Access to God!!

A recent trip to the interiors of the state of Andhra Pradesh was a refreshing change from the quotidian events of my professional life. The landscape was amazing; the roads were in decent shape and the reason for the trip, ‘Srisailam’, a religious destination frequented by many Lord Shiva devotees.

It has been long since I last managed a religious trip and I bounced on the opportunity to go on one. It was foolishness to expect less people at the temple after seeing very low traffic on the road leading to the temple. The moment we reached the outer periphery of the temple, we could guess that we were in for spending long hours queuing up before offering our prayers to the deity.

The crowd was in huge numbers but with the beautiful weather conditions we thought that we would be able to survive the wait in the long queues. The first look of the queues we had and a state of panic we were in. The queue was about a 100 people strong but the way devotees were treated was inhuman in every sense. People were caged in a spiral formation walkway with limited space to ensure two people can’t walk together. It was a poor sight, with children crying, the adults unable to breathe and the elderly barely able to stand in the walkway.

I figured out quickly that I don’t want to stand in this line but hey what’s that, a small line on the other side which is moving at a really fast pace and is carpeted. I went ahead and asked the people around about the line and I was directed towards a small room in the corner of the temple campus. Outside the room were the rates on display for the various darshan (to be able to see the god’s idol for offering prayers) that one can opt for. Hang on a second is this thing suggesting me that for a mere Rs 30 I can avoid the queue and go straight right in. YES, it is the quickest way to get in – suggested the people around.

I was furious about the whole thing and kept thinking, where does money come between a devotee and God. How can one buy access to God?? Being poor in India is anyways a crime and when in a place like a temple you have this kind of a thing happening, it can’t get worse. Why can’t humane conditions be made available to everyone?? Why does there needs to be a difference shown between how bad the conditions are when you don’t pay and how good things are when you pay??. As they often say, if you have money you can buy anything, and now “Easy access to God”.