The worst temple in the world

There are probably millions of temples, big and small, in this world. I've visited maybe a couple of hundred of them. I don't really even think about a lot of them. Nothing wrong with them, they're just unremarkable. Then I visit temples like the Raghunath temple in Jammu and it just makes me want to vomit.

After our trip to Vaishno Devi mandir, we wanted to check out the city of Jammu before we left the state. Our first stop was the Raghunath Temple. This is a big temple complex, that's the largest in N. India. First the good. This is a really big temple that at the very least amused me with its vast collection of idols. This is a Rama temple, and in addition to the "Rama family" the temple complex had mini temples for Shiva, Durga, Hanuman, Brahma etc. And then they had small statues of pretty much everyone from the Hindu epics. Rishi, minor deities, gods of the directions, weapons of gods even! Valmiki, Jamadagni, Chakraji, Gadhaji, Garuda - I can keep going. In fact, the big Shiva lingam they had close to the entrance was made of glass or some transparent stone. It was very beautiful.

And then it got ugly pretty fast. The pujari in the Shiva temple called me to come closer, did an instant "archana" in my name, then used a Rs. 100 note to show me that the lingam was transparent and then used the Rs. 100 note to point at certain parts of the room and then, to complete the "gentle hints" he'd been giving me, said, "Just donate whatever amount you feel is appropriate." He was probably used to dealing with gullible innocent people or just idiots. I just put a Rs. 10 note in his plate and even that was for the archana. My friends didn't do that either.

Then we went to the main Rama temple. Here there was a small line and I saw the big pujari talk to everyone as I was walking toward him. He had the same technique and spiel, "Come here son (or daughter), there's Ramji, now donate an amount you feel is appropriate. No, donate Rs. 50 atleast. This is for charity." If had more energy I would have punched him!

As we left the Ram mandir, we were immediately surrounded by a bunch of hawkers. Atleast, they were behaving like hawkers, shouting at us asking us to walk in their direction. I didn't realize till a few seconds later that these were pujaris of the "smaller" gods. They were just short of actually grabbing our arms or even just taking the money out of our pockets. I was so disgusted I just stopped entering the mini temples and just sat in the courtyard.

I guess the good news is that Tirupati is no longer the temple in India that I like the least. It's corrupt but atleast you aren't pressured into paying any money you don't want to. And then compare this to my all time favorite Chilkur which doesn't even have a hundi! Where the pujaris expressly forbid you to pay any money to the temple. Or even the Ganesh temple next to the Sec-bad station. Where the pujaris just take all the money that's put in the harati plate and throw it into the hundi without even looking at it. Something so comforting about that.