In the past few days, you must have seen the videos of people paying homage to Ganpati Bappa in many cities across the country. If you have observed keenly, then one difference you must have noticed is that the size of your wallet determines how close access you get to the God! If you are a middle class or a poor guy, then you will have to stand in queue for many many hours or even days (in cities like Mumbai) just to get a closer view of the God. And even if you get close to the statue by any chance, then you would not be allowed to stand there for even 1 second, and more so, there would be “managers of some xyz trust” or the so called self-proclaimed “owners/mediators of religion” who would pull you off the queue or push you into oblivion. Contrast this, with a multi-crorepati visiting the God! Not only he/she is allowed “direct” access to God without even standing in the queue like the common (wo)man, but also he/she is allowed to remain there for as long the crorepati wants to be there! The amount of money that the crorepati shoves into the pocket of the trust managers or owners of religion, determines the duration of time they are allowed to pay homage to the deity. Even if it extinguishes the rights of thousands of other devotees to also be able to see their “common” God, then also it is not considered as any issue because every year the same story repeats!
The same thing can be seen in many revered temples and other places of worship across the country. The poor are just thrashed by the priests like a punching bag, as they cannot “offer” money or gifts to the God (read priests). The middle class are rebuked verbally to get going fast after paying whatever small money/gifts they have brought. But the rich class, has complete, exclusive and prolonged access to the God because they can satisfy the “messengers of God”. Even the gates of the darshan can be closed temporarily so that the rich people can do “VIP pooja” for as long as they want!
Now, the question here is that does God differentiate between the people on the basis of the size of their wallet or position or influence? I hope not! It has created all people equal and they all have equal, full and unlimited access to God! But, the mediators connecting God and people have created a chasm between God and people on the basis of their personal selfish interests! As George Orwell famously said “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”! So, although God does not differentiate, but people have themselves made such systems so that the other people can be differentiated on the basis of their money power. And this is nothing new, it has happened like this for centuries and it will be so. Equality is desirable, but reality paints a different picture.
The focus here is not how to eliminate this inequality, rather the moot question before us is that- If the God allows equal, full and unlimited access to each and everyone, then do we even need to go to places of worship where we are denied such access by the mediators who claim exclusive rights over God? And are we worshipping correct God or we are just following the trend and have to show our presence in places, where it is not even desired by the mediators? Are we searching for the God in the correct way or we just want to show-off by displaying money power to others? Or wouldn’t it be better to find God within ourselves first? And then in our homes? And only then outside? Anyways, isn’t God omnipresent?
I would leave it to you to answer these questions for yourselves!
Till next time….
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