Blessings just a away

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Ancient Hindu blessings a click away

 

By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 24, 2007

VARANASI, INDIA

 

Visitors to this ancient city are invariably struck by its

timelessness, the feeling that life is as it was a thousand

years ago. The faithful still bathe at dawn in the holy waters

of the Ganges, the bereaved cremate their dead on hazy

funeral pyres, and pilgrims trace a well-trodden circuit of

temples and shrines that seem as numerous as the stars.

 

But India is nothing if not a land of collisions between past

and present. And now the country that refined the ancient

practice of Hinduism and the modern practice of

outsourcing has found a way to marry the two in Varanasi.

At its most venerable house of worship, dedicated to the god

Shiva, outsourcing your prayers is possible with the click of

a mouse.

 

 

Got an appeal for better health, or a nicer boss? Want a rich

mate, or better grades for your kids? If you can't make the

pilgrimage here, an Internet connection and a small fee can

book you the services of a priest at the Vishwanath Temple

who will, as Indians like to say, " do the needful " for your

plea to be heard on high.

 

" It's a demand of this day and age, " said Radhey Shyam

Pathak, who runs the temple's daily affairs. " This was not

possible even 10 years back. There are many people who

wish to come here but cannot. We can help. "

 

The temple went online in August, and within a month

received 180,000 hits on its website,

shrikashivishwanath.org.

 

That is more than double the average number of devotees

who show up in person every month, braving difficult

journeys, the smelly warren of narrow alleys leading to the

temple, the security pat-downs outside the entrance and the

gantlet of vendors hawking sweets, garlands of marigolds

and jasmine, and other religious paraphernalia.

 

Cyber-worshipers can be spared all of that -- and in the

bargain save some time, a commodity in increasingly short

supply for the growing cohort of middle-class Indians busy

with the trappings of secular affluence, from attending

cocktail parties to shuttling their children to after-school

tutorials.

 

Besides outsourcing a puja, or prayers and obeisances,

visitors to the Vishwanath Temple's website can enjoy a

virtual audience with the Shiva lingam, the phallus-shaped

symbol that represents the deity and resides in the temple's

inner sanctum. Animated icons shower the sacred image

with offerings of flowers or milk. Hymns and chants drone

through the speakers.

 

" This is an association of religion and science -- old beliefs

and new ways to follow them, " said Abhishek Drolia, one of

the website's designers.

 

Going high-tech is the latest twist in the history of the

Vishwanath Temple, which for a thousand years has been

home to one of the most important Shiva lingams in India.

The city, formerly known as Benares, is the center of the

Hindu universe, so holy that anyone who dies here is said to

immediately achieve moksha, or liberation from the cycle of

rebirth and death.

 

Other well-known shrines around India also have gone into

cyberspace, and officials here were keen not to be left

behind, especially with millions of Hindus living on distant

shores.

 

" It's another way of broadcasting the message of the

temple, " Pathak said. " It's being mindful that we benefit all

mankind. "

 

The temple's 22 priests are " gradually adjusting " to serving

digital devotees, Pathak said, adding that the prayers

conducted for those who book their services online are no

different from those for adherents who appear in person.

 

Whether the effect of the prayers is the same, on the god or

the believer, depends on one's point of view.

 

Shashi Menon, an electronics engineer, stumbled upon the

temple's website by accident and ordered a puja on behalf of

his 5-year-old son, Sridhar. Menon, 44, lives near Mumbai,

in western India; Varanasi is almost clear across the

subcontinent.

 

" We knew we wouldn't be able to go there in the near

future, " Menon said.

 

He acknowledges that purists might take issue with Web-

surfing worshipers like him, but that does not decrease the

" psychological satisfaction " he felt in having a puja

performed for his son in absentia. Ultimately, he said, " it's

all about faith. "

 

" If you were to look at it in a more religious context or

orthodox, conservative manner, then it's obviously not the

right way to do a puja. You need to be present, " Menon

said. " But in modern times, you've got to use modern

means. "

 

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