Thursday, March 28, 2024

Editorial

The Unholy Mess

April 03, 2017 04:40 PM

By Ashutosh Nirola
It is yet another day of mayhem in our temples. Beyond doubt the unclean surroundings & chaos are not exclusive to the places of worship of any one religion. These are also present in Churches, Gurudwara, Mosques and Pilgrimage centres of every faith. After all, it is not the religion but the people who create filth & disorders.
Our temples especially the ancient and historically important ones, need to be cleansed not only of physical dirt but the chaos and corruption. Most of the temples in India present a picture of dirt and infection. The filth is undoubtedly, the result of apathy due to the priests & administration which the devotees helplessly accept as the status quo.
Most of these temples are besieged by greed, corruption, money power, nexus of Priests/Politicians/ Civil servants/self styled so called Gurus and social evils.
Everything seems to be on sale openly or behind the scene like entry into chamber, head priest blessings, cloth/chuni, performing rituals, getting parshads, alcohol breaking queues or VIP darshan etc.
The self styled Priests/Maharaj’s/Panditji’s who without any religious education background pour in from outside and grab the lands outside the premises of temples and start social evils, Fleece uneducated pilgrims. The network becomes so complex that the administration feels helpless in routing these out.
Certain customs are started by these Pandits & Priest which are not relevant in today’s modern world but have become social religion laws in the name of Asthas.
How difficult it is to keep our temples clean in every aspect.
If there is a will, motivation to create infrastructure, processing the checks & balances & ensure the system follow up and educating the people to keep the surroundings swatch (Clean) which is a matter of procedure to maintain highest standards of hygiene.
The removal of garbage, washing & mopping of floors disposal of old flowers, cleaning of unhygiene thrown sweet meals on hourly basis and the cleaning of toilets, selling of parshads from authorized outlets & safe drinking water must be ensured.
Big temples with large complexes must be managed professionally with a good co-ordination between the concerned departments there should be a multi-window system like entrance, deposits of shoes, their cleaning, offerings, cash donations with a receipt, tokens for special queue for Senior Citizens & handicapped, parshad disbursal & subsidized food/ Thalis at a modern langer halls. All these will make things transparent accountable & eliminate chaos and anarchy in the complex.
The safety measures are either poor or non-existent with growing threats. It is important that devotees entry & exit routes are different so that we do not witness stampede and accidents.
The appointment of ex-servicemen for security purpose in few temples is a welcome step.
The concept of seva as in gurudwaras should be introduced and encouraged in temples.
The landmark case of Vaishno Devi Shrine & Tirupati Balaji Shrine are some good examples of Govt. Intervention & formation of managing trusts under their control
Old rituals like animal, Bali offering alcohols must be done away with the positive public opinions. The best way to ensure these reforms that there are no vested interests in the working affairs of temples.

Have something to say? Post your comment