Of what use is such blind worship?

The photo shows the idol of Mahaveera. Behind in the cup board contains rare and ancient Tala Patra (palm leaf) texts. The above photo was taken at the renowned Kanakagiri Jain temple situated in Chamarajanagar district, about 55km from Mysore.

This one photo captures the mindset of the majority of the Indians. Did you observe what is the striking feature of this photo? The rare and ancient Tala Patra, palm leaves on which our ancients once wrote, placed neatly piled in a cupboard covered with cloth!

The 'knowledge' that should have seen the light of the day, is actually rotting in the corner of a cupboard, becoming a good fodder for mites and silverfish. Left like that, it may one day even crumble to dust, given the fragile nature of the palm leaves when left untreated and exposed to light and moisture in the air.

We Indians adore more in worshipping, rather than exploring and understanding and quizzing. Shouldn't we be reading those palm leaves, tyring to understand and analyze what it contained and dwell on the things it had to say? Shouldn't we be displaying posters illustrating what was written on those plam leaves, so that everyone who visited the temple could get an 'insight' as to what it contained?

This way we are doing a grave injustice to the creator of those works, by killing his intentions in not propogating the thoughts he wanted to convey, of whatever inherent value it may have had, rather than using it as a mere idolatry obejct?

But that's how we Indians are. We seek enlightenment through 'blind worship with closed eyes' rather 'active debate with open minds'.