Temples

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

I visit temples as others do, not necessarily with faith in a deity or to beg for blessings or to ask for mundane things or even to pray muttering the poetry written by other poets. I do bow down and chant: If you be let me also be. I don’t know what my words mean for meaning would depend on my  mood, my state of mind which often is manipulated by the situational ethics of moments which flow defying my logic. I do the parikrama admiring the images, statues and icons; linger over the imagination of the sculptor, try to penetrate the mind of the artist, his imagination and aesthetic vision. The poetry on stone or other materials often move me to contemplation on subtleties beyond palpable comprehension. I listen to the noise made by other visitors, intimate things spoken in low tones and watch their closed eyes and wonder what stillness throbs inside their minds! When jostling crowds push or priests utter Sanskrit blessings proportional to the money put on the plate I smile with a cynical grin and move away. Outside the sanctum sanctorum and the structure of the temple the lamps with flickering flames glow in bubble reputation for a few breaths and die out releasing smoke. Their fragrance is otherworldly. The flowers are momentary commodities bought and thrown at the side deities, bells tingle the ears with a mocking sting like an alarm clock at midnight. Joyous and morose faces light up when the deity is seen for a split second. Tirupati, Siridi, Jagannath Temple- even Meenakshi, Rameswaram nowhere can a devotee  have a one to one talk with the deity- he has to simply say all in one breath.

Outside the structure devotees squat, gossip and eat. If you associate cleanliness with culture you will be disappointed nay outraged. Hygiene, sense of order, spiritual discipline and other such civilized virtues are not the focal areas in our temples. After a brief sight of the deity the body with its hunger returns with a vengeance. Devotees settle down on the uneven shabby floor or wherever some sitting space is available and spread the leaf with ravenous appetite. Their worlds return with boisterous volubility effacing the deity from the present moment of prandial joy. The sightseeing, seashore soiree and glass clicking parties rise up with furious urgency as the leaves are thrown inviting the dynasty of flies and the other unseen microwinged creatures.

Often coming out of a temple and going towards my car I have asked myself: What is a temple? A place of worship where a deity is enshrined; a work in architecture; a theatre of composite art or a place of human beauty? Temples started as places of worship. Before the eighth century a tree vermillion smeared was also a place of worship. The visualization of god in a human form or monkey and elephant form was in practise before the Buddha came. But as population grew, village settlements came up, temples were built in large numbers. As the economic condition improved large areas were given to temples. Singers, dancers, artists, intellectuals and the literati thronged the temples. Royal patronage encouraged staging of plays, intellectual debates on aspects of philosophy. New schools of thought came up. As the Hindus believed in pluralism and polytheism, accommodation of all faiths, all intellectual views and schools of thought temples too displayed different deities. The Jagannath Temple at Puri is a veritable universe of human diversity. All faiths find symbolic representation in Jagannath. This makes the temple a modern club where faith, art, intellect, administration and management are complimentary to each other to make life celebration a humanist pride.

But what are these temples today? I am tempted to call them Multi National Corporations. Their worshiped deity is the product and devotees are consumers as well as investors and directors. The temple authorities sell their products in a competitive world market. You may also call them hotels.  Long ago in my adolescence I had read in the Hindustan Year Book, the greatest Hotel in the World is the Jagannath Temple at Puri. On occasions even more than a lakh people eat the Mahaprasad. In the Golden Temple at Amritsar they have a 24x7 kitchen and no visitor returns without being fed. The Sai temples are mushrooming all over the country and each temple is a hotel catering to the public proportional to the elasticity of their purses. This hurts me and my association of purity of motive with the temple.

I now feel that human body is a sacred temple. Cultivate all cultural diversity with the unifying faith of love and lavish it on the body. The soul will rise in love to embrace life in wholesome delight.