Faith or Fanaticism*?

Last weekend I was at Shirdi with 10 of my family members. I think you all know, what Shirdi is famous for? It the place where Sai Baba lived. Now Shirdi is among the major Hindu places of pilgrimage in India.

One thing which is common to all the pilgrimages in India is People, thousands of people, millions of people, people..people and people. This is because our country is a country which is built on faith, culture and strong bonding. So, most of the Indians make it a point to visit such pilgrimages when ever possible.

So, with many people comes disorder, uncleanliness. As in any other temple in India, to see the God, you have to go through a series of mazes. These mazes are the Q's arranged to have some order and avoid confusion.

As India is a free democratic country, no one can stop us or confine us ....right!! So we see people jumping the Q's at the slightest chance. They do not care for thousand people shouting at their back condemning their behavior. Some people just push and shove their way through. They do not care for who the person in front is or what if the person ahead in injured. They just Puuuuuuush their way through. When asked, cant they wait and move with everyone else? reply we get is, if you stay with the Q and move with it, it will take ages so they ask us also to push our way through.

I saw people just running as if they are in a race. I ask them and my self, if they are in so much haste to finish off the darshan and come out of the Q, why the hell come here?. One goes to God to have peace and tranquility of course of the brain and body as well. But I see people just finish off the darshan in haste and come out happily. They are doing it for namesake not with complete faith.

I had my grandmother with me who crossed 80 years and had a broken back last year. She was very patient and did not complain in the whole process. It took us more than 4 hours to complete the darshan amidst the pushing and shoving. I literally had to fence my grand mom with my hands to stop people from falling on her and pushing her.

And one more thing we observe is lack of cleanliness. People drink coffee, Tea, water, eat snacks and whatever and litter the whole place. They wont even care to look for trash cans to dispose the waste. After consuming they just leave it or throw it on the ground.

When people are coming to God and doing all such things, what's the use of coming to God? If it was at their home, will they behave or do like this? When at Gods place, ones heart should be pure, thinking about God and wish for positive things to happen. But people do all kinds stunts and create nuisance without any peaceful thoughts.

I am not sure how can we educate these people, but something has to be done. Of course there will be notices by the authorities to maintain silence, keep the place clean and maintain Q..etc. but who cares to follow?

I think only God has to do something.

God..........are you listening?.....Ooops....are you reading? :-)

*Extremism