‘Please God, give my son a decent job. I will donate Rs. 501 the next time I visit’, I overheard a man in a temple once. Now, does that money really reaches God?
No, it doesn’t.
If you have the idea that all the money which is being donated to temples, is being utilized in the welfare and maintenance of the deities and infrastructure, then you are completely mistaken.
The government intervenes in every matter of the religious institutions, in the name of ‘channelizing the activities’. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act XXII of 1959, gives the government the right to control all Hindu temples of the state.
As a result of this law, around 250,000 temples of Karnataka, 400,000 temples of Andhra Pradesh, and lakhs of other temples from different states come right under the government. All the money generated from these temples go directly to the government. And it depends on the government, how much money they want to spend on the maintenance of the temples.
Temples like Padmanabhaswamy, Vaishno Devi and Tirupati, generate crores of donations every year in the form of cash, jewelry and gold biscuits. People do it in the name of God. But, looking at the current scheme of things, it won’t be wrong to say that our Gods have been replaced by corrupt politicians who misuse this money to increase their party funds.
Temples have become more of a business hub, rather than a place to connect with the almighty. Krishna Chandra A. Nair, a student of an animation film making institute, la Poudriere has beautifully depicted how this temple business actually runs in reality. If you want to know more about where your Rs 50 went which you donated last time, then have a look at this video –
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