Post 100:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->One should visit temple as a zero. No ego, No money power or No muscle power. Forget about everything.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> Very true.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Why in South they have different rates for visiting temple?
Why they have to charge?
Not seen in North India (Punjab, HP, Utranchal, Delhi, Haryana, Kashmir and Jammu)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->This is in very large temples where they have *huge* numbers of Hindus visiting. Mudy, put this in perspective.
Embarrassing personal experience from when I was younger and terribly ignorant:
My parents, sister and I were waiting in a long line at a large Kovil (temple). I noticed there was a very old lady looking like her legs could give any minute. Her eyes had gone bluish greyish of the cataract that seems to take over all our older population of that generation. In short, I felt someone ought to do something.
There was a left and a right queue (either side was equally slow). She was farther back. Thinking to help her, I went to where she was, took her by the hand, brought her forward and made her take my place. She didn't understand what I was doing (I tried to explain) muttered in some other language and then followed me back to where I had just taken her old place in the queue. She had tears in her eyes. I didn't understand and felt very bad, and finally decided to join my family again. My father was very upset. He told me I shouldn't have done such a thing.
He explained later that what I had done was the same as if this had been Shabari Malai and I had taken her from the Steps and forced her into an elevator. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
It's not about it being easier for her or anybody else. This was the mental process people put themselves through before they see the Gods.
The Steps to the Shabari Malai temple for instance, are trodden with Swami Ayyappa in mind all the way through. Each additional step purifies the mind further, until at last one comes to the top and then catches sight of Ayyappa Swami. The Steps represent life: each step is another life or another tribulation. (And at each step we evolve to become better beings.) But by thinking of Swami all the way through, one has one's sight (heart) set on that Final Goal, which guides us through all the difficulties and cycle of lives and sees you through, until we finally attain Moksha and see God.
When my father told me this, I realised what my 'elevator' tactic had done. There was no instant Moksha to be obtained by my kidnapping (what else was it?) the old lady and disturbing her mental preparation/thoughts before seeing the Gods.
Anyway, my point in relating the terrible, foolish incident is this: all of those who wait for days to see Tirupathi Swami know *exactly* what they are doing. They are not 'the poor' who 'just can't afford' the speedy drop-in-and-out to see Bhagavan - yes, many of them are very poor, but no it's not money that is keeping them in their line. They are willing to wait for days <i>for a reason</i>. Their happiness and the sense of liberation and attainment they get out of it is all the greater for what they choose to go through.
As my father regularly says, the God in the temple is waiting to see *them* for as long as they've been waiting to see Him/Her. God has been waiting for them, more than She/He is waiting to see us.
For instance, I do no mental preparation on the way to the temple or when waiting in line to see God. My mind is at best empty: just waiting. Theirs is not, it is filled with the thought of God, in patient, studied anticipation. This is what the older generations know about visiting the temple, it is why the temples are built the way they are, why we circambulate and do other things. It's stuff your grandparents and parents forget to tell you unless you ask or do something foolish that forces them to explain.
The more 'expensive' short-cut lines of nowadays are there for a reason. Many travellers from outside the state (or country) come to Tirupathi, often they are married couples on their honeymoon, or NRIs who have only a week or two to stay in India. In their way, they have waited a long time to see Bhagavan, though they have not waited in the line to do so. Many other people come every week or fortnight, though they wait days in the line. So, it's not bad to let rare visitors desperate to see Bhagavan in there faster.
More importantly, in quite recent times, some temples had realised that since a number of people were willing to pay to see God asap anyway, they might as well make a short-cut line. And the money is <i>certainly</i> welcome. With 2000 Rs from each person-in-a-hurry, do you know how many mouths the temple can feed in S India? For example, in Chennai, a very good Hindu vegetarian restaurant I've eaten in a few times in (and it was one of the more expensive ones), costs 6 to 12 Rs for a full meal. The temple can make meals for much cheaper. Even if it was as high as 10 Rs per meal, that's 200 people it can feed just from one rich person's fee. Bring in more rich people, I say.
The different lines are good. If some people are able and willing to pay the amount just to get there faster, it will only go towards helping others. Besides, the others who are in the slower lines have no trouble with being there at all.
Just wish so much of the money wasn't going to church coffers and funding j-hadists' hajj, thanks to terrorist government. It should remain with temples to spend on maintenance and feeding people.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->One should visit temple as a zero. No ego, No money power or No muscle power. Forget about everything.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> Very true.<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Why in South they have different rates for visiting temple?
Why they have to charge?
Not seen in North India (Punjab, HP, Utranchal, Delhi, Haryana, Kashmir and Jammu)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->This is in very large temples where they have *huge* numbers of Hindus visiting. Mudy, put this in perspective.
Embarrassing personal experience from when I was younger and terribly ignorant:
My parents, sister and I were waiting in a long line at a large Kovil (temple). I noticed there was a very old lady looking like her legs could give any minute. Her eyes had gone bluish greyish of the cataract that seems to take over all our older population of that generation. In short, I felt someone ought to do something.
There was a left and a right queue (either side was equally slow). She was farther back. Thinking to help her, I went to where she was, took her by the hand, brought her forward and made her take my place. She didn't understand what I was doing (I tried to explain) muttered in some other language and then followed me back to where I had just taken her old place in the queue. She had tears in her eyes. I didn't understand and felt very bad, and finally decided to join my family again. My father was very upset. He told me I shouldn't have done such a thing.
He explained later that what I had done was the same as if this had been Shabari Malai and I had taken her from the Steps and forced her into an elevator. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> It's not about it being easier for her or anybody else. This was the mental process people put themselves through before they see the Gods.
The Steps to the Shabari Malai temple for instance, are trodden with Swami Ayyappa in mind all the way through. Each additional step purifies the mind further, until at last one comes to the top and then catches sight of Ayyappa Swami. The Steps represent life: each step is another life or another tribulation. (And at each step we evolve to become better beings.) But by thinking of Swami all the way through, one has one's sight (heart) set on that Final Goal, which guides us through all the difficulties and cycle of lives and sees you through, until we finally attain Moksha and see God.
When my father told me this, I realised what my 'elevator' tactic had done. There was no instant Moksha to be obtained by my kidnapping (what else was it?) the old lady and disturbing her mental preparation/thoughts before seeing the Gods.
Anyway, my point in relating the terrible, foolish incident is this: all of those who wait for days to see Tirupathi Swami know *exactly* what they are doing. They are not 'the poor' who 'just can't afford' the speedy drop-in-and-out to see Bhagavan - yes, many of them are very poor, but no it's not money that is keeping them in their line. They are willing to wait for days <i>for a reason</i>. Their happiness and the sense of liberation and attainment they get out of it is all the greater for what they choose to go through.
As my father regularly says, the God in the temple is waiting to see *them* for as long as they've been waiting to see Him/Her. God has been waiting for them, more than She/He is waiting to see us.
For instance, I do no mental preparation on the way to the temple or when waiting in line to see God. My mind is at best empty: just waiting. Theirs is not, it is filled with the thought of God, in patient, studied anticipation. This is what the older generations know about visiting the temple, it is why the temples are built the way they are, why we circambulate and do other things. It's stuff your grandparents and parents forget to tell you unless you ask or do something foolish that forces them to explain.
The more 'expensive' short-cut lines of nowadays are there for a reason. Many travellers from outside the state (or country) come to Tirupathi, often they are married couples on their honeymoon, or NRIs who have only a week or two to stay in India. In their way, they have waited a long time to see Bhagavan, though they have not waited in the line to do so. Many other people come every week or fortnight, though they wait days in the line. So, it's not bad to let rare visitors desperate to see Bhagavan in there faster.
More importantly, in quite recent times, some temples had realised that since a number of people were willing to pay to see God asap anyway, they might as well make a short-cut line. And the money is <i>certainly</i> welcome. With 2000 Rs from each person-in-a-hurry, do you know how many mouths the temple can feed in S India? For example, in Chennai, a very good Hindu vegetarian restaurant I've eaten in a few times in (and it was one of the more expensive ones), costs 6 to 12 Rs for a full meal. The temple can make meals for much cheaper. Even if it was as high as 10 Rs per meal, that's 200 people it can feed just from one rich person's fee. Bring in more rich people, I say.
The different lines are good. If some people are able and willing to pay the amount just to get there faster, it will only go towards helping others. Besides, the others who are in the slower lines have no trouble with being there at all.
Just wish so much of the money wasn't going to church coffers and funding j-hadists' hajj, thanks to terrorist government. It should remain with temples to spend on maintenance and feeding people.