Ever had questions about temples, gods, beliefs, and such? Each one of us has our own beliefs. Some of us don’t believe in god at all, while others may not have deep beliefs in god but respect the power. There are also those who are so deeply devoted that they do everything they can for god’s grace. In fact, there may be many more categories of believers and non-believers as well.
A temple is indeed a place of worship. A place where most believers trust that a positive power exists. Many people stand in long queues to get a heartfelt glimpse of the divine idol in the respective temple.
At temples, we have lanes meant to ensure a disciplined and orderly approach towards the idols. Agreed? The whole system is meant just so that everyone, who comes for darshan, gets an opportunity to see the idol. However we often face situations where people in the line just push people around them, not caring how harsh they are being in the moment, to get their darshan. In the rush of the crowd, suddenly or not suddenly, everyone becomes hasty and restless.
One thing is right, there are indeed huge huge lines up for waiting. Everyone gets so very tired walking through those long long lines in heat and in crowds with no space. It is totally understandable that people want to speed it up and get to the darshan point as soon as they can and get a long look at their god… but in that heat of the hour people start pushing and rushing forward not caring about who is next to them or if they are hurting anyone in the process.
Let’s check facts. In some cases the pushing gets so bad that someone somewhere ends up falling, and people around don’t even care, and they end up stepping on the fallen person. In a few cases this even leads to deaths caused wholly by such stampedes. How does it get so bad? How can people be so careless as to go on stepping on a human just to get through and to their deva darshan?
Being a devotee is not bad, it is your own dedication and devotion, but becoming so careless as to hurt others in the process… isn’t that selfish? And if you become selfish, doesn’t that ruin the whole purpose of devotion to god? Temples, worship and devotion is really meant for peace and solace and spreading goodness and positivity right?
Ultimately, the essence of a temple visit should be about inner peace and connection, not just a hurried ritual. By bringing up an environment of mutual respect and understanding, we can all contribute to making temple visits a more serene and spiritually enriching experience.
Contribute wholesome effort from your side. Small efforts can bring big changes right? Right. Next time you go to a temple for darshan, be patient. If you believe in god or the power up there, you need to know that god is patience and he teaches us patience. Do justice to your own devotion and belief.