Is giving Special Treatments for VIPs in Temples right?
A male devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
“We have seen VIP entries at temples and spiritual places, are these entries justifiable as per scriptures? Because, for god everyone is acceptable, but in the material world and due to positions and other complexities, they have bifurcated this for VIP. It is acceptable for the Prime minister to use VIP entries because there is a risk of security but there are entries for businessmen or other people as well.
I am asking it because, some VIP entries are legitimate but some are not like, if one is government employee, he may misuse his power to get entry in VIP or like I am going to be Chartered Accountant, we will be given CA card on which words will be written like this “Set by an act of parliament”, and if i show this card to temple authorities or something, they believe that this is government person, they will allow me and many CAs are doing this, should i do this when i go to busy temples ? Enlighten me ! Thank you Prabhuji!”
REPLY:
giving Special Treatments for VIPs in Temples is inevittable.
Running a big and busy temple is not easy.
It is a big and sensitive management that involves the people directly.
Thousands of people visit daily. During holodais, there will be more people.
Every big temple needs hundreds of employees in cleaning, maintenance, accounts, cooking, etc.
(Sri Caitanya, Acharyas & Krishna devotees visiting Other Temples – Proofs! READ HERE!)
Every temple has to pay lakhs of rupees of electricity and telephone charges.
Therefore, every big temple requires crores of money every year for its management.
In general, only less than 1% of the devotees donate big amount to the temples.
Some businessmen, VIPs, etc donate in lakhs, even in crores for the big templs and they also contribute liberally for the construction and expansion of temples.
Many other devotees donate just small amounts. Many others do not donate at all.
Of course, the temples should give opportunities even for the poor devotees to get the darshan of the deities.
That is why, they have Free darshan also.
Since Most of the devotees prefer free darshan only, there is a very big crowd for free darshan queue.
(Should a devotee try for big posts in the temples? Why don’t you try? READ HERE!)
But the reality is different.
If all the devotees go for free darshan, how can the temples get big revenue to manage everything?
That is why, they have to charge something for the payment darshan also.
As far as VIP Special darshan is concerned, they have security issues and unwanted crowd may assemble whenever VIPs visit the temples. So, they have to be safely allowed to have the darshan as early as possible and leave that place.
Most of the VIPs support the temples in many ways. Celebrities, Politicians, etc have more security risks and may invite unwanted crowd.
If anything happens to the VIPs, the people and media will accuse the temple management only.
So, giving Special Treatments for VIPs in Temples can’t be avoided.
Those who contribute liberally are also given some special facilities like priority darshan, extra prasadam, extra flowers, fruits, etc.
This is necessary because they will be encouraged to support the temples more. All the donors and supporters may not support without expecting any recognition. If we encourage them, they will get a boost.
Even in our Online preaching service, I receive hundreds of mails. I give some priorities and flexibilities in communications for those who support our preaching service in any way – financially or by sharing our posts or by using our services.
(Is going to temples without bathing and in unwashed clothes wrong? READ HERE!)
I put some restrictions in the number of mails/ communications for others.
Because, our site has lakhs of readers. If I don’t have some restrictions, I can’t run this service at all as I can’t reply to all the devotees as a single person. If I appoint anyone for this, I need to satisfy him/ her with good salary. For that, I need big revenue. I too have to run my life.
Thus, so many things are there that common people don’t know.
They see only in a particular angle.
They may speak against these practices without knowing the need for the huge resources to manage the temples.
However, the VIP treatments should be given only for the Celebrities, Politicians, Leaders who have security risks and those who support the temple in a big way.
(Why Krishna’s idols are white or black in different temples? READ HERE!)
It need not be given for others who hold some important careers such as Chartered accountants, Lawyers, Company executives, etc., unless they have given remarkable support to the temple. They can use the free darshan or paid darshan facilities.
See, managing a temple is not easy unless they follow some flexibility like this. All the temples have free darshan for those who are unable to pay for paid darshan.
For managing the temples properly, they have paid darshan, VIP & donor special treatments, etc.
Without them, temples can’t be run.
So, Let us learn to take these special treatments as unavoidable and necessary.
(More new Spiritual concepts and temples are started! Where to go? READ HERE!)