This was my first visit to home after the grueling 1 year
MBA at greatlakes. I was chilling out to the fullest. Mom and Dad were very
happy, after all their son was home with 15 days leave. As a routine my father
goes to nearby Taraknath temple every Tuesday and Saturday. This temple is some
200 meters from my home. It is situated on the banks of Sarayan River, a
tributary of River Ganga, and has many small temples within- Shivji, Shri Hanuman,
Bhagwaan Krishna and Durgaa Maa.
That was a Saturday in the first week of April 2012 and my
father asked me to come to temple. I said yes as I wanted to visit temple and
meet Babaji, the pujari of Taraknath temple. Babaji became pujari of this
temple 10 years back. Since then we have witnessed improvement in
administration and prosperity of the temple. We have also seen increase in the
number of devotees there.
During my last visit to the temple, probably at Diwali, I
was very impressed by the cleaner look of temple and huge number of devotees
worshiping there. When I discussed this with my father praising the management
of temple, he said these are nothing but by-products of something else. What’s
this something else, he said that Babaji is a great pujari and he keeps on
performing some puja or other almost 24*7. Babaji’s puja and faith are real things;
the improvement in management of Mandir is by-product. I was somewhat convinced
and was really happy.
Back to this Saturday visit: when I reached temple we
straight away went to Shri Hanuman’s temple where Babaji was standing. My
father and I touched his feet. When I looked at his face, he seemed worried.
This was the first time I was seeing him worried, he always smiled and remained
calm. I was surprised and curious. My father was equally bothered to see this
change.
Babaji blessed us and went to Krishnaji’s temple to offer
evening prayers. We followed him; he looked even more worried there. My father
could not resist and asked the reason. Babaji told that a table fan which was
in Krishnaji’s temple is not working. It had been 24 hours but the mechanic he
called had not come. My father assured him that he will take care of it and get
it repaired asap.
I was not impressed by this cause of worry. Babaji’s room
had a fan which was working fine. Babaji visited Krishnaji’s temple for a max
of 2 hrs a day. I could not understand why he was unable to pray without a fan
for 1 or 2 days.
I was wrong….. grossly.
After pausing for a moment, Babaji told that a devotee
advised him to replace this table fan with the working fan at Durga Maa’s
temple. It seemed a fair enough thing to me. To this advice Babaji replied--
how will Durga Maa feel for 2-3 days without a fan.
My GOD….. now I understood his reason of worry. It was
summer time. As per him, gods were also feeling hot and required 24 hrs fan,
just like him. When every other god is relaxing in fan, Krishnaji will not feel
good without one.
It was a jolt to me… what a conviction and what a faith it
was. I have seen people stupidly fighting over religious matters and trying to
prove or disprove one god or other. I myself have participated in these
conversations. But here I stand before a man, almost 75 years of age, pujari of
a temple, above all those trivial things. He takes care of gods as one among
us. He believes gods live there. He is not there to become a respected pujari,
nor to manage the temple properly, not for anything else, he is there to take
care of gods… which is the duty of a pujari.
I am not sure what proportion of his faith do I have in what
I do……………..
