As I went to Prabhadevi's famous Siddhivinayak temple for the first time, I couldn’t help but notice a few idiosyncrasies that faith and religion brings in.
Tuesday being Anagaraki Chaturthi(a special day for the elephant headed lord) the MNS folks were operating a free trip to the temple from Dadar station. The queue for this free trip amazed me and I am sure they won quite some hearts there. The temple premise was under heavy surveillance and you can’t help but feel sorry for the number of police force posted there in the scorching Mumbai heat so that the common folk have a safe meeting with the lord. The footwear stand was managed by a north Indian guy who had an amazing Punjabi dialect....they have this amazing Hindi diction that’s not heard anywhere else. A few steps later I saw a Bihari guy serving water bottles to the devotees. The darshan took almost 2.5 hours but friends told me that it was still quick considering the day; ideally it should have taken 4-5 hours. Wow! And I thought that the world was turning atheist ;). After a little pushing around near the main idol I was mesmerized by the flower decoration. I stand by my view that the most exotic jewelry for lord are fresh flowers. The gold, silver and diamonds are no match for the multi coloured gerberas, orchids, roses and the ever smiling marigold! After my darshan, I was thinking about a way back when there came a Muslim taxi guy who needed one person to complete his Dadar round. He told us that operating Dadar to Siddhivinayak on Tuesdays is one of his most preferred routes.
Religion must be the primary cause of so many conflicts worldwide that instances like this make me feel it also has the capability of being a great leveler for humankind. If only we were more tolerant.......
3 comments:
nicely written ...
actually i was also there during the same day ... it took me 4 hours for the Darshan from 2 am to 6 am ... i was alarmed at the length of the queue for that time since it was not so long even during Ganpati ... !!
Ah, religious and all... :) , good write. Your observation skills are amazing! Must learn :)
After all that people do to live, a temple surely is one place everyone comes with positive thoughts and hope - so the world will never turn atheist :)
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