Temple...Huh!! What is that?

mom : Get ready, we shall be going to the temple today.
me : Why?
mom : What do you mean why? To pray and get blessings, plus today there is big pooja there.
me : Can't we just pray here?

I hate to put my mom in this kind of situations but now she is used to it. She chooses to ignore such questions, but me, I try to justify why our ancestors might have had this system in place which will give me a better understanding of the cycle of life. The very notion of having temples where GODs are supposed to show up and bless you, and wipe your slate of sins clean, is downright ridiculous and those preaching that they do are hypocrites. When they can claim that GOD is everywhere, then why can't we just stay at home in a quiet and serene place and pray? Why would GOD want people to idolize him/her? Then he would not be called GOD, he would be a HUMAN. Pah! If offering GOD coconuts, lots of food and decorating him would make him happy, then why the rich still have problems? Why aren’t the poor dead already?

They claim GOD to be the creator, the destroyer and the one who controls the entire universe. I personally cannot comprehend, how a person of that stature could design a system and ask the living creatures to worship and pray, and only then will they prosper. The concept would sound something equivalent to - Your company chairman asking you to worship him and only then you shall be paid. There are so many practices followed in the Hindu religion which make me laugh by just visualizing GOD instructing people to do so, or GOD impressed by their deeds.

I, being an agnostic, try to justify, that if there was some superior being in control of the entire universe then what would impress him/her will be how we live our life and our relationships with our fellow beings and with the nature. It does not matter how much money we have dropped in the temple fund box, what matters is how much we have helped the needy. It does not matter if we prayed today and asked for blessings, what matters most is if we have been honest to ourselves today. Our ancestors are not be blamed but we ourselves for acquiescing without asking the million dollar question - "Why?”

So, the next time you stand in front of an idol or drop money in the temple, ask yourself, "Why?", and you will realize how stupid you thought GOD to be. :-)