Blog: Why Sanju has a preferential access to God 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, December 25, 2006 - 09:02 IST
I was just tuned in to the news right now and one of the 'top stories' our distinguished news channels were flashing was, ' Sanjay Dutt performs Yagna at Siddhivinayak Temple '.
Sick.
Siddhivinayak Temple is in the heart of Bombay, at Prabhadevi. It is a very famous temple of Lord Ganesha, the Hindu God who is believed to be the peddler of luck and prosperity. That is if you are ready to walk for miles to reach the temple and offer prayers; even if you live a hundred miles away. So the city's elite, mostly film stars and politicians walk to the temple in the wee hours of the morning, ostensibly to avoid being mobbed by fans and well-wishers, flanked by a phalanx of armed guards.
Sanjay Dutt offered prayers for four hours today, performing all sorts of rituals and rites that his astrologers would have recommended. For four hours. Yup. He has to by the way, his bail in the 1993 Bombay Blasts Case expires on the 19th of this month. And he has been convicted in the Arms Act, and is facing 5 to 10 years of jail term. He needs all the luck Lord Ganesha can spare for him.
But as always, that is not my point. What grated my nerves was that the temple had cordoned off an area just for him. And his coterie, of course. Not to mention the scores of media persons jostling with each other to capture the defining moments of the 'puja'. So they can have an entire half an hour of special in a prime time slot dedicated to his life, career, trial and conviction (in the case that is). Also I can imagine the money paid to the priests to perform the rituals. A couple of hundred thousand rupees was probably the floor price of their best priest. Not to mention the money paid to cops to control crowds outside since he was inside. But what pains me is the fact that, just because the guy is rich (he is a Bollywood actor) he could arrange a puja to beg for forgiveness and luck; order is debatable. So he had a preferential access to God. The holy half naked men, the priests, do not allow common citizens even 4 seconds to pray in front of 'their' God, they take the offerings and shoo them away, I have seen it on TV. It is like an assembly line mass production.
Do our Gods have an affiliation with American Express? Do these guys get a Black AmEx to have their very own privileged access?
A few days ago a temple in Orissa had to open its doors to Dalits, locals from the lower caste. They were demanding access to Lord Jagannath at a temple in Keradagada village in Kedrapara district. They had been denied entry for being of a different, lower caste. They did get in but only under police protection. But imagine the high-handedness of the priests, they got the entire temple complex 'purified' in a ritual because of the 'impurity' brought into the temple by the Dalits. And went into hiding fearing police action. What did these guys have to fear if they claim to have done the right thing?
Equal access? Not to my God!
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