we heading to? Everything is contributing to global warming if not directly. I am not saying this all should be stopped all of a sudden, but we, the young generation like us can at least contribute a bit to reduce it.
I have decided long back that a flower or two is ok but nothing more than that. No loud prayers no loud Bhajan, just a cordial prayer which will touch His feet softly like a smile of a baby when he is far asleep, which is so innocent yet true yet pure.
What happened is I went to the Shankarji’s temple on the first Monday of this Sharavan. It was the Aarti time it must be around 7:30 PM. My roommate M was with me and we had decided that we will take a short cut to Bhagwanji instead of taking the lengthy queue. The Aarti is generally a chain of Aarti. I have never understood the reason behind chanting the Aarti of another God/Goddess in the temple of some other God/Goddess but never mind. This temple isn’t a very big temple it’s an average size temple located at a cross road where you can see all class of people from upper class to labor class. The queue in the temple corridor cum garden was approximately 200 meter long. It would have taken us about 2 hours to take the darshan. But we were satisfied with the view we were getting from our standing location.
Since I know almost all the Aartis I figured out that, that session had started 5-10 mins back and it will still take 15 mins more to finish with all the Aartis and mantras. Both of us bowed, our hands together in the namaskar position and we also started our own prayers. What disturbed me was the sound of the loudspeaker, in which the temple trusty and pujaris were shouting, yes shouting the Aartis on top of their voice. Some of them were beating drums; a couple of them were ringing the huge brass bells. It is not that I was surprised by all this, I am an Indian and I have seen this from years after years. But that day it made me think on it. On the way back home, only the ringing of bells and the sound of drums was there in my ears. Instead of feeling the serenity of praying in the temple I could hear the roar of drums. Do we really need to sing and chant like this in front of the almighty? This was at least a middle sized temple, in the big temples there are automated drums, and bells and other musical instruments which are started at the time of puja. The sound is so powerful that it can be heard from long distances. But I don’t think that the almighty would want his Bhakts to increase the noise level to this extent. When the discs and bars are open and play loud music they are closed down, but no one will say a word when the whole day whole night procession will be carried during the Anant Chaturdashi of Ganesh festival. It’s not just this, it’s the same during the Ram Naumi the chariot is pulled by the devotees and same loud prayers and it’s the same during the Vijayadashmi. And there are many other festivals and occasions.
We don’t need to call him like this. He is there always close to our hearts’. He can hear you even when you do not solicit him for help. Like SRK has said in Swades “Ram tere mann mein hai ram mere mann mein hai, dil se Ravan jo nikale Ram uske mann mein hai”.
Another thing I got odious about the temple was the flowers and garlands and the all the Nirmalya being collected after the devotees have offered it to God. In almost all Indian rituals God is offered with lots of flowers, leafs of different trees, whole coconut, and other elements of puja. In huge temples like Balaji and many other places of pilgrimage, tons of Nirmalya is flanged in the rivers. Why rivers why not in the garbage dump, because it’s the sacred waste and it cannot be thrown anywhere and it shouldn’t be compared with garbage. Just because it is written in our holy books we need to offer 108 Bell leaves to Mahadev on every Monday of Shravan. Where are we heading to? Everything is contributing to global warming if not directly. I am not saying this all should be stopped all of a sudden, but we, the young generation like us can at least contribute a bit to reduce it.
I have decided long back that a flower or two is ok but nothing more than that. No loud prayers no loud Bhajan, just a cordial prayer which will touch His feet softly like a smile of a baby when he is far asleep, which is so innocent yet true yet pure.
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