Indiana Juneja and the Temples Of Doom. I read this attention news item, Mahakumbabhishekham of Madurai Meenakshi Temple.

The report has these things to say:

The golden tower of the goddess Sri Meenakshi was plated with 30 kilograms of gold. Hundred and eight pots containing sacred waters from the holy rivers in were brought to the temple towers. Now let me introduce you to some interesting statistics. According to the Census of India there are 2.4 mn places of worship in India as against only 1.5 million schools and 0.75 million hospitals and dispensaries!

Do you see something odd about our priorities?

We as a nation have this favorite trait – to blame our politicians for every ill in our society. When this explanation does not suffice we blame it on fate. Rarely have I seen anyone saying that ‘We the People’ are to be blamed for our crisis. As for ‘I’ am also responsible, perish the thought. This is as close to blasphemy as a Hindu can get.

In literature that deals with this subject it is said that it was the Protestant movement that brought into the human psyche - at least the psyche of those who embraced that movement — that hard work and accepting personal responsibility were the secrets to success. It is this spirit that informs the great and prosperous nations of the world. Countries like India and most Catholic ones tend to place the responsibility for our future on other worldly forces like God.

There is also in the case of Hindus an ability to live with two contradictory thoughts without any sense of unease, guilt or discomfort. That may account for the proliferation of temples, for the huge sums spent on Kumbabhshekham and the acquisition of pots of gold even as orphans die of starvation, the poor do not get medical treatment, and millions remain illiterate. We say that children are like God but…maybe we feel that only our children are like God.

Whose responsibility is it for these serious crises? Of course the politicians! What is our duty? To donate money to temples for Mahakumbhabhishekhams! Incidentally these very temples will not admit Dalits even as worshipers let alone as priests!

I am afraid we blame our politician but we behave exactly the way they do — irresponsible and callous. Our leaders are a mirror image of ourselves. The current elections seem to have stirred up feelings of ‘enough is enough’ and middle class rage is evident. But I expect that once the elections are over the same class will ‘pai lagu’ to these Netas, will ask for favors, will praise them and will invite them to functions even if it is a housing colony Pooja! Any slum kids trying to enter the Pooja pandal will of course be shooed away while our kids partake of a sumptuous meal.

A caveat is in order—despite this obnoxious behavior a section of our country will prosper. This is the section that donates money and gold to temples and prostrates before politicians after criticizing them in drawing rooms and in the media. After all it is this class that influences policy. How else does one explain the proliferation of IIT’s, IIM’s malls and corporate hospitals rather than elementary schools, primary dispensaries and ITI’s? The class that is debarred from entering temples will continue to suffer from lack of food, schools and medical aid.

I have a theory that some of the evils of Hinduism — an otherwise eclectic and syncretism faith- sow the seeds of corruption, double standards, intrigue, duplicity, callousness and power hunger .This religion more than most others teaches tolerance but our tolerance is more evident towards corruption, casteism, starvation !

I was planning a book on this subject –how Hinduism fosters such obnoxious attitudes - but I came across some books by Indians[all Hindus, possibly devout] who stole a march over me .These books had done a better job than I could have.

Lets make a start. Here are some of my suggestions”

• Each one us donates periodically to an orphanage or old people’s home.

• We reduce our scale of celebration of festivals and observance of rituals and donate the money saved to noble causes.

• Ensure that our domestic help sends her kid to school and volunteer to pay the fees

• Encourage our domestic help to sit on a chair while w speak to them

• When we place some money in the ‘ hundi’ of a temple place the same amount in the hands of the leper or maimed beggar sitting outside the temple.

• Resolve not to ever offer or accept bribes or illegitimate favors.

• Resist the temptation to tell me that these beggars are beggars by choice, that they can find work if they cared to, that orphanages and old people’s homes are run by fraudulent people, that servants need to be treated as servants and their place is down on the floor, that you cannot afford to reduce the scale of the rituals because God will be angry. This tendency to rationalize our worst tendencies may well be another despicable aspect of Hinduism.

A confession...I am a Born Again guy .I abandoned Hinduism and am trying to be born again as a good human being. Finally I agree that some of our faults are universal. That is why the anchorperson of a TV programme on NATGEO said that the hyena is the second most aggressive animal on earth –after Man.
K.R.RAVI