True Lies !

Disclaimer : This post will definetly not give you an answer as it claims. Yet the author can't write such blogs with the claim that he wont give any solutions ;)


This post has got to do with the latest controversy concerning the inviolable Sabarimala shrine. Firstly this article is definitly not based on religious or chauvinist thoughts, but just an ordinary analysis of what went wrong or is really something wrong (Hah ,i know what you are thinking, i swear i wont be judgemental ;))

And an important thing is,I am not going to ponder if actress jaimala really touched the god's feet ;) , which by the way the temple priests claim next to impossible.

For the Uninitiated

I will try to answer the next more pertinent question, Should women be allowed inside the sabarimala sanctum ? (Ofcourse am talking about women between 15-50 here )

The reason why they were not allowed is simple.

Sabarimala is the abode of Lord Ayyappa.Millions of men throng to this place every year for the darshan(view) of the almighty.As lord ayyapa himself was a celibate, it has been strcitly followed upto this day that only male devotees be allowed into the temple.

This premise though prone to criticism,rests upon the unassailable pillars of human faith. Hence to answer this question we may need to deviate a bit from the actual problem and dwelve into the theory of psychoanalysis. (The name sounds good ;), so thot will use it in my blog ),and i would try to have minimal freudian influence ( Paradoxial ;)). Anyways, firstly, i personally feel that, the entire concept of religion rests on a very subtle paradox, which everyone of us recongnises, but don't accept. Yes, we claim that God is there, where science ends, god is that,which science can't explain. Pretty good, sounds a good judgement which the scientists can't refute. Well, the question then arises is, how many god's are out there. Is it singular or plural. How come jesus be the supreme god, if there are shiva and krishna. If there are shiva and krishna then why did not prophet mohammed recognise them ? which leads to the inference that it is just a matter of choice. Either contemplate the harsh truth or accept the compromising alternate. Quite obvious, we all know what we chose.

The reason why i gave the above argument is this. Inspite of not knowing the complete truth people yet trust god. Of course there are some atheists as well, who question these beleifs, but hey, even they dont have an answer. Still, life goes on. Not all people have the same thoughts and practices, which indirectly reflects on their spiritual thinking as well. But the most positive attribute of this classification is, it keeps us bonded by making us trust in something which is superhuman,herculean, which the mediocre human can never mull upon. It is because of this character, there is some good left in this world. Looking at it from a practical point of view, fear of the lord sets us some boundaries,some limitations which we dont want to violate.

Coming to the actual problem at hand, just as i had summarised in the above argument, people wanted to set some stringent rules and regulations for themselves so that the belief during the ordeal undertaken to commune with the divine remains staunch. It still remains so. One of them being, women should not enter the sabarimala temple. I personally feel, though this constraint is flimsy, nevertheless it is a constraint which should be followed. For every person who is going to say that, no wrong would come if a woman enters the temple, two on the other end would contradict. There can never be a win-win situation in these kinds of controversies unless everyone thinks in the same lines and persumably this can't happen overnight. It might even take an entire genration to bring about a change in the outlook. But uptil that momment, there is nothing wrong in respecting the thoughts of those, who respect the supreme, based on these thoughts.

Also the paradox in claiming,a woman should enter the temple is quite palpable.
If you don't belive in God, there is no reason for you to question the belief.
If you believe in God, then you have to abide by the rules of the society regarding the worship in a public place.

I know the second argument i have stated is quite controversial, the question that promptly arises is "What if i trust god and would worship as my heart says ?? ".

Good, though i personally would appreciate and encourage it, the answer is No, still u can't. The simple reason being a Temple is a social entity not a personal one. So if we want to worship the god by going to the temple we have to follow the standards set by the people. One can contradict this again by asking "who gave the right to those 'people' to set those rules ?". A very pertinent question which can't be answered, as digging from this front would take us back to square one. For every person who refutes, there would another who believes. As long as this practice,though it may be supersitious doesn't affect anyone, we have to put it aside and move forward.

I sincerely feel there is no answer to this problem. Well, thats why i told in the begining itself the concept of religion is flimsy. Just as people accepted whats suitable to them, we have to respect certain unstated, unproved facts for the benefit of the society. Please note .. I never said ACCEPT , i told RESPECT. All we can do is hope and think of measures that one day, society would understand that worship is subjective and there can never be any rule which states how it should be done. From my part, i have written this blog, so that the readers can contemplate the problem and bring out a change in outlook instead of transgressing the beliefs which many people revere and hold sacrosanct.