God help us? Donation boxes in Ayodhya, Pune, Kolkata temples overflow

When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of ₹500, ₹1000 notes in the country, he did not know he would be pushing the nation into a religious frenzy.

Many temples in the country witnessed heavy footfall over the past two days. However, this sudden turning to the gods was more thanks to monetary reasons rather than spiritual or religious reasons.

Suddenly a lot of people, who had currency in the regularised denominations, felt that it was a good time to appease gods with donations - saving the lesser denominations for future use. The sudden bhakts poured out the money to their hearts content. Reports from various parts of the country say that donation boxes at famous temples in Ayodhya, Pune, Kolkata and all over South India were slowly getting flooded with ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes. None of the priests, shopkeepers and other merchants near temple towns were accepting the now useless tender leaving pilgrims to give it to god.

At the Tirupati Balaji temple, abode of Lord Venkateswara, considered to be the richest temple in the world, devotees found relief. Temple authorities assured the devotees that they would not need to hunt for change despite the currency ban and all were provided free food and water there.

Other temples in the country are meanwhile thinking of asking the government to provide a solution to their problems. A lot of the donations have been made in the devalued currency and this will affect the temples funds largely. In fact, the next few months, temples are expecting a fall in the number of donations.

• temples
• south
• north
• devotion
• donation