Soapy religion

One uses soap to cleanse himself / herself. But, the soap itself is not immune to getting dirty. Then, can it clean itself? Self-cleaning soap?

In the aftermath of the floods in Uttarakhand, perhaps I had not scoured the news quite so thoroughly; perhaps survivors have not mouthed the usual words, “By God’s grace, I survived”; perhaps the enormity of nature stopped people from crediting God with their miraculous escape; Or, perhaps, just perhaps, people stopped believing that God intervened in human lives on a day to day basis.

The first three above are distinct possibilities. But, the last one? No. People may have become less stupid, but they have not become intelligent enough to say bye-bye to God or His proxy, religion. So, I am still searching for the reason why there were no prominent quotes from the survivors that providence (divine intervention) saved them. If I located an answer, I would let you know. In the meantime …

… did people do anything to God? Yes, they did, at least as per what I read in a blog post. They desecrated God’s abode and abused God.

How did they do it? Isn’t God the Almighty? Why did He not prevent such an incidence? Before answering these questions let me place before you how it all happened, as per the post.

“People rushed inside the sanctum sanctorum in the morning of 17th June to save their lives. Where obviously people enter barefooted, I am sure, out of estimated 700-800 people, many must have stood on the deity itself in those moments of extreme emergency. Mud, filth, dead bodies filled the temple and adjoining areas. So complete desecration took place. Nothing remained holy about the place. So many things they must be doing to maintain purity of the place, but it is totally ‘impure’ now. Till the previous moment it was extremely holy and sacred, next moment it is none.”

Desperate people searched for shelter and they found it, in the temple. Should they have cared it was a highly venerated temple? Would you have done that when you are clutching at straws to survive? The writer seems to think he would have.

“Many people must have stood on the deity itself…” How dare they? Well, the writer might not have heard the legend of a Saivite devotee who used his foot to spot God’s eye to do a transplant. God allows such desecration. Indeed, as per the legend, He loves it!

“Mud, filth, dead bodies filled the temple …” Do you know how filthy the Superdome in New Orleans became when people took shelter in it under the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. This situation was worse. What did the writer want, people to shoo away dead bodies from the temple when their lives were hanging in the balance, they were extending their arms to grab their children, their neighbors, indeed anyone who was struggling and could be grabbed?

All said and done, the temple became “totally ‘impure’ now.” The writer leaves the story in suspense. Will the temple purify itself? Will it have to be purified by someone else? We do not know and the writer does not enlighten us.

A small detour. In disaster preparedness and mitigation, it is recommended that certain structures be built to higher standards, making them more robust; these are called life-line structures, say storm shelters, schools, bridges etc. The generous design – no scrimping – is intended to save lives during emergencies. This is exactly what the temple appears to have done. Intending to or not, it became a life-line structure. But, apparently when it was serving people it lost its holiness; this sent the writer of the post into mourning. My sympathies.

Now, I go to the soap analogy. The temple purifies you (at least when it is not dirty), people claim; so does soap. Soap gets dirty. The Kedarnath temple got dirty, got “desecrated”. “Nothing remained holy about the place.” The soap cannot clean itself and I am not sure anyone can clean a soap. Lord Kedarnath must have got trampled upon and the question remains whether He can clean Himself. Self-cleaning Lord? If He cannot, can He at least clean His proxy, religion?

Religion has become soapy, slippery. None, including the good Lord Himself, can get a handle on it, much less clean it. 

The analogy is complete.

Raghuram Ekambaram