Are paid pujas done in temple not commercialization of religion?

Answer Podcast

That we can acquire, in that sense they are considered so sometimes in the temples people take some money and they do some, they ask somebody to do some puja there are different ways of the basic principle we understand that we offer something to Krishna and in any relationship there is give and take so we offer something to Krishna and Krishna gives something to us so when we want Krishna to come in our heart so now we want to offer our heart to Krishna so Krishna can enter into our heart but our heart is caught in so many things so when we can’t offer our heart to Krishna we offer what is in our heart to Krishna now what is in our heart one thing that is prominently there is money so when we offer money the point is not so much to offer money the point is to offer a part of our heart to Krishna by that we give a place in our heart as some people say that when I become financially strong at that time I will give huge charity to Krishna it’s good that intention but charity is not just an activity charity is a mentality that you know whatever I have, it all belongs to Krishna so I should give a part of it to Krishna so if we have little, from that we can give a small part if we have a lot, from that we can give a part so rather than focusing on specific activity we can focus on the principle so now, yes in some temples now in what consciousness say somebody is offering some money, some pooja is being done that consciousness can be entirely business like utilitarian so the priest doing it may be in a very business like mood they are simply trying to get money the people who are sponsoring the worship they may also be thinking in a completely as I said, karma can’t develop, material or sometimes those kind of practices may also become a devotion in you sometimes somebody may want to offer something to the lord and the pooja is performed or then say somebody is in our family is sick and we do a say in Ugra Narasimha pooja is there, somebody is sick and please remove the obstacles that’s fine, the more than the form, the intent is important so devotees who are focused on trying to serve Krishna purely, if they are doing this the pujais are, may be pure devotees are atleast aspiring pure devotees they are striving for sadhana bhakti then even if the external forms seem to be very mundane there will be a strong bhakti thread underlying what is done there and when we are doing it if we see it as not so much as a way of some people see worship or prayer as a way of almost like manipulating the lord I do this and then I’ll get him to do this through this we don’t see it that way, we see it just as a way of expressing our devotion our surrender to the lord in a specially intensified way it is said in the Chetan Charita Amrit that when Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Mata, the parents of Jagannath Mishra they had several children, unfortunately all the children passed away at that time infant mortality was very high, so after that what happened, then when it happened multiple times they started worshipping the lord with Govinda kare vishesha smara, vishesha bhajan that means special, more intense worship of the lord, and then they got Vishwaroop and Vishwamitra these two glorious sons so it is not it is natural that when there is some distress, there is some there are some problems, there will be an intensification of devotion and there can also be a prayer for relief from that particular grief, it’s fine as long as we don’t make our relationship with Krishna restrict to that alone and we don’t make our relationship with Krishna conditional to the fulfillment of that particular desire then these sort of these sort of situations and actions can be seen simply as forms by which we can intensify our relationship does it answer your question?