Religion - The universal binder?

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.......