Bum Bum Bole — Maha Shivaratri
On Maha Shivaratri, I visited the Chintpurni Temple in Brampton, Canada. Most devotees arrived with four-litre milk bags to pour over the Shiva Lingam, though many left the task to the temple priest. However, as the priest was occupied distributing prasad, he assigned his nine- or ten-year-old son to handle the milk offerings. The boy used a jug to continuously pour the milk over the lingam, which then flowed straight into the drain. Given the sheer amount of milk, he must have been quite busy that evening. Does pouring (and wasting) milk in this manner really make sense?
I recall a similar incident from my childhood when I was in grade six during our annual exams. Someone in my class suggested that we should all visit the Shiva temple before our annual exams, believing that Shiv Baba would help us score good marks.
The next day, I borrowed a little milk from my mother — milk she had just procured from the DMS booth after considerable effort — and diluted it with plenty of water. (For those who haven’t experienced the hardships of the early seventies in New Delhi, India, milk was rationed to about a litre per family, and even obtaining that required standing in line for over an hour!) I took my diluted milk to the local Shiva temple and poured it over the Shiva Lingam, continuing this ritual for two or three days.
However, a thought began to trouble me — I felt as if I was cheating, trying to bribe God for better marks. Eventually, I decided to stop going to the temple on exam days, despite my schoolmates trying to scare me into continuing. In the end, I still scored just as well in all my exams!
Perhaps we should be grateful for what God has already given, rather than constantly asking for more.
