Vulgarity of Devotees and the state of Pashupatinath, Mansarovar and Rivers

“Aaja Maa tainu dil ne pukara..!!”

These are lyrics of a bhent (song) during a Jagran (night long wake up) in worship of Goddesses in North India. Basically, the lyrics imply the so-called devotee wants the Mother Goddess to come to him because his heart is saying so.

As one goes through the other such songs, one realizes that the relationship of the so-called such devotees and the Gods and Goddesses is very similar to a Restaurant waiter and a customer. The Gods and Goddesses are the Waiters. They should come on the beck and call of the so-called devotee and also, btw, provide him or her with the choicest of goodies. If they don’t, it is made abundantly clear to the Gods that he will be disappointed and the very credibility of the Mother Goddess or the God will be in jeopardy.

Let us cut the crap and look at it directly the way it is. This is NOT Devotion. It is Vulgarity.

A few weeks back I was in Pashupatinath. Within the Sanctum Santorum, but outside of the main temple housing the lingam, are various small temples, idols niches on the ground, and even a series of lingams. Looking at those idol niches shocked me. I, honestly, couldn’t figure out if that was the mouth of a drain or the idol of a God. The other areas were so badly kept, that it looked like a gutter area.

And, this is the place where Shiva – the Adi Guru and Adi Yogi, the origin of all Spirituality – transcended his animalistic tendencies and became Enlightened out of his own effort (so, Swayambhu). That is the reason why he is called Pashupatinath, not because he owned animals or ran a zoo!

At Mansarovar, which is now in China (yes, Tibet.. but that is China now). When we went there, it took the team 2 hours of cleaning with 4-5 large black garbage bags to clean up the banks of Mansarovar to bring it to some semblance of sanctity. It still had a lot of garbage lying all around. But it wasn’t as bad as it is in Indian temples or rivers. Why? Because Chinese Government doesn’t give visas easily. And, thank God for that!

Otherwise, Mansarovar and Kailash would have become just as guttered as Pashupatinath has become, thanks to the Vulgarity of the Devotees.

The vulgarity that commands Goddesses to come and do the bidding and in absence of which are threatened by loss of credibility of these Goddesses!

Such Vulgarity manifests in the desecration of Pashupatinath. And, of the other temples and rivers that we hold sacred. Yamuna, the river whose banks were sanctified by Krishna himself, is but a Gutter in Mathura and Vrindaban today. Ganga is in total mess.

The mental Vulgarity, which shows up in deception doubling as devotion, also is directly manifesting in the filth of Ganga, the gutter-ness of Yamuna, the drain-like idols in Pashupatinath and the garbage at Mansarovar!

If, instead of asking the Goddess to come and do the bidding, if… and ONLY IF.. this “professional devotee” had been a real one? Where instead of asking her to come and do the bidding, had gone himself and fallen at the feet of the Goddess and given himself up? Somewhere, that sweetness would have manifested.

The reason why Yamuna is all but lost and Ganga is going the same way, is because we have asked Yamuna and Ganga to do our bidding without realizing their worth. In absence of that bidding, we have ordained that they are useless. So we have run them down to death or almost death in the quest to extract the benefits out of them without remorse, just like we do with the Goddess!

Worse, we cover our Vulgarity in the cloak of Devotion.