I know its been happening for a long time but its become more and more clear to me that in today's world even receiving God's blessings is no more about penance and sacrifice but about whose got the moolah and how much influence he can wield.
Last week after surviving a hair raising trip to Kodaikanal trying to drive up the mountain in zero visibility at 10 in the night my mother convinced herself that it was a sign from Lord Palani demanding her attention. So it was decided that we visit the temple at the foot of the Kodai which itself sits atop a small hill.
As soon as we entered the temple premises commerce started showing its head.As fate may have it was a very auspicious day with it being Lord Palani's birthday and all and the queue for just the cable car to take us up was a mile long. We were approached by touts who claimed that in the name of the Temple Committee they would make sure we cut the lines everywhere and also get to witness the Lords divine countenance upclose.The only cliche was that we had to shell out a cool 5k to be able to do that.
We were taken on our darshan journey with a Tamilian lady tout who doled out the extra bucks all the way up. To the Guard who let us cut the line.The Cable car operator who let is in first etc etc. I was waiting to see if someone from the queue would start shouting at us. But silly me...I soon realised this was not really cutting the line but a normal procedure approved by the Temple Committee. There were different lines once we summited the Divine hill. The longest queue for the free entrance,shorter for the Rs 20, Even shorter for Rs 200 and just us in the Rs 400 a person queue. It also meant that the persons doling out the cash received the closest darshan from the God and were not pushed around.
While coming down I was feeling very guilty about the whole thing and instead of feeling blessed was feeling like I had committed a dirty crime. This seems to be the order of the day now in all the big temples in India from the Vaishnu Devi to Tirupati.I vow not visit any of these big temples as anymore as I feel with all this Business - God has surely left the building.
