Recently read news about a priest in a temple hocking the temple jewels to marry off his daughters. Then read a piece about how priests are underpaid even though the temple "corporation" is the richest in the world.
I'm stunned at how many questions this raises in my mind.
Temple jewels?! What in the name of... er... God is a temple doing with jewels? I was always told that a temple is a place where people go to pray. Donations to the temple were for sustenance of the priests; even though they really seem to be bribes to the almighty.
Let's not even touch upon the topic of whether temples are necessary, my views on that should be well known to my two readers.
What causes people to think that donating in the millions to one specific temple is going to help their lives? Aren't all temples the "abode of God"? Why should the Lord choose one certain location to be holier than the rest of the planet?
I also wondered at the temple "corporation". Don't people - devotees - realize how commercial the venture has become? Don't they see the huge queues of people waiting for "darshan" and the VIPs breezing in and out? Does their Lord discriminate on the basis of status in society?
Why do I find people becoming more and more superstitious? Why do I find that building a temple in the middle of the road may actually be more lucrative than getting a job?
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