A temple of unification

Anyone who has seen the new Hindi flick, PK will surely agree that religion has become one big mass of madness. From being a way of life, it has today become an issue which divides and polarizes people though the objective of all faiths remains the same – seek the Truth and eternal happiness.

Thus in all this madness and chaos of PK and religion, the news that a small village in Kerala is maintaining an over 50 years old Buddha temple even though there is not a single Buddhist there was very heart warming. It went on restore some faith that people when driven by pure love and doing one’s duties, will rise much beyond the rigours of religion.

This temple in Kakkayur village hosts a small shrine of Buddha, built under a Bodhgaya tree. The origin of this temple lay in the tree. Some 65 years ago, a local farmer, a Hindu, with a penchant for travelling to religious and culturally rich places around India, brought back a seed from the Bodhi tree of Bodhgaya. He planted this seed back in his village and it soon flourished into another beautiful Bodhi or Pipal tree. Later, he got a small idol made from Colombo using his own funds and he then contacted the Mahabodhi Movement in Chennai to install the idol in the small temple below the tree.

Ever since then, this village with no Buddhists, has its residents taking turns to light candles on a daily basis in the temple. This is probably one of the rarest of the rare temples in the world, where a Buddha temple is maintained by people of other faiths. Now isn’t that how religion is actually supposed to be? I

Today, Kakkayur temple is gaining some limelight and people from across the state pay a visit to see this ‘unifying’ temple. Truly a wonderful example of the true meaning of religion and faith. Hope it stays away from the eyes of so-called preserves of religion, else they will lay claim and draw a dividing line.