I visited a famous Shiva temple and came back disturbed
Visited a famous Shiva temple near Bangalore recently, known for having koti lingams (almost 1 crore Shiva statues).
Honestly, I came back more disturbed than peaceful.
From the entrance itself it felt more like business than devotion. Everywhere people forcing malas, pujas, special rituals, prasadam, asking money at every step. One pujari literally asked me “don’t you want to get married?” when I refused a paid abhishekam.
Even inside the temple, everything felt transactional. Blessings, flowers, rituals all connected to money somehow.
I’m not against donations. Temples need money to run. But this felt different. Aggressive. Emotional pressure everywhere.
I usually love small local temples because they still feel peaceful and genuine.
Maybe people will say “this is normal.”
But honestly… I don’t think this should be normal.
As an Indian, this genuinely hurt me. Temples are supposed to make people feel equal before God, not feel like customers.
And if this is what I felt as someone born here, I can only imagine what foreigners visiting India for spirituality must be thinking.