Scams at Sangam & Vindhya-Vaasini Temple, Allahabad

Vibhu Jindal

Now,
after visiting these places i realized what rip-offs operate in these places and how the so called priests or "punda's" ( so called in local dialect) have demeaned the religion for sake of rupees.
We being Indians born and brought up here, were prayed upon ...I can only imagine the plight of foreign travellers.

First the case of Sangam:

On reaching the ghat immediatly few guys sitting around the starting of parking area tried us to direct us at some other parking lot where they could falsly charge us some parking fee. We didnt pay any heed to their directions and parked our car very near to the boats as other cars were also parked there.
Then came the boat guy, who seeing me in short and tee-shirt thought me to be some NRI, though i was accompanied by my mother who was in Saree. He approached us and started off in broken english that how would he love to take us till Sangam and row us back for mere charge of Rs. 300
Now It was my turn around and bluntly replied to him that i wont give more a penny more than Rs. 100 for the round trip ( it was said in Perfect local dialect) ....he got the message and agreed...meanwhile other rowers also rushed in eeing us he waived them off by saying "Are o chiruve, angrez nahi hai ....ihaa ke hi hai". This meant that " hey you dumb fools, thiey are from here only ..they ain't foreigners".
The moment we got in boat he again started haggling us for extra "Bakshish", we kept our foot down and coldly replied that we ain't gonna pay more than Rs. 100 and nothing more...he agreed.
On reaching the sangam planks...came the priests who volunteered their puja services...ok..volunteer would be wrong word rather it was shoved on us as it is a sort of cartel where u cant step on plank to take dip in Sangam unless you agree to perform puja under them.
After 5 mins of Puja they asked for voluntary donation in the name of god, we voluntarly agreed to donate Rs. 51, the priest said why not Rs. 101 ( and again i must tell you that they insist on calling it voluntary)...
After the end of all this tantrum we went back to boat for being rowed back, the priest approached us in the boat asking for " only Rs. 501" more so that he can feed 11 brahmins on our part so that it may make our ancestors life better in the other world. Despite our telling him that we dont want to do it, he kept on insisting that we do it, this blew my lid off...I very willingly ticked him off. While we are making our way back another boat with a "Sadhu" or so called holy man got hold of our boat and started chanting holy mantras and starting asking for donation in the name of god ( "Poor God")...
On reaching the banks, the boat man to whom we have made it clear that he gona get Rs. 100 only and nothing more, started throwing tantrums that we willingly gave money to priests and other people and we couldnt spare few extra bucks for him as "Bakshish". Now ppl i must clarify that total distance he rowed us did not take more than 7 to 8 minutes i.e. bank to Sangam and back....and the usuall rate is Rs. 70 but we were willing to pay him more in hope that in the end he dosent haggle us for more but here he was doing ehat we wanted to avoid ....he even wen to the extent of refusing to accept Rs. 100 we had promised him in order to crate a scene...I walked off after layng the promised money in fornt of him.....

Now few things that visitor to Sangam should take care of especially if you are foreigner :

1. Normal charges for boat hiring from Bank to Sangam and back is Rs. 70-100 and no way should any body agree to pay thiose outrageous amounts for some 10 mins boat ride. Foreigners especially need to take care.

2. I personally didnt feel that "Sangam" needs any worship and if you dont want to do any puja or such things and definately do not want to be fleeced by those disgusting priests kindly dont forget to make it abundantly clear to the boat man that u dont want to perform any puja or such thing and neither should he make any attempt to bring you in contact with any priest.

3. One common trick used by these priests on those people who choose to perform puja is that after the puja seems to be complete in the end they ask you to perform a ritual in which they will ask you to offer ceremonial coconuts to the river. They wil not tell you that along with the coconuts they will hand you some 100 rupee not to submerge in water which they retrieve the moment you let it go in water ( along with the coconuts which they again use for performing pujas with other people).....they will ask you to do so for each member of ur family ....suppose u perform puja for 3 people and u perform this ritual for three people then at the end of all this they will claim that they have offered rs. 300 ( 100 per person) to godess Ganga on ur behalf so u should pay them back the money.

Dont let them do this to you .........

Even if you want to perform puja then in the start only make it clear that you wont give more than such amount and refuse to perform the last ritual as explained in point 3

4. while making your way to Sangam never be misled by ppl directing you to park ur vehicle here or there, park at nearest possible spot where you see a lot of vehicles parked.

Travellers from abroad and Us Indians both need to take care so that we do not fall prey to these rip-offs.


Vindhya-Vaasini Temple, 80 Kms from Allahabad:

Another place where i beleive that poor goddess is being held hostage by money crazy priests. Its a remote area and when you make ur way to he temple immediately you are faced by tout cum priest who works hand in hand with the chief priests who handle the offerings in the inner sanctum of the temple....It is immposibble to enter the main shrine without taking thehelp of these touts as they have formed a cartel who virtually dosent let anybody in if he or she refuses to take their service....in short they are local strongmen. everyone inside the temple seems to be asking for offering ( again called as "voluntary" offering). This was by far the worst religious place that i have ever visited in my life, before this i thought that nothing can be worse than being harrased by these priests at Jagannath Puri.
The hight of harrasment was when while in the inner sanctum we made an offering of "Prasad" (symbolic offering which is usually returned back to the offerer after symbolic offering to the god), while doing so we handed the money that we offered and the prasad that we ffered were handed to different priests due to the confusion created by immense crowd out there, the priest who was handed the Prasad, inquired that arent we making any monetary offering and held back the prasad which he was supposed to return to us so that we make some monetary offering, here we stood our ground and told him that we already have made it but has been handed to the other priest .......he tried to overlook what we were saying but due to increasing crowd pressure and us not yielding to his demand he returned us back our prasad.

What was supposed to be a pilligrimage turned out to be a horror story.
I was deeply ashamed of such blatant rigging going on at such religious places, have been to religious places of all faiths be it of Hindus, Muslims, sikhs, christians, Bhuddists even have visited Bhahai temple and Jewish Synagogues, but being an hindu it hurts me the most that how we have demeaned our religion by turning it into a mean to harrass and fleece people out of money, hve never seen such scenes or rigging at any Mosque, Church, Gurudwara or bhuddist monastry........

I think its best that these places are avoided by both Indians and foreign travellers

sego

Vibhu,
I have been fleeced quite a few times in India at holy sites, temples, as a Hindu I was disappointed to visit my ancestors motherland after 165 years. I am quite involved also in the Hindu movement here in Canada but I swore after that visit to India I would change my religion, but next time I visit India it will only be sightseeing different areas and no more religious visits.

cyberhippie

It's certainly a theme I've noticed, it's the old adage of money equals salvation, that so many believe in this, is the reason profiteering in religion prevails!!

Sama

I am so glad a native Indian has posted this!
yes, believe me, you can only imagine the temple price gouging of a foreign visitor....

I've returned only 2 weeks ago, and I visited Madurai, Rameswaram, and Tiruvannamallai, three important temple cities. I've stated before that I felt like a walking American $$$$ sign in Madurai. Rameswaram had a different attitude in that regard, but I won't even tell you how many rupees I paid for the bucket guy to pour the water over me at the Rameswaram temple. Yes, I know it is totally my choice to pay whatever, but it is the principle of the thing. Sorry, but it's just not right, ESPECIALLY in a holy place, and especially when I see the prices clearly posted for whatever service or puja.

I've learned that in the temples, a "donation" is clearly not a "donation"! To me, a donation is whatever you can afford to pay. A "donation" is not when a priest puts his hand out and says "51, 101, 501, 1001", not as a question, but as an order, and then gives you a dirty look when you give what you can afford.

__________________
My India, 2005-2008
BE THE REVOLUTION

Digital Drifter

THIS IS NOT A DEFENCE OF THE PRACTISE

From my understanding of these temples where they try this stuff, there are a couple of things which influence the level of this hustling.

If it is a private temple, run by a trust, it's highly possible that this kind of the things happen. Like waiters, the 'tips' are the only ones shared out between the priests. What goes into the Hundial can't be touched. Typically, these priests dont get paid well, so they rig up an entire ruse right from the tout to the flower shop owner to the actual offering.

That's the private scene.

In temples where the GOI pays the salary, it's again a pittance and here they do it with a vengeance. The GOI appointed board handles the temple contracts for the shops and supplies. the ability to make money out of the whole scene ends the day the contracts are awarded for the shops in the temple premises.

That means, they're going to hustle you even more, the only uncontrollable element in the whole process. In most places in S. India you find the 'seva' and 'archana' tickets being sold.

Me thinks that they were established to pevent gouging after people complained.

In both cases, the fact that the purohits are not able get a fixed income negotiated is one of the causes.

CH, happy?

__________________
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Vibhu Jindal

Sego, acts of few thousand hindus shouldn't propell you to renounce ur religion, its not the religion but the people wh are at fault.....just like Acts of islamic fundamentalists isn't a reason for any ordinary muslim to leave his religion niether is this for you to leave it.

Digital Drifter, i believe that your comment has some validity and sense, for example famous temples like Tirupati & Siddhivinayak charge astronomical entry fee for seperate lines in which you can reach faster ( now look at this fact in Tirupati there is a line for which you have to pay Rs. 500 per person and you can reach the inner sanctum within 2 hours.....In Siddhi-Vinayak the line costs Rs. 100 and this is all legal !!!)....so the question arises why is the authority in those temples being partial to those who can afford to pay more.......Does god differentiate between those who can pay or not??

It is a general notion that private trust held temples are in better condition and work better than those taken over by GOI, but the fleecing in private temples are more subtle (like VIP lines, Puja & Archana Tickets, Authorized prasad shops , etc.) and "Legalized" than in those overtaken by GOI.
IT is a truth that the priests and staff of most of temples are payed a pittance. Rare exceptions are the staff of ISCKON.
This is indeed a reason for fleecing people as pointed out by Digital drifter but something that is wrong is wrong.
In general i have noticed this fleecing going on much more among religious sites of hindus than in any religious site of any other religion. Have visited many mazaars, mosques, churches and monastries where the chief priest live like their hindu counterpart but they do not act like them in case of money. ( though i must say Ajmer Sharif was an exception where for the first time i saw muslim priest trying to fleece you out of money).

Digital Drifter

To paraphrase,

Too many temples, too few donations!

If I have a different opinion, it's only about Tirupati, which I've explained before

Tirupati?

capt_mahajan

which is why organised religion is often like organised crime.

Digital Drifter

ding!ding!ding!ding!

We have a winner in Cap's words!