naayi padu

An old post from an old blog. 

It was late in the evening. I was walking on the street to purchase curds. Suddenly it started raining - pouring heavily. I ran and ran with all my might to the near by temple.

See! This is dramatization. It was evening but did I say it was dark? Nor was it lonely. It was a busy street. 

Nor did I run a kilometer. Temple was just across the street. Then why did I run ? It was raining, right. I did not want to get drenched completely. 

Why temple? Why not? Though I have not made up my mind whether to be an atheist or a budhdhist or a plain half-believing  hindu, waiting for the rain to subside in a temple is better than waiting outside a grocery shop for the crab  I am (Less people in the temple you see. If you do not include the multitude of Gods!)

I made one circumambulation  of God (pradakshina) or rather Gods. There are 3 of them (I am not a believer of holy-trinity. In that temple, there were three gods). I did one big bowing as well. See Ramdev says namaskara is a good exercise. 

Then I saw small smaller-minor gods - navagrahas. One pradikshina for them as well. As they say in Kannada "baggidalle pakkada mane attegu ondu namaskara".  Then I sat with my eyes closed.

Tan, dan, dan, dan, dan...... I jumped up. Ooooooooo. What on the earth was happening? It was mangalarathi accompanied by ringing of bells.  

And at the same time a dog outside the temple started howling . And he kept on saying oooooo till the arathi was completed. 

Turns out this is his daily ritual. His accompaniment to the puja. 

Why could be the dog howling? It is not because he is startled. That may not be true as he knows this happens every day.

Is it because in our punya bhumi even dogs are devout? Or is he telling "Your religion is your religion, people. Why are you torturing me with noise ?" (The way we feel when the temples play remixed Bhajans with terrible lyrics sung in most harsh, discordant voice?)

May be the dog was paying his gratitude "Thank you God, You did not send me to this earth as   a woman. An Indian woman, in particular. My sins in my previous incarnations were not large enough to be made into a woman".