Sairam friends,
Last evening, I had been to Saibaba temple near my workplace. There are couple of temples and I usually go to the one situated little far at night. The temple was already closed since I started only by 8.40. Asusual, I went to Dwarakamai, sat in the foot steps and looked at Sai’s portrait. I prayed Saibaba to show me a way and came to the main temple.
Actually, there was a North Indian priest doing pooja in this temple for long. Before 20 days, I saw another priest from North India has come to serve. Yesturday, the first priest wasn’t there and the new priest was doing Aarti. Since I reached there only after the temple was closed, the new priest was speaking to a devotee in Hindi.
No one would come to this Temple at night. Only on Thursday’s it would be crowded.
The security gave me prasad and I sat in the platform to have it.
I din’t spoke much but I was listening to the new priest speaking to the other devotee.
Seems, the old priest wasn’t paid properly. He decided to leave from this work and go back to his hometown which is why the New priest had come before 2-3 weeks. The owner owes some money to the old priest as it was his salary. He had already reseved ticket to his hometown and waited until that evening expecting the owner to pay him.
Seems, the owner dragged paying back the old priest and asked him to teach the new priest to do pooja. He started pleading as it was time for him to catch his train. At last, he lost the train and did not got money also. Only the next day morning, the owner gave him money. That too, he reduced 5000Rs and gave him the rest.
The old priest was young, active and doing his work sincerely. He won’t even take money if we give him. I have seen him for more than a year and never knew he has gone through all this sufferings even while he’s serving Sai with dedication.
I was shocked to listen to this story. Since I kept looking at the new priest telling this to a devotee, he realized I knew Hindi and asked me “How big is Coimbatore? Will it be 100 Kms long?”
He was telling me, this owner has influence in this area and hence he won’t let me go or work anywhere near this place. So I will tell him one fine day that I am leaving and start from here to find work in other areas/temples of Coimbatore.
I told him, Coimbatore is not that big. He himself answered “Will it atleast be 50 Kms long”. I agreed.
He was just hoping that this city might help him earn his living if he goes to a better temple where he will be payed honestly.
I asked him where he’s from.
He said “Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh”
I could relate to him as I have few Sai friends there.
How far is Bhopal from Coimbatore?
These priests come all the way to work here and the temple owner can’t pay them what they deserve. I felt really bad about the way these priests are treated.
Well..I know in every Saibaba temple, until it gets popular, priests struggle to make ends meet because I speak to a few priests as a friend and learn about their life and their family. Many of you might think that Priests don’t have other Career plans. Some young priests from Andhra used to ask me how to continue their studies and earn a degree. One priest had even asked me to help him join a graphic design course. So priests are not destined to work in temple forever. At times, they have other plans to earn a better living.
Having said that, this purticular priest’s conversation really shocked me.
Why should we even run a temple if we can’t pay decently to the priest?
So all devotees who come to temple will find peace whereas the one serve Sai will live in pain every moment. Is it?
This story is not about someone who runs temple and the priest.
This is about You and me.
When ever you get work from someone or employ someone, please help them grow and pay them what they deserve.
There are 12 huge sins one could commit. Paying very less after getting work done is one of them.
I came back home, had dinner and sat in Varanda for long time looking at rain in the darkness. I couldn’t sleep because I was worried about my life.
I am getting late for work now.
Tata
Venkat
I have already wrote an article on this topic but felt like telling this story again!. I don’t wanna name the temple since my interest is just to tell the story so that people can understand there’s a better way to lead life.
