Just think… how would someone feel if instead of paying obeisance in the temple, he touches his mobile phone to the idol of God? Strange to hear, but these days this trend is being seen in many temples of the country. As soon as devotees enter the temples, they take out their phones from their pockets, and then lightly touch them with the idol or donation box, as if taking a digital blessing.

Some people are calling it a new form of faith in the digital age, while some are calling it a tradition of superstition and ostentation. Interestingly, such a trend has become very common in countries like China. There people have started taking blessings online by touching their mobile phones to the idol or donation box in the temples.

Donation from mobile, blessings from mobile

Since the Covid pandemic, the trend of mobile payment has increased rapidly in our lives. Today, be it a vegetable vendor or a roadside tea vendor, QR codes are visible everywhere. Temples also did not remain untouched by this change. Now most of the temples have QR code scanners installed near the donation boxes. Instead of giving cash, people transfer donations directly through mobile phones. Due to this, a strange trend gradually started where people started touching their mobile phones with the idol of God after donating. Many devotees believe that by doing this the mobile becomes sacred and God’s blessings get absorbed in that device. Some even believe that in this way negative energy gets eliminated from their mobile and auspicious energy resides in it.

From social media to temple

This trend is not limited to India only. In China too, QR code donation system has become common in temples. There devotees donate online through WeChat Pay or Alipay. The same technique is spreading rapidly in India, especially in urban temples. At many places, the priest himself shows the QR code and says, donate to God from your mobile. Now devotees are not only donating through mobile, but have also started the tradition of showing the mobile to God. Some say it jokingly, even God has now entered the digital age.

When you touch your mobile, you take God’s blessings with you.

These interesting things came to light while talking to many devotees: We go to the temple every day, but now we also carry mobile phones with us. When the mobile touches the idol of God, it seems as if the entire phone is filled with auspiciousness. Mobile is with us all the time today. If there is God’s blessings in it, then the day goes well. People believe that just as in ancient times, amulets or protective formulas were considered auspicious, similarly in today’s digital age, mobile phones have come to play the same role.