Devout Devotees......

last month i had been to kerala and mumbai on a holiday. during the visit my parents and i visited various temples. some among them were guruvayur and shirdi at nasik. first of all, i am not someone who believes in going to temples to get the blessings of God. i feel that if u have the faith and belief then one's home is the best temple. anyway, i didn want to offend my parents so obediently went with them. interestingly i noticed that irrespective of whichever the place, the rules were the same and so were the attitude of the devout devotees!!!!!
v had to endure long queues in both the places before v could actually step into the main sanctum. while in the queue i observed that many of them were cribbing, either about the heat or about the co worshipers pushing them or scolding their small children for being 'naughty '(well, according to them). i thought, if this is the attitude of the worshipers, then how different is this queue from a queue outside an amusement park. the idea of visiting a temple is to seek God's blessings but instead of concentrating on the purpose of the visit, the devotees, barring a few, seemed to be bothered about all the other facts except the main one. there were some ladies who were scrutinizing their neighbour's sari and jewelery!!!!!! HEIGHTS!!!!!! and to add to that, there were some very smart devotees who managed to break the queue and got in. this only added to the frustration of the already disturbed worshipers. well, my mother was one of the disturbed devout devotee. i asked her, "amma, haven't u come to the temple to see the Lord and to seek his blessings, does not cribbing about what ur neighbour is doing diminish the whole purpose of your visit? if he (the neighbour) is doing anything wrong, then he is in front of God, and He knows how to treat him, why are you so disturbed?" she replied,"yes you are right, but it is irritating to see someone break the queue like this" to this i thought, "we are already inside the temple and only a few steps away from the sanctum, then what difference does it make if v get late by a few minutes?"
don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to justify the people who break the queues but what i cant stop thinking is the fact that both the set of people are so intolerant and impatient. another question which came to my mind is, "does visiting temples and praying to God and giving him offerings absolve a person of all his wrong doings?" wrong doings - the wrong acts done by a person consciously. and mind u, the worshipers i met there were not villagers or illiterate, they were all aware of what is the right way to behave and the right way of doing things.
what very often people don't realise is that religion is not just about having faith in God but it is about a way of life, it is about showing concern as an individual to the larger section of the society. anyway, at the end of my temple visits i was left a happier person. no not because my endurance levels were high but because i was happy that i saw enough reason for continuing to believe what i did before my visit to the temple. see ya. :)