A Heart-Breaking & Shocking Truth
We
keep reading / listening about the various stories of beggars. Beggars are not
welcome anywhere in the world. Honestly, I feel no body becomes the beggar by
choice. Situational circumstances compel a person to beg. But now-a day we also
listen that many has opted this as a profession and even certain anti-social elements
are running mafia; forces innocent children to beg. We always have sympathy
about the beggars thinking that these peoples have no proper place to live and
not able to afford two meals a day. But this doesn’t apply to all. Am sure, you
must have heard about Mr. Bharat Jain, the richest beggar in the world from
Mumbai. As per Aug 2021 data, Mr. Jain earns about 2500 INR per day by begging
for 8 to 10 hours a day. No doubt, this is more than a average Indian earning.
More shocking; Mr. Jain owns two 1 BHK apartments and one shop (rented out) in
Mumbai. Income from rent is in addition to his begging income. Let’s stop here
as have no intention to highlight or discuss this today. So, what I want to
impress is that beggars are not unknown to India and one can always find them
in plenty at crowded places such as railways stations, bus stands, temples,
tourist place so on.
In
June 2021, I went to Shri Kshetra Gangapur with family. This is very holy place
and famous Dattatray Peeth, associated with Shri Narasimha Sarasvati Swami, an
incarnation of Lord Dattatray. This is on the bank of the Bhima River in
Azalpur taluka in Gulbarga district of Karnataka. This place is about 42 kms. from
Gulbarga railway station, about 105 kms by road from Solapur (Maharashtra) and
about 250 kms from Hyderabad (Telangana). One can find more details about this
place from the below link.
Sri Kshetra Gangapur - Dattatreya Devsthan (dattatreyatemple-gangapur.org)
As we know, one can found beggars in abundant
numbers at temples, places for worships and tourist spots. Shri Kshetra
Gangapur is no exception. In fact, considering the popularity of this temples among
devotees (very powerful shaktipeeth of Lord Dattatray), was expecting more
beggars at this place. This was my first visit to this place and was stunned to
see the number of beggars. Before we get down from the car in the paid car
parking area, we were surrounded by about 8 – 10 beggars. This number further
increased. From car parking till we enter the temple, we were surrounded,
accompanied, escorted by about 12 to 15 beggars continuously begging for money.
As we approached near the temple, these beggars were joined by the peoples
eager to perform pooja, archana, abhishek on your behalf; of course, for the
money. We were surrounded by so many peoples and believe by design; they formed
a group of 4 to 5 beggars targeting each member of our family. We were unable
to speak with each other’s. Was wondering number of beggars around us. Were
very much annoyed by the time we enter the temple and started showing the signs
of losing the temper, cool. This place is very powerful and full of positive energy
but were so unfortunate, were not able to enjoy the peace and refill ourselves
with the divine positive energy because of this nuisance. We came back feeling
very sad and dejected.
On
19th Oct 2022, seen / heard a news that the dead body of a elderly
woman has been eaten by stray dogs on 18th Oct at Gangapur, the
temple city. Who was this woman and what was she doing there? Immediately,
remembered our experience of beggars at Gangapur and thought she might be one
of the beggars which turn out to be correct. Once again started thinking;
though will find beggars near any temple; why so many at this temple. After
reading the news article further, was shocked for the life time.
Old
woman who was died on 18th Oct and was eaten by stray dogs, was
actually abandoned at this pilgrimage place. With a great shock understand
further devotees, mostly from Maharashtra and Karnataka, abandon aged and
mentally ill family members at this place / temple. This practice is continued
since many years with a belief that if these peoples stays few days / months at
temple or temple town, they will be cured. Another possible reason (very
difficult to digest) could be to get rid of elderly / aged family members /
parents. It’s very simple; Visit the temple with aged family members; get
misplaced / rid of (???) and return without aged family members. Because of old
age, illness these peoples are not able to remember their home address, city or
contact number. Even if somebody remember, they do not want to share simply
because they were abandoned by these same close (?) relatives. What happens to
the dead body? As these peoples has no family contact / trace, last rites of
the dead are done by temple trust. Number of abandoned peoples must be very
high; may be more than 100 persons.
Because
of this incident administration will be in action for some time. They will try
to keep a eye on the peoples who are abandoning the aged family members or will
try to provide help / basic amenities to such peoples. But how many days
government can do this? Why we should expect govt. to do this? We take a huge
pride in our Indian culture, heritage, respect for elders / parents. We even
perform the pooja of animals. Then can we not be responsible enough? Can we not
effectively follow / adhere to our Indian culture and stop this shameful act.
Instead of government, we need to held ourselves responsible for this and it’s
our responsibility to correct ourselves and in turn our society. Let’s do it
and let’s be proud of our Indian culture.
