Indian Traditions Vs Misconceptions

Dear All,
First, Apologies to all for the really delayed response.
Thank you Coffeelover. Always glad to share my thoughts and the little I know if it can make a difference.
As to your querry on Shiva temples not giving Prasadam and Vishnu temples giving it, I'm not really sure if all Shiva temples do not provide prasadam. Though I'll share two different thoughts on this. The first is or rather was my deduction while I pondered over your question and has certain relevance to your question.

The basic concept of Trinity (I'll delve on this in an independent post as I feel this is one of the most fundamental and important life-concepts ever developed) applies to most religions that I know of.
In the concept of Trinity in Hinduism, Lord Shiva is considered to be the destroyer of all evils and after such a destruction what is left is Bhasma/vibhuti which is why a devotee generally takes back the same as prasadam (to apply on his forehead etc.) from a Shiva Temple. Though like I said, many Shiva temples do provide prasadam. Lord Vishnu, on the other hand is believed to be the one that runs this world, meaning it is he who is in charge of managing and ensuring distribution and allocation among people as per their requirements and prayers.
This I think could be the main reason why some Shiva temples may not give any edible prasadam and all Vishnu temples do. This also answers to some extent the question posed to Shanvy by Spiderman1 on the belief "shivan sottu kula nasam (property of siva is not good ).."

The second concept applies more to the insights provided by Aparna and is related to Shanvy's practical insights on safety/security lines... (thank you both). This applies to all temples.
The logic is very simple and its like this, a temple is supposed to be the abode of the Deity. When we visit/are guests in somebody's house, while leaving we are not supposed to carry away anything from there without their permission... either we are gifted something by the hosts or we ask for something and take it along. Similarly from a temple, we are supposed to carry away only those things that have been given to us and absolutely nothing else. This is just to regulate intentional mischiefs as well as actions like simply picking flowers from the temple plants, sand/round stones from the premises, etc. as holy tokens by well meaning devotees who fail to or simply refuse to understand that if every visitor acts in this fashion, there will be nothing left in the temple within days.

SN

 

Thanks Coffeelover & Shanvy for delving on the crucial subject of the extent of monetising and commercial misdemeanor (if not felony) that happens in our temples.
Thank you Soumya for sharing your thoughts on this. The incident you quote though very sad, is rampant and I hope something is done on it soon.

I'm inclined to strongly agree with Shanvy that things were reasonably well till the Govt. decided to take over reigns. If you ask me, if the intention was to ensure that people in temples got adequate remuneration, what they should have done was to take over management of smaller, poorer and less frequented temples (there are so many) temporarily, uplift them and hand them back. The govt.'s job as I see it is to regulate and to the extent necessary administer, not take over. Nobody I know, puts money in the temple intending to give it to the Govt. If people are told in clear terms that what you offer to God is indeed not used here but taken away by the govt., I have a feeling that we'll see a huge drop in such offerings.
For the larger and richer temples, the best the Govt. could do (as they should do) was proper audits to prevent misappropriation.

The subject got me wondering and If I may say this without prejudice, they dare not try to poke their noses into places of worship among many other religions. Leaving everything aside and staying with the concern that Soumya raises, in most of these places, I'm given to understand (as I've visited many myself) that there is least commercial discrimination among devotees vis-a-vis their right to pray and the manner & quantum in which they can exercise this right.

Thanks again for sharing
SN