Table fan at the temple

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……………..