All of us wondered a good deal about what we could do to make our temples even a tiny bit cleaner than they are- and that led me to Mr. Aadalarasan's Uzhavaarap Pani Mandram, which operates from Velachery (Chennai). They select one temple every month, and spend the first sunday of that month in that temple, cleaning it from the front door to the moss-covered well in the temple courtyard. Saint Appar is supposed to be the forerunner in this- and today (6th april), I had my first real taste of what Uzhavaarap pani was really like.
I'll admit- I was nervous. Scrubbing and brushing is ok when you're at home, but how did one go about it in a temple? Who would supply the brushes? What would we do for water? Who was I supposed to go to for directions? Would we work as a team or were we supposed to go our own sweet way, cleaning whatever we felt like?
It didn't work like that at all.:-).
When I entered the Komaleeswarar temple (in Pudhupet) at 8.30 AM, people were already hard at work. Mr. Aadalarasan (henceforth Mr. A) was distributing bread slices, men were carting away baskets of dirt- and in a veranda, women were scrubbing away the temple utensils, kavasams and other 'pithalai' ornaments. I walked over to them, wondering how I was supposed to participate, when someone handed me a utensil, a bucket of water, and some thengai naar- and before I knew it, I had finished with the vessels and started on the tiny sannithi of Dhakshinaamurthy.
How much dirty can a small shrine get? But Lord Dakshinamurthy's sannithi was chock-full of soot ( the work of years of oil lamps), oil, paper scraps and what-not. The Lord himself was looking rather pathetic, in the middle of all that dirt. (I almost heard Him screaming 'Clean me!')
And so it went on, for four hours.
What was amazing was the way people went out of their way to help each other. One lady adopted me, and took care of me so well (from giving me water and brushing leaves off my head)- that I hardly felt a first-timer. We swept, brushed, scrubbed and wiped stones, marble floors and shrines of deities. Around us, dozens of people wre busy, clearing out the rubble in the nandavanam area, removing blocks in clogged drains, digging the ground for fresh plants, and carting off debris. Small kids, trained very well, ran around offering butter-milk and paanagam for those who needed it. (an additional bonus- kuchi ice- shaved ice chips dipped in sugar syrup:-)
Make no mistake, it was back-breaking work. The sun was scorching, perspiration dripped all over the place, the wind dropped to nil, and the whole temple was reeking with the smell of washing powder, mud and wet leaves. It was hot, hot, hot.
That only made things better when we crowded into the make-shift rest area (the Kalyana mandapam within the temple complex). Even the sluggish fan seemed to be equal to a luxurious AC. After an hour of bhajanai- it was lunch-time. And what a lunch.
One had to keep remembering that all this was free, provided by willing volunteers, who believed in this work. And they've been doing this for a looooong time. And the way Mr. A goes around with a smile, encouraging people to get on with their work is phenomenal.
At the end of it all, one invariable leaves, satisfied, that one has done something(just a tiny bit) worthwhile.