So the hour of Jagati Puchch or the Dev Sansad finally came and the Gods gave their verdict that Alfred Ford… Sorry… Amrish cannot build the ski village. Reports in media circles haven’t given any reasons – why the Gods objected to it.
A few years ago, I’d gone to Kiari village – one of the richest villages in Asia – in Kotkhai, Shimla. Their chief deity is Devta Bendra. As it always happens that people have the greed to encroach upon any extra inch they can find… people had their roofs protruding out onto the public pathways. The Devta ordered a decree that these be demolished and the path be kept open. And the order was carried out in a jiffy. But had any human being taken up the cudgels and gone to the court, it would have taken years with a stay and all. The paths would have been still encroached with a meagre fine paid. Or may be the guy who’d encroached would have just won the case. But the ethereal intervention had all houses clearing up the path.
In another instance… Devta Banaad of village Mandal, Jubbal celebrates Bishu on April 14. The Devta every year shifts his base to another village in the region. And every year – one organisation – Raanvi Vikas Sabha, organises a function, which has schools and colleges and people participating in competitive games, dances, debates, etc. So that year, may be 15-years ago, the Sabha had organised the function in village Pujarali on Bishu day. The Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was the Chief Guest and was accompanied by the local MP – Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri. Now remember that Shimla is a reserved seat.
While the Chief Minister paid obeisance to the deity at the temple there, Sultanpuri’s entrance was objected by the local people insisting that a person from a lower caste cannot go inside the temple or touch the palanquin of the deity. Sultanpuri sheepishly went back to his seat without raising a voice.
The point here is that even the government or the people in power at times do fear the Gods. After all, the government too has human beings only. And we have already seen in case of Ayodhya what religion can do. And I am convinced that the government too now would roll up the Ford project. And after all why not, it has to win elections also. It has to respect the feelings of the people if they have to come to power.
I just wish that these Gods had intervened long time back when people had started destruction of the ecology – felling trees, throwing garbage, etc.
I just wish another Dev Sadan is organised, where the Gods pass an order that trees won’t be cut down. Instead on every Sankranti (first day of the month of Hindu calendar… a day when the deities are worshipped), or Bishu or Jagra or other festivals, the deities supervise tree plantation, and that they are taken care of.
The question though remains that why do Gods have to be brought in, when human beings have been adorned with grey cells, which can be used for just basic common sense? Common sense is really very uncommon.
Instead deities have been often invoked to score personal scores. They are bribed with a sacrificial lamb – khadoo (Ram) or a bakra (goat) or a bhed (sheep). Who can accept what depends on the hierarchy of the deities.
May I pray to these deities to refrain from falling into petty issues and retain their divinity.
jai devta bendra maharaj ghyaal ! This article very rightly states how devta bendra had asked all the people to demolish their roofs or certain rooms that were inching on top of public pathways and i wont hesitate in saying that certain rooms of my house had to be demolished courtesy to the just decision taken by devta bendra maharaj ! It was infact a divine decision taken by devta maharaj and though my house was a part of the demolition i have nothing but respect for devta bendra and my devotion for devta maharaj has only increased overtime ! I am absolutely in sync with the article when the writer says that such decisions should be taken by deities or devtas more often to save the environment and to build a better society and to retain the piousness of dev bhoomi himachal !
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