Kuwar: Saheb, (and my infinite efforts to make him stop addressing me
as Saheb goes in vain…once again)…Do you know? that in our village in Mohagaon,
we have built a huge temple costing around 1.5 lacs purely through shramdaan? We
are that rich!
Said a visibly excited and proud
Kuwar Babale… one of my trainees while sitting next to me in the auto-rickshaw
and returning from the fabrication workshop … hearing his Jogdande (another
trainee) also got excited and stated:
Jogdande: Even in my village we have built a temple worth 75 thousand…
the entire construction was done through Shramdaan and the interiors of the
temple was funded by the Gram Panchayat…
The other 3 trainees nodded their
head acknowledging this amazing feat… I could see that twinkle in Jogdande’s
eyes… it was his turn to show off his village’s marvels to his “Saheb”
(shamefully I must admit I have to live with this tag)….
Unfortunately for them, the Saheb
(me) was not at all impressed with this statistics or reality… he just managed
to heave another *sigh* (something which comes very naturally to him nowadays)…
All of a sudden I realized, that some
facts and observations which have been making me feel uncomfortable all through
the last 6 months were actually right…. Let me just point out a few instances:
1) Who
is the richest man in the village (any village): You might think of Sarpanch,
Rich farmer, people with the max land, politician…. Most of the times these answers are incorrect…. God and the Temple just happen to be the richest person (!) in a
village- check it out yourself, 90% chances you will find that i am right.
2) What
causes most amount of conflict in the villages (possibly also in Cities)? Unfortunately
it is God again … your creed often makes you shun others… intolerance is
probably preached by God (or his disciples/devotes) more often than anyone else…
Err… what perplexes me is someone
or something which you will possibly never feel or experience wields so much
power that your behavior often borders around stupidity… I must mention here
that I am not an atheist… at best I can be called agnostic… or maybe even a
believer in some instances (read school exams :))…
just that I do not really understand humanity to that great extent…
Villages which can barely afford
to feed their population, will willingly build that marble tiled temple or
mosque or church… but ask them to unite for a developmental work, they sight
poverty, lack of time, lack of interest, lack of benefit –all kinds of reasons
to avoid it… I am always being told by the Field Staffs that community
mobilization is the biggest challenge they face… why wouldn’t they? Its not
religion which they promote… and somehow I feel although most religion has been
pro-development, they been always been interpreted and implemented as
anti-development…
The 5 richest temples in India
have an annual earning estimated at around Rs 1,500 crore… This is hard cash…
the donations received in kinds as in Gold, Silver, and Diamond etc are not
included… And here we aren’t even considering the Gold Coated shrines and
pillars and doors which a majority of these temples have…..temples like
Tirupati and Shirdi have their own mechanized automated money collecting system… the
Hundi’s fill up so fast that the clamor of all those coins and rustle of those
rupee notes can make you go temporarily deaf……shamefully we even bribe our
Gods and claim that we want to be a corruption free nation….
One of my first memories in my
Rural NGO stint was a visit to the village Karjule Pathar… we were installing a
Solar Street Light, which had been subsidized by some donor in some other part
of the world… and guess where the villagers insisted that we put it up? In
front of the temple… people may fall and get hurt in the dark and perilous
village roads… but our God who is responsible to take care of all of us shouldn’t
be left in darkness… Same story was repeated in another village called
Pimpaldhari… the solar light was installed in the temple at the top of the hill
while the villagers residing at the bottom of the hill remained in darkness…
and this is not what the NGO wanted- this was the need and demand of the
village… whats wrong with us?
I am told that all this is to
show our respect and devotion to God… to the supreme power… but I feel somewhat
unconvinced about all this… I am sure God is more that capable of taking care
of himself… since he is the creator, he would obviously love all his creations,
just like a mother is devoted to her baby… so cant we for once change our
mentality and be there to serve and help each other? I am sure if God exists, he will sport a
Happydent smile if and when he sees this happen…
PS: this post is a reflection of my own thoughts and do not aim to disrespect any persons religious or personal views/belief /creed.... Figures quoted have been bases reports on Newspapers like TOI, Hindi and Reuters
I echo what you said here. The fancy temples and shrines are all just flowing with riches mocking at people's woes while ironically it is being contributed by the same people. And can totally relate with the incidences in the village, many villagers when asked what their aspirations were, many told a tirth is their ultimate goal. And then I wonder over the logic. But then I dug into my religion, Jains have contributed much money to their temples. Flaunting the marble shrines and structures in the most priciest of locations in Mumbai, and then I went to my temple authorities. Jains have a relaxed method with knowing abt the temple funds n what they do (also dad had some contacts) so this time arnd when at home I visited the temple management if I can say so. And I found that the temple authorities with their sore money was providing for scholarships for needy students (UG and PG alike), was building dharamshalas across places where low cost housing is available for Jains, they are providing for orphan and old age homes. And then I was thinking if it is religion tht takes ppl to get together for development work, then why not? The temple could take up the task, and many have.
ReplyDeleteHi Pooja- thanks for your views...and agree some of the temples are doing a bit of charitable work... but my concern is the blatant display of wealth by these temples, mosques, churches etc... i recollect a particular instance when i visited a pretty famous temple in the outskirts of Bangalore (cant remember the name)... believe me they had a separate Hundi which was collecting funds for decorating the shrine with gold plating... and people were donating in that Hundi like it will save their life and wash away all sins....
Deletewhereas the same temple had a queue with a donation box to raise funds to feed children nutritious meals... needless to say this boz had few takers...
Also just to mention, a lot of these schools, meals, housing u r talking bout is basis caste, creed, religion etc etc... which seems unpardonable, as in the name of God we are discriminating against people who dont follow the same religion... and then we talk about unity.. whereas i would expect me to show more courtesy and help to ppl of other religion...