Not Just Idols: The People Who Keep Faith Alive

Manika | May 13, 2025, 15:59 IST

( Image credit : Freepik )

I used to think temples were just about the gods—grand gopurams, Sanskrit chants, and divine legends too large for everyday life. But then I met the 82-year-old priest at a forgotten temple in Bundi, Rajasthan, who still starts his morning aarti with a joke to Lord Ram, saying, “Thoda muskura bhi diya karo… log dar jaate hain aap se." That one line changed how I saw devotion.This isn’t a travelogue or a mythology explainer. This is a walk through the dusty courtyards and moss-covered steps of temples you won’t find on Instagram. It’s a tribute to the people who keep them alive, not through grand rituals, but through quietly showing up every day, chai in hand and heart wide open.

Beyond the Gods: The Human Backbone of Temples

Pandit Ji performing Aarti

( Image credit : Unsplash )

Ask any local near a centuries-old temple, and you won't get verses from scriptures. You'll get stories:

Of how their great-grandmother once fed all 50 pilgrims from a single pot.
Of the man who paints the temple wall every Diwali with leftover wedding paint.
Of a monkey that stole prasad and became a kind of unofficial deity.

Mythology tells us what happened. But people tell us what it meant.

The Temples We Never Talk About

Everyone's heard of Kedarnath and Tirupati. But what about:

The Rat Temple in Deshnoke, where devotion comes with a side of squeaks?
The temple inside a tree in Jharkhand, where villagers believe even leaves carry blessings?
The temple run by trans women in Tamil Nadu, where the divine takes on more than one form?

These aren’t anomalies. These are reminders that devotion isn’t always polished. Sometimes it’s raw, loud, messy—and incredibly real.

Why We Need to Look Beyond Mythology

Mythology is vital. It gives context, continuity, and culture. But it can also feel far away—like a bedtime story told in someone else’s voice.

The old woman lighting diyas for a god she scolds like her grandson? That’s not mythology. That’s memory. That’s emotion. That’s India.

We forget that for every epic, there are thousands of everyday epics happening in tiny temples that don’t make it to YouTube.

Real People, Real Faith

In a temple tucked away in Bhopal, a farmer told me he visits every Tuesday not to ask for rain, but to say thank you for last season.

In Pushkar, a camel herder offered the first bite of his roti to the temple cow before eating.

In Badrinath, the local tea stall owner makes a morning round with hot chai for the temple guards—because as he says, "Bhagwan toh sabko dekhte hain, par inko kaun dekhe?"

This is the real India of temples. Not just devotion, but quiet dignity.

Temples as Time Capsules

Temples carry architecture, sure. But they also carry:

Smells of incense mixed with wet earth.
Faded rangoli patterns drawn by teenage girls now married.
Walls etched with graffiti: declarations of love, faith, and occasionally, bad poetry.

They are not just places of worship. They are emotional lockers holding generations.

Why Your Grandma's Temple Visit Matters

Lady in Temple

( Image credit : Unsplash )

Every time your dadi folded her hands and touched the temple floor, she wasn’t following ritual blindly. She was grounding herself.

These everyday acts of faith may not make it to Amar Chitra Katha, but they made her who she was. And they make us who we are.

The Mythology in the Mundane

Once, at a temple in Rajasthan, I saw a bride whisper her wedding vows not to her groom, but to the deity inside. She said, “Help me be strong enough to love a stranger.”

That’s not in any scripture I know. But it should be.

There is mythology in the mundane. There is something godly in the way people pray not just for themselves but for their neighbors, their goats, their school fees.

When the Temple Is a Person

Sometimes, the temple isn’t the structure. It’s the person inside it.

The priest who still learns new shlokas at 75.
The widow who sweeps the floor every morning before the first light.
The young girl who brings marigolds from her school bag because she wants her prayers to be the first ones that day.

Their stories matter more than golden domes or marble flooring.

So What Does Mythology Miss?

It misses the smell of real sweat behind the rituals.It misses the forgotten names of temple cleaners.It misses the emotional earthquakes behind a simple offering.

Most of all, it misses the smallness. And that smallness? It’s everything.

Look Closer, Feel Deeper

So the next time you enter a temple, pause. Don’t just look at the idol. Look around:

Who's lighting the lamp?
Who's waiting outside?
Who’s sweeping, serving, sitting, surviving?

That’s where real divinity hides. Not always in stories written in gold, but in the whispers and wrinkles of people we pass by.

Because sometimes, the stories mythology forgets… are the ones our hearts remember.

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