‘The Beggars Outside and the Beggars Within'
It is common to see beggars lining up outside the temple premises seeking alms from fellow human beings vociferously emitting words of blessings in their own distinctive parlance which is often ignored by majority. Inside the temple are people of every status, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, queuing up seeking blessings, health, wealth, success, peace or salvation from God silently within the heart unlike the raucous street beggars. The difference between both categories is only before whom they seek alms. The beggar outside pursues help from another human, the devotee inside seeks help from the Divine.
In a deeper sense, both remind us of a fundamental truth, that every human being is dependent on something beyond himself. Material wealth may remove the need to beg for money, but it does not eliminate the desire for love, security, health or happiness. Before God, all distinctions fade and every person becomes a humble seeker.
Thus, the temple presents a striking picture viz., beggars outside asking for bread, whereas beggars inside asking for grace. The former reveal human poverty and the latter reveal human dependence on the Divine. It is a different matter that many of the beggars outside temple do not get alms or go unnoticed, similar is the case with beggars before God inside the temple. Not all wishes are fulfilled and sometimes none. It is said everything happens as per destiny. Destiny cannot be changed even by God. Even God during his reincarnation as any form of Avatar suffered just like common people.
In many temples, one can also view devotees pleading in the ears of statue of the Nandi Vahana (Bull, the mount of Lord Shiva) or the Rat (the vehicle of Lord Ganesha) in the belief that the same will be transmitted or communicated through them to the God. There are also people who rely on closing the other ear of Bull or Rat in the belief that their imploring does not get leaked through the other ear.
Just as in the case of beggars outside temple, if any devotee wishes to give something as alms to those scroungers they will definitely give, but at the same time if someone has made up mind not to give any alms to such mendicants, then no amount of blessings by those beggars is going to have any effect. Similar to that, God knows what each and every one of the devotees want, be it sematerialistic things or inner peace or awareness, there is hardly any need to beg before the God. For, if God has to give He will definitely give and if not, owing to some bad karma or act by devotee as penance, no amount of prayers or begging is going to help. This simple aspect should be understood by one and all. Hypocritical comportment is not acceptable to the Almighty.
As it is said and rightly so, that neither one gets anything before time nor more than what is ordained. It is not that one should stop going to temple, but that one should stop begging before God. For peace of mind, inner peace and the serene atmosphere of temple, one should definitely go to such places of worship but desist from begging. In some temples, the Lord appeared of His own accord. Then there are other temples where the image was installed by sages, celestial beings or human beings. It is believed that according to the Hindu mythology there are nearly 330 million Gods. These Supreme Beings (Mahadevas) are considered to think and feel way beyond the restricted thoughts and feelings of the human mind. It is just only for a few of them for whom temples are built and pujas are done regularly.
When visiting temples, we tend to believe that the Mahadeva will be there to help and guide the devotee, and indeed a true belief. It is further believed that obtaining ‘darshan’ of Gods can in fact change the pattern of our karma during our past lives which are seeds now that are waiting to be manifested in the future. Seven places are said to be very holy called the ‘Sapta Puri’ — Ayodhya, Banaras, Mathura, Haridwar, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwaraka. It is important to visit any of these places and temples there and beget inner peace and awareness. At the same time, it is important that when we worship God, we must not seek trivial materialistic things like beggars from Him. In fact, we should only be motivated by love for Him.
Subbiah Sridhar
