For the Devotees of God to ponder Over...
Devotees of God!
Is it not unjust on your part to hate the self-respecters who are rationalists and atheists?
This is what they say: “Think about the cause and effect of anything. Believe them that appeal to your reason. Don’t believe anything blindly. Blind faith makes you superstitious. Accumulation of superstitions will make your life miserable. Let your mind be free from fear and prejudices. Think freely and live with confidence.” Is it wrong to ask you to lead such a life?
Would you not laugh if it is said that an elephant hides in a pot?
The believers say: “It is true that God exists. Those lacking true knowledge (agnaanigal) cannot see Him; he cannot be seen; he cannot be felt; he cannot be inferred logically. He is beyond perception, description and conception.” By this kind of argument, they make the common people to believe in the existence of god. But, don’t you think that this kind of argument is same as asserting an elephant hides in a pot? We can believe when it is said that a cat (poonai) is in the pot (paanai), but when they say that an elephant (Yaanai) is in it, does it not mean that no such thing is to be found.
2. A lustful archaka (priest) in the Hindu temple for god Macheswara in Kanchipuram, had sex with several women devotees in the Sanctum Sanctorum. This had happened on many occasions. Besides satisfying his carnal desire, the Brahmin archaka had also taken photos of the lurid scenes, using cell phone.
Devotees, both men and women, are now terribly angry with the priest. But before venting their anger on him, should they not have understood the real nature of the deity, being least bothered, remained a silent witness to the crime? They should have realised that what is kept in the Sanctum Sanctorum is not an omnipotent god, but a ‘mere stone’!
By way of exhibiting anger, they threw broomsticks and used slippers at the priest. But they should resent more the god there than the priest. They should have come to our side and raised our slogan: “There is no god, there no god at all.”
3. In the same town of Kanchipuram, a former functionary of Kanchi Sankara Mutt and the manager of Varatharaja Perumal temple was brutally murdered (within the temple premises.) The Senior and Junior pontiffs of the Sankara Mutt, Jayendrar and Vijayendrar, are accused of abetting the gruesome crime. Did the deity, Varatharaja Perumal, stop the tragedy? Was he not a mere onlooker? Or has the deity ‘blinded’ the killers for their cruel deed? He has not done it. Why? It is because he is a mere stone.
4. Oh, Devotees! You remove from service your watchmen (securities) If some theft is committed then, is it proper to go to the temple again to worship the god who had been only a spectator while the crime was committed. Please ponder over.
Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, said that temples were brothels. To prove the veracity of this opinion, is there an incident more appropriate than the one that has happened at Kanchipuram?
Similar is the story of the priests of Lord Ayyappan temple. Without taking into account these unsavory happenings, people still throng to Sabari Malai to worship Lord Ayyappa either as novice devotees (Kanni Saami) or as accustomed ones (Guru Saami) and in the process, they lose their money and their intellect (and some of them lose even their lives.) Is there anything more pitiable and detestable than this?
5. You devotees are permitted to go into the temples under the supervision of police, after being tested with a metal detector at the entrance. There is a truth to be known from this: God does not protect humans. It is the humans that protect gods and goddesses with the aid of the police holding arms like AK 47 rifles.
6. Hereafter devotees are not allowed to break coconuts in the famous Meenakshi temple in Madurai. They fear the possibility of hidden explosives in the coconuts (that will endanger life and property). That means the deity is not all-powerful or all-knowing. Is it not possible to detect the explosive substance hidden in the coconut brought as an offering to him/her? If it is not possible, of what use is it to have faith in such a deity and lose money (undertaking pilgrimage, procuring materials to be offered etc.). Who is benefitted by such spending? Have you ever thought of it?
7. Those who go to Tirupathi are not allowed to take their cellphones with them in Tiru Malai (the hill on which the temple of Venkatachalapathi is situated). It is due to the fear of terrorist attack. The saint Thirumoolar said that the idol in a temple is (not god, but only) a ‘stone installed’. Is it not a correct view?
Periyar said:
“Devotion to God drives away intellect,
Intellectual awakening drives away devotion.”
How true!
It is sheer habit for bulls to go round and round the (manually operated) oil-crusher. So also the devotees repeatedly go to the temples out of habit without any thought. Is it proper to do so?
8. There were no temples in the beginning. Chanakkiya, a k a. Koutaliya has written in Arthasastra that they were built to raise the royal revenue. Tiru Valluvar’s Tiru-k-Kural (the ancient ethical work in Tamil) makes no mention of temples. Is it proper for Tamils to go to temples while at the same time praising Valluvar’s precepts!
