I've two principles that guide me on visiting a place of worship:-
(a) God is all pervasive and a powerful entity, whose form is what I've been praying to at our
puja room, since childhood. I consider it, therefore, not necessary to go to a temple to have a
tryst with my God. However, Lekha visits temples and I dutifully become her chauffeur!
(b) If serpentine queues have to to be joined to get a peek of my god - and it's perennially long at
Guruvayur - I do just that, notwithstanding the long time that is necessary, at times, even
though I can get 'special treatment' by putting in a word to any one of the authorities of the
temple trust in advance.
These were temporarily set aside as my classmate, friend and namesake had offered to take us for the
early morning 'nirmaalyam darshan'. I'd to chauffeur him anyways and seeing Lekha's keenness, I
didn't have the heart to say anything to the contrary. So, the day had started at 0130h because we'd to be at the eastern entrance of the temple by 0230h, where the three (Earlier, mom had said that she'd continue with her sleep and that we could proceed after locking up the main door!) of us were shepherded, along with another family of five members in a special queue and we'd a long wait till about a half past 3. The rest of the crowd - with a generous dose of the Sabarimala pilgrims - stood beside us in the second and parallel queue and also behind us.
The massive ornate door of the entrance was opened precisely at the appointed hour and boy, I'd not expected the violent surge of the crowd to make the final dash to the sanctum sanctorum. The last flyover had to be scaled and it took an effort to see that Lekha was steered safely through the push and pull of the frenetic devotees. In the melee, I heard a lady wondering aloud as to why people with physical difficulties should attempt at the 'darshan', probably seeing Lekha managing her way through with my assistance, as we're a 'stumbling block' - understood the full import of the phrase at that instant - to their movement!
And we're pushed behind in the surge, by quite a few notches, but reached the sanctum without further glitches and had our glimpse of the good Lord, getting ready to be bathed and robed in the facade that the world over is familiar with.
Tailpiece.
Standing with folded hands I'd a fleeting moment of triumph, of having achieved the impossible, pass through me because, for the two of us, it was a task accomplished after our stay here for over a year!
(a) God is all pervasive and a powerful entity, whose form is what I've been praying to at our
puja room, since childhood. I consider it, therefore, not necessary to go to a temple to have a
tryst with my God. However, Lekha visits temples and I dutifully become her chauffeur!
(b) If serpentine queues have to to be joined to get a peek of my god - and it's perennially long at
Guruvayur - I do just that, notwithstanding the long time that is necessary, at times, even
though I can get 'special treatment' by putting in a word to any one of the authorities of the
temple trust in advance.
These were temporarily set aside as my classmate, friend and namesake had offered to take us for the
early morning 'nirmaalyam darshan'. I'd to chauffeur him anyways and seeing Lekha's keenness, I
didn't have the heart to say anything to the contrary. So, the day had started at 0130h because we'd to be at the eastern entrance of the temple by 0230h, where the three (Earlier, mom had said that she'd continue with her sleep and that we could proceed after locking up the main door!) of us were shepherded, along with another family of five members in a special queue and we'd a long wait till about a half past 3. The rest of the crowd - with a generous dose of the Sabarimala pilgrims - stood beside us in the second and parallel queue and also behind us.
The massive ornate door of the entrance was opened precisely at the appointed hour and boy, I'd not expected the violent surge of the crowd to make the final dash to the sanctum sanctorum. The last flyover had to be scaled and it took an effort to see that Lekha was steered safely through the push and pull of the frenetic devotees. In the melee, I heard a lady wondering aloud as to why people with physical difficulties should attempt at the 'darshan', probably seeing Lekha managing her way through with my assistance, as we're a 'stumbling block' - understood the full import of the phrase at that instant - to their movement!
And we're pushed behind in the surge, by quite a few notches, but reached the sanctum without further glitches and had our glimpse of the good Lord, getting ready to be bathed and robed in the facade that the world over is familiar with.
Tailpiece.
Standing with folded hands I'd a fleeting moment of triumph, of having achieved the impossible, pass through me because, for the two of us, it was a task accomplished after our stay here for over a year!
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