Swami Brahm Bodhi

While in London, I wished to visit a few temples. Most of them, I found, were set up in former churches—sacred spaces reborn with the fragrance of incense and devotion. But one temple – the Sri Ganpati Temple, Wimbledon –  looked distinctly traditional. It was also in a church building, but it’s front area was in the South Indian style. I decided to visit this temple.

As it was in Wimbledon, the journey took nearly two hours with several changes between trains and buses.

Towards the end of the train ride, I noticed an elderly Asian gentleman standing close to my seat and looking at me with a gentle smile. I invited him to sit beside me, and we began to talk.

He was eighty-five. When I mentioned that I was searching for the Ganapati temple, he said, “I’m going there too. Come along.”

When we got off the train, I tapped my card at the barrier, but he simply walked through. Curious, I asked how. He said, “We seniors in the UK have a Freedom Pass. It lets us travel anywhere, free of cost.”

The simplicity of that arrangement touched me. What a gracious way to honour the elderly—granting them dignity, mobility, and independence. How meaningful it would be if India too offered such a gift to its senior citizens.

As we walked toward the temple, he told me it was his 85th birthday. His family would come later, but he wished to visit in quiet devotion. I wished him a happy birthday.

When we reached, and he started taking out out his shoes to enter the temple, I noticed that one of his legs was artificial, yet his steps were steady and serene. After his darshan, he ask for my permission to leave since he had found a devotee who could take him to his house in a car.

The phrase Freedom Pass stayed with me. It is not only a social measure but a beautiful symbol. For the aged, the Bhagavad Gita is a greater Freedom Pass. If one carries a small copy of the Gita and reads it wherever possible, it frees the mind from the burden of the past, torments of the present, anxiety of the future, and even the fear of an impending death.

The state can give freedom of movement; the Gita gives freedom of spirit.
The Freedom Pass takes the elder to the temple— the Gita takes the elder to God.