After the much touted wedding of Aishwarya Rai and Abhsishek Bachan, the couple were seen 'seeking blessings' at Tirupathi. This set me off on a series of thoughts that have bothered me often in the past. What makes them so special that even God metes out a special treatment to them (or is atleast forced to). Its a common fact that nowadays people visiting Tirupathi get 'tagged' for an appointment with the God, and on auspicious days the rendezvous gets delayed by as much as 48 hours, and the devotees have no other choice but to wait after having planned their entire trip to last just a day. And then there is this concept of special darshan (this is not just in Tirupathi though). People who buy the 'tickets' for special darshan get Divine blessings sans crowd's jostlings and long waiting times. Only consolatory thing with Tirupathi being that even if you get these tickets you still end up waiting for a couple of hours till you get to the sanctorum. However on reaching the sanctum sanctorum, when we think all our ordeals are finally over, we only end up being physically pushed away by the 'dedicated' crowd control group with their non-stop 'jarugandi's.
What makes some people so special that they get to sit in front of the deity and perform elaborate poojas, while we are chased away like dogs. Why should they be given the permission to be taken directly to the sanctorum while we endure hours of waiting under the sun on bare foot. And why should a religious establishment embrace the concept of 'pay for easy view' concept. How different is this from cinema theaters, where more you pay, the better is your view of the screen? Arguments like "temple needs revenues like these to sustain themselves", "this the only way to manage a huge crowd" are too specious. So much for socialism and communism.
On an offnote,this is what CNN-IBN has to say about the marraige. Here are the people who create all the hype by showcasing the wedding, interviewing people, and having a panel discuss the implications of this wedding on the 'welfare of the society' and then they form another panel that discusses the implications of the excessive hype that has been surrounding the wedding. And people talk about intelligence while reporting!
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8 comments:
well my mom had an anser for this .. she said that traditionally the people who are true devotees of tirupathi had to pass a number of obstacles before they got darshan and salvation.. and what bigger obstacles than Abhishek bachan and Aishwarya rai..
@prash: lol..:D
thats the 'specious'est argument ever :P
write next....
forget the sanctorum
traffic was halted from Renigunta for more than two hrs, as of POI was coming :P
I guess we can have a bit of leeway here. President of India or the Prime minister, if they do come, deserve security. They can be whisked off directly to the sanctorum and off it (quickly though mind you, and not to sit and perform a yagna for hours). But to do what they did for filmstars and cricketers (I wonder if a hockey player comes he will get the same treatment that sachin will get) is unfair to the public.
By the way, why is this ambani fellow trailing the bachhan family everywhere.
Adlabs da Adlabs!
they hav already signed Hrithik as their bonded labourer for 36 crores.. now chasing 'b'
Louis Fischer, while writing Mahatma Gandhi's biography, asked Gandhiji if he considered all religions equal. Gandhiji replied "All religions are equal. But Hinduism is more equal than others". Likewise, though all devotees are equal before god, guess the Bachchans - with the Ambanis and Amar singhs in tow- are more equal than others.
And its a bit disturbing to note that in Tirupatti, money can buy u a better darshan of the god.. must appreciate guruvayoor in this aspect.. no matter who u are, u gotta play by rules..
there seems to be no end to commercialising venky.. TTD is opening a Demat account to accept shares from devotees.. the CFO of TTD goes on record saying that they need to tap various sources of revenues.. i jus hope they dont issue an IPO soon :)-
@ murali: ttd btw is the 2nd richest religious body after vactican city...
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