Worshiping God in a crowd

Lord Venkateswara is the presiding deity at Tirumala-Tirupati Dewasthanam (Seven Hills) in Andhra Pradesh. Thousands and thousands of devotees throng to this abode of faith and prayers throughout the year. But on certain special occasions there is an unmanageable crowd keeping the temple staff on their toes. Puratasi, a Tamil month is very special for the devotees to worship in the temple. The third Saturday is very special for them. The report is that there was a crowd of 76000 people on that day i.e on October 6, 2012. The people stood in the 4 KM long queue to have a darshan of Lord of Seven Hills. For free darshan the wait was for 16 hours, Divya darshan took 10 hours and quick darshan (on Rs 300-ticket per head) was possible after a wait of 7 hours.

Except for VVIPs the darshan means a 2-3 seconds standing only in front of the God. One wonders what sort of darshan the people are able to have in such a mad crowd. Either the Lord's idol could be made visible for more than 100 people at a time by widening the entrance and opening the sanctum sanctorum to a bigger audience, or booking the days of visit to the devotees in manageable sizes in advance that could avoid crowd on such occasions. Some planning is required in this direction from the management committee of the temple. A devout worshipper like me is unable to visit the shrine for the fear of the crowd and satisfy his soul by worshipping the God from his residence regularly.

Gandhiji - an avatar of God?

Bapu, the Mahatma Gandhi is no less than God in Salangapalayam, 25 Kms from Erode in Tamil Nadu. On Gandhi Jayanthi there is a stream of people from the neighbouring villages heading to the Mahatma Gandhi koil(temple) as it is locally known. The priest performs the arthi to a granite idol of Bapu as part of the daily puja.

A class 4 student, M.Sanghvi, studying at Appachimar Madam Government School prays at this shrine for obtaining first position in the class. Elders and senior citizens also visit the temple on special occasions. Strangely and in contrast to this Gandhi temple where any one can walk in and pray, there is a temple for Goddess Mariamman too in the vicinity where only upper caste people are allowed and not dalits.

Hey Ram! where are we leading to? Untouchability is still prevalent in Gandhi's land and he is worshipped as a God. This is a beginning. Lord Gandhi will be a god of millions in some hundred or thousand years' time  like in the case of several messiahs of humanity like Lord Ram, Lord Buddha.  

I was expecting this phenomenon for quite sometime now.

Reshuffle of ministers in AIADMK government

AIADMK party came to power in 2011 under the leadership of Ms J.Jayalalitha. The cabinet has been reshuffled several times so far by dropping 12 ministers. A number of senior and loyal leaders have been shown the door. It appears that they have either committed mistakes or lost the confidence of the chief minister who happens to be the supreme leader of the party.

Nobody can question the wisdom and authority of the CM to induct anybody or drop anyone from the ministry. But the way and the speed with which it is happening these days one tends to believe that the ministers are appointed on superficial grounds without assessing their actual background or they appear to be careless in their conduct leading to their ouster by the CM. It reflects the crop of leaders and their quality in Tamil Nadu politics at present. It is an unfortunate development depicting the absence of strong leadership in those departments held by such birds of passage. Where is the time for original and long-term thinking enabling the growth and development of the state?