I happened to get up real early this morning. Since, it is not often that we get to see the rising sun these days, courtesy the kind of lifestyle we all tend to lead, I decided to take a walk in order to find some solace amidst the hooplah that we generally associate with a buzzing city, which also happens to be the capital of the state where I happen to reside.

But little did I realize that today is a Tuesday. If you are wondering why I am telling you such a trivial thing like this, this Tuesday is supposedly not an ordinary Tuesday. It is what we call bada mangal in India. On this day, people flock to the temples starting very early in the morning and one can witness large cues of people standing outside the temple to get a glimpse of their most sought for God and to make sure that they offer Him all kinds of valuables in order to please Him to the extent of Him showering His blessings and love on them.

Coming back to my morning exploration agenda, it turned out to be a noisy affair with people chit-chatting on the streets and pandals offering food and drinks to those who got up so early just to indulge in what I would want to refer to as the religious indulgence.

Without going into the religious beliefs that people have, as it is very much an individualistic thing, I sometimes wonder why these very people who end up going to the temples and end up praying in front of their respective Gods, end up doing acts in real life which, am sure, would make their God feel very disgruntled.

It is quite bewildering why these very people don’t realize that it is more important to be practicing good values and inculcating good habits in life rather than going to the temples on such special days and asking for forgiveness. Why in the first place should you end up in a situation where you are required to ask for forgiveness?

Isn’t it an irony that these very same people who come to the temples with all the expensive valuables, the moment they step out of the sacred place, commit acts which can, at times, make the entire humanity feel ashamed of themselves. What’s the use of doing such penance when it doesn’t seem to strike a chord in their minds as to what is right and what is wrong? Isn’t it a mockery of the religion which they practice and which supposedly preaches them the contrary of what they end up doing in their real lives?

I cannot help but think, whether the evolution of this very concept of God occured just because we humans couldn’t handle the guilt associated with the shameful acts that we all commit. And so we created temples and in turn placed a figure in the form of a statue and started referring to Him as God, who supposedly is in all ways became the karta dharta of this very World in which we all happen to be living in.

God, who was supposed to give people the strength and vision to do things in a virtuous manner, ended up being a proxy, used by the powerful and the rich and even the common man to get rid of their guilt.

As far as I am concerned, I believe that instead of going to the temples, it is more important to practice good things in life. I am sure your God will be more happy if you end up doing just that rather than going to the temples and creating chaos and incidents like stampedes.

Source for Image: http://saysaga.com/universe-is-not-god-dont-be-pagans/, http://www.indianetzone.com/10/hanuman_temples_india.htm