A visit to Mumbai’s Siddhi Vinayak Temple
Karuna Sharma gives an extremely lively and vivid account of a trip to Mumbai’s most famous and busy temple - the Siddhi Vinayak Temple…the exhilaration of the crowds, the disappointment at the corruption and heavy security, the peace of the inner sanctorum…
February 26th, 2007 at 10:32 am
So you bribed the officials of Ganpati Bappa. What a good way of parying to your Lord. Besides corrupt temple officials you also missed one important thing - how dirty is the pathway to Siddhi Vinayak. The road is pot-holed, duing the rains full of mud and during dry season full of dust. Temple has mountains of money but none of it is spent on the infrastructure around. Cleanliness is not our strong point any way. How many of our temples are clean - visit some of them in Benaras, Vrindavan, Mathura Allahabad, and Nasik. You are mobbed by greedy temple officials, Prasad sellers, all sorts of vendors. Every time you go to a big Hindu place of worship you come out a little less spiritual.
February 28th, 2007 at 1:26 am
I agree, something should be done about these nuisances! they are killing peoples experience in the house of the Supreme Lord
March 3rd, 2007 at 6:54 am
It’s a bit ironic on one hand complaining about the corruption and on the other hand contributing to it by bribing the security.
Still - I don’t totaly blame you. If there is a choice of waiting four hours or paying a few dozen rupees on a hot day, it sure would be tempting…
March 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I passed by the mandir and from the street level it does not look like a Mandir anymore. Due to the high walls constucted around it. Actually it looks like a mid size apartment building if in was not for the mandir structure visible from the top. They really destroyed the outside view.
March 10th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Sisters&Brothers, India is the most spiritual country on earth. We were fortunate to visit most of the popular temples in India. We visited Siddhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai a few times.
In India there is no place any where which is clean and corrupt free that includes Temples of God. We go to these holy places to imbibe the sacredness and the power that eminates. We should not give any importance to other things. If one feels to have clean and corrupt free, difficult to get and the best place for these our own hearts and let us assess our hearts how clean and corrupt free. May be one in a million! Let us forget everything except the devotion and the sacredness of the holy places.
Happy pilgrimage.
Aum Namah Sivaya Sivaya Namah Aum
March 10th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
^^^ That’s all well and good, bro, but we should also strive to improve things and not just accept them the way they are.
Personally, I will try my bloody best to ensure that such sacrilege of our sacred sites doesn’t exist by the time I die. Easier said than done, I know, but it can and must be done.
Aum
May 17th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Reference Dangerous’ very noble mission as stated above, Swami Vivekananda once said, “Things are not bettered, but we are bettered, by making changes in them.”
March 26th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I too have visited this beautiful mandir and was deeply saddened by the corrupt guards and the amount of pressure to leave the temple. We must have had no more than 5 whole minutes inside and the shouting of the priests for us to leave made me really rather stressed and uncomfortable. I know of much better, less commercial mandirs in India and i will choose to visit those in place of sidhi vinayak.