I had written few weeks back about the Sabarimala pilgrimage.  My focus then was on the fact that a place where millions of people come every year exists and how it could be managed better as a economic and cultural opportunity.

I am again on this topic, but this time my focus is on the entire tamasha ongoing under the very nose of Sami Ayyappan. Take the following scandals which came to light in the last one year.

1.  The father of the priest at the Malikappuram temple accuse Vellappally Natesan, the Charismatic leader of SNDP of influence in swindling upto 45 lakhs from his son. The complaint was sent to the less charismatic but perhaps more influential leader of NSS, Mr Narayana Panicker. In the end the fight became one between NSS and SNDP. There were street protest arranged by SNDP against NSS and press statements by NSS on SNDP leader.

I found it very amusing, but what stood out is the following. The fact that the jobs of the chief priest in these temples is getting increasingly lucrative. If Malikappuram Shanthi gets upto 45 lakhs, how much will the Melshanthi in ayyappan temple will get ?. I was also told that once you get this job at least one year, then your regular market value for puja elsewhere also go up. So in the end it, eligible candidate, will try to try their best to get into this job. One should therefore not be surprised if there is money changing hand, like for posting in Valayar checkpost. The question really is why is Ayyappan not taking care for this ?.

My friends from other communities often think that all Nairs are NSS and Narayanapanicker is some sort of religous leader. Nothing can be farther from truth. In fact I have never been to any NSS function. The only time I went to the local NSS office was when we had to get a letter from the local NSS to get admission to the NSS co-operative training college. Guess what, we had to pay money to the local office as well as the college to get admission, nair or otherwise. Did we get any concession because we were nair, i dont know. But what I certainly know is that NSS or Narayanapanicker does not represent nairs. They represent the various colleges and institutions they have built up using the Nair brand. Good for them !!.

2.  The Thanthri of Sabarimala was caught with two women in a flat in Ernakulam. It turned out that this was all part of a blackmail racket which has been ongoing for sometime. The investigations are ogoing.

3. There has been multiple allegations of corruption against the officials of Travencore Devaswam Board

4. There were specific scandals about the purchase of goods for Sabarimala and they provision of food for devotees.

The police is working on the scandals, devaswam minister is working on cleaning up the board, high court is working on briging those responsible to book. For people like me, there is a simple question. What is Ayyapan doing about all these. If he want to sort these out, he can sort all these out in a flash. Why doesn't he ?

Now one of the advantage of Hindu religious practice is that one could use astrology to find the preference of the God. So important decisions in temple is made after doing "Devaprashnam" by knowledgeable astrologers.

The last astrological session in Sabarimala to get Devahitham turned out to be a Tamasha of the highest degree. The astrologer made some predictions and then set up his followers to sent faxes to the temple office substantiating his predictions.

Why wasn't there a lightning when this nonsense was going on right in front of Ayyappans eyes ?. Why is that the police and politicians has to sort out the misdeeds which are going in his name right under his nose ?.

To an objective observer, there are only two answers. One Ayyapan don't care. It does not matter to him if his thantri is with women, being blackmailed or his astrologer is setting up stories. It is therefore upto us, the faithful to defeat these people around him. And our way, use your money wisely. Dont pay to the thanthri, melshanti or devaswam board. Go and pray, please. But keep the money with yourself. Once the money is taken out of the equation most of these fraudulent charectors will also take off and real faithfuls will return to the jobs.

When I went to Sabarimala, my brogther in law told me the following. There are lot of people sitting along the way seeking your money in various forms in the name of Ayyappan. But the only person who is honest is Pandalam Raja, he only ask for himself. So let us pay to him.