NEW DELHI -- Thousands of Indians living abroad are logging on to religious Web sites in the run-up to the main Hindu festival of Diwali, courtesy of a stream of portals offering such services as online praying and blessings.
Oct. 21 marks the beginning of the five-day Hindu festival of lights, and some of the millions of Indians living in countries such as Britain, the United States and Canada are electronically joining in the celebrations back home.
For prices ranging from $8 to $15, religious portals are offering prayer sessions for tech-savvy devotees at temples in India, sending them a DVD of the prayer and offerings such as dried flowers or vermilion, blessed by a priest.
Worshipers can also pick up idols, incense sticks and religious books from these holy Web malls, all at the click of a mouse.
The number "of people registering online for puja [prayer] during this festival season has surged almost three to four times from the normal days," said Mervyn Jose of Saranam, an India-based site, http://www.saranam.com/.
About 60 percent of Saranam's clients are living overseas, the majority of whom are Indian information technology professionals in their thirties, who are too busy or too distant to get to a temple.
"It is technology which is enabling us to reach the Gods at the click of a mouse," says Jose, a former engineer.
But despite most major temples and religious organizations having their own Web sites, many are not happy with the modern version of worshipping God.
"Though priests perform pujas for our clients, they are not all happy doing it, even the temple authorities and trusts are not very encouraging," says Jose, who offers clients a list of about 150 temples across India to do their prayer sessions.
However, some priests are sympathetic to the new breed of devotees.
"Time is changing and so are devotees, they don't have so much time and they live very far," said Gopal Pujari, a priest at the revered Vaishno Devi shrine in India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. "But they have devotion in heart and despite all the constraints, they still remember God in any which way they can."
By Onkar Pandey
Reuters, Saturday, October 7, 2006
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