  From rini's post.  The whole entrance was painted in gold.  This brings to my mind one more aspect of life and living that I often ponder.  Its been a part of the Indian tradition ( I'm not very aware of other ones)  to have the idols of gods to be embossed with gold and jewellery costing to a few good deal of rupees.
 I truely wonder what big significance they might be having.  a decoration is needed and a costly decoration might also be.  But why can't some portion of these be channelled towards the needy.  The idols do look awesome and do give a serene feeling for all the spiritual hearts.  but I would prefer bread for a person on the steet rather than personal serenity.  A lot of temples and trusts taking care of such temples do have the practice of providing food and rendering a helping hand to a lot of people.
 but still a very huge amount seems to be spent on the beautification of the temples and the idols which beyond a limit seems to serve no practical purpose.  Lord Venkateshwara in Tirupathi,  wearing a diamond studded crown worth 50 lakh rupees sure looks wonderful and does give a refreshing feeling to all the thousands of people craving to have a peek at Him.  But how does it help my hunger.
