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This isn’t my usual kind of writing, but I feel like sharing
this experience. My family (in-laws) believe a lot in Raghavendra Swami and we
pay a visit to Mantralaya every year and it was time for this year’s visit last
weekend. We were 10 people and hence decided to book a Tempo Traveler. The
rooms were booked in Mantralaya for a night stay. Food was packed, bags were
stuffed with snacks, played several games while travelling. It was a good
journey.
Before visiting Mantralaya, we visited two other places
Panchamukhi and Bichchali. Pachamukhi is the place where lord Hanuman is with
five heads. Bichchali is a place where Raghavendra Swami lived for 13 years and
achieved greater spirituality. It is a very beautiful place, the temple is on banks
of river Tunga, so calm, so serene and has such a great history and holiness of
Raghavendra Swami. But I was surprised
and shocked to see how people are trying to make this place a source of money.
They call out for people of different languages, they scream out Kannada,
Tamil, and Telugu. There is one person for each language to explain the history
of the place and by the end of the speech, he talks about how you can do this
seva, that seva, and how any kind of problems can be resolved by enrolling
yourself for the Pooja by paying money. Yes, they say pray to God but WAIT
there is a way to do that, there is a method you need to follow, you have to
buy a coconut, hold in your hands, pray that our problem be solved and then
also add I will come back and donate some amount of money once the wish is fulfilled
or the problem is solved. This was the moment I was disturbed, does God really
ask for money to fulfill our wishes? Does god really ask for donation to solve
our problems? I don’t think so, I am sure when Raghavendra Swami dwelled in the
place, never asked for money and never did he tell there is a method and way to
pray to me. These people are exploiting public in the name of God and they are
converting the faith people have in God to fear. They are adulterating the
entire faith and belief system.
Next day we had a good dharshan of Brundavana in Mantralaya.
We wanted to do a special family Pooja or seva as it is called, we saw the huge
list which had all the offerings from 100 rps to 10, 0000 rps (no GST here). We
chose a 700 rps seva which was for one hour and also they would allow entire
family to be seated. We entered the hall where all these offerings happen, we
saw several boards with amount written on it. The boards having more amount
were placed in front and the lesser amount behind in a descending manner. We
found the board with 700 written on it and sat around it. The puja started, few
mantras and shlokas were chanted. Then they asked us all to stand in a queue,
how??? Again descending order of the amount of seva coupon we have taken. Does
our faith and trust depend on how much we can afford to offer on the seva, does
it mean if you are doing a Pooja of 1000 rps, you love your god more and god
will be more impressed and vice versa. Never!!!
I believe in existence of god, I pray every day, I like to
visit temples, and I like to follow all the culture that my family has been
following but that doesn’t make me to fall for these things. I know and believe
it’s all about good deeds you do, be good and the good will happen to you. You
really want to donate some money, instead of offering a Pooja give it a poor
family, god will be more happy. Beyond that you want to donate in the same
temple, offer as grocery for the free food that is given every day. I am not
saying these rituals followed are wrong but can we be more sensible, think
logically and behave practically.
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