A TEMPLE’S PREROGATIVE……

There was this article in *The Times of India*….about one of the richest temples in India….located in my state of Maharashra….the Sai Baba temple……and the trustees of the temple have decided to get a new throne for the deity worth a whopping 22 crore (2.2 billion) rupees….. and why…..they think that the present silver throne does not look very good and a gold one would suit the deity better…….

I do have a lot of respect for Sai Baba…and I also do believe that the temple trust that runs the place does some really good charity work….and they should keep it up……even a part of my earning go to one of the temple trusts and I am sure that it will be used for good…..

But spending such an absurd amount of money for some vanity seems really odd to me….

I am not the one to preach about how they should be spending their money….it is their money and they can spend it as and how it pleases them…..but are they done with all the good work…..and do they have nothing philanthropic left to do…….

Sai Baba was the epitome of simplicity and he throughout his life he did survive on bare essentials….and I am sure had he been there physically….he would have put the money to a better use than what the trustees are planning……

The villages that are around the temple-town of *Shirdi* remain to be poor and so also the villagers……there are good number of cases of farmers committing suicides due to frustration……

The children and women remain uneducated…..the disease rate remains high….the mortality is high amongst infants…..and the entire population has a sub-optimal nutrition……

Now…..it is not their responsibility to take care of all these things….but they can certainly take some long-term measures to improve the situation….if not for the entire state….at least for a fixed area around them……

But they think nothing can match the good looks the idol will get after installing the golden throne…….

So much for people’s charity and the trustees’ vanity….a temple’s prerogative……