READY TO WAIT.....A MUST READ FOR ALL THOSE BELIEVE IN HINDUISM & ITS RIGHTEOUS TRADITION...........

READY TO WAIT.....A MUST READ FOR ALL THOSE BELIEVE IN HINDUISM & ITS RIGHTEOUS  TRADITION...........

A bunch of feminist activists has been creating a ruckus over Sabarimala temple for quite some time. They have no idea about principles behind the temple-based worship system of Hinduism and the role of diversity and confluence in dharmic society. Yet they falsely equate the special rights and unique practices in dharmic traditions through a conflicts perspective.

They had been acting as self-proclaimed saviors of women devotees of Sabarimala Ayyappa from the ‘patriarchial’ Kerala society. But we had to tell these misguided souls that we know to take care of our business and didn’t need their `helping’ hand. The media or authorities never cared for our views. That’s how we decided to write in social media. Ready To Wait is to tell the so called activists that they are wrong on Sabarimala; to tell all the decision makers that we devotees are the more important stakeholders in the debate over faith and not the atheist feminists. A handful of activists who do not have the temerity or maturity to understand the underpinnings and beauty of Indian spirituality are not the ones who should decide how about half a billion women in India should follow their faith.

This campaign is a team effort of numerous women devotees who keep coming forward with the statement that we are ready to wait for our turn to have darshan of Ayyappa Swami in Sabarimala. However, the names like Padma Pillai, Suja Pavithran, Radhika Menon, Shilpa Nair, Anjali George, Krishnapriya, etc. were among the first to launch the e-campaign.

Temples are the storehouses of positive energy and not merely places to pray. The temples of Kerala have a unique custom which is based on Tantra Sastra, and that cannot be standardised just because the so called liberals who ridicule faith cannot understand their context and meaning. The rules and regulations vary from temple to temple and deity to deity. Deities in most temples are represented using complex, cryptic epithets. The tradition in Sabarimala is based purely on the concept (Devata — Sankalpa) that shAstA (Lord Ayyappa) of Sabarimala is in the form of a `kumara’ (teenager) observing brahmacharya. The point to be noted here is that Sabarimala Ayyappan is different from other shAstA (Ayyappa) temples. To understand this better, we need to look at three of the other interconnected shAstA temples in the region. Sabarimala is the most prominent of these. But what is interesting is that the deity is the same in three other temples as well — in Kulathupuzha, Aryankavu, and Achankovil. However, in these three temples, (shAstA )Ayyappa at Shabarimala is in three different forms namely bAla (child) in Kulathupuzha, bhAryAsamEtha (with wife) in Achankovil and Thapasa (ascetic) in Aryankavu. The four shrines are related to each other but in only one of them are Sabarimala Ayyappa a Naishtika Brahmachari (one who strictly practises complete detachment). These four `pratishtas’ (installations) denote the four stages of human life — `bAlaka’ (childhood), `kumara’ (youthful years when one is expected to practice brahmacharya), `bhAryAsamEtha’ (here, the Lord sits with wives and enjoys worldly life) and Tapasa (old age — where a man leaves for vanaprastha). These four shrines have to be observed collectively to get the complete picture on Sabarimala Ayyappa.

The reason for women of a particular age group to keep off Sabarimala is simple. Pilgrims to Sabarimala are expected to observe strict `Vrata’ (penance) of 41 days. It’s called `Mandala Vrata’. For a woman, this may not be possible as her menstrual cycle which is often a tiresome and painful experience, repeats every month.

Since Ayyappa is Naishtika Brahmachari, the energy in the temple, due to unique nature of deity promotes Vairagyam, which may hamper the Swadharma of Grihasta women. Hence only those who were yet to attain puberty or those who had already reached menopause undertook the pilgrimage.

It is nothing but.....................only ignorance which makes them see the practice in Sabarimala as discriminatory. Faithful Hindu women generally keep off places of worship whether at home or outside when they are having periods. There are manyreasons attributed to this. From what I understand, menstruation is not an impure act, but the aftermath of a powerful process when a woman readies herself to procreate, to give life to an ovum. The energy associated with the act is believed to be so huge that it can interfere with and even eclipse the energy of an idol. It also brings about severe physiological and emotional changes in a woman necessitating care for the days it lasts. Such is the beauty of Sanatana Dharma that some temples even celebrate the menstrual phase of women. IF you cite the examples of, the famed Kamakhya temple in Assam and the Devi temple in Kerala’s Chenganoor, it’s the Devi’s ` menstruating yoni’ (Vagina) and menstruation respectively that are celebrated. If the beliefs of Hindus were as brittle as some ignoramus’ are trying to portray, thousands of faithful would not be eager to receive the Goddess’ menses blood as Prasad in these temples. This alone is enough to expose the hollowness of the claim that Sanatana Dharma discriminates menstruating women while the truth is that it worships them during the biological phase.

The problem is we never made any attempt to study all this wisdom which our forefathers left behind for us. Instead, we allowed ourselves to be hijacked by man-made unacceptable faiths which basically saw humans as products of sin.

Sanatana Dharma is a mighty tree whose roots run deep and under whose green canopy many civilizations have thrived. It is nothing but a way of life that crystallized over millions of years though a system of checks and balances. Empathy to fellow creations is at the core of it. The corporate religions who reduced God to just one mortal male human, who openly back flogging and sexual slavery of women, who invented the chastity belt to keep her in tight leash, branded them witches and burnt them, began to sermon unsuspecting pagans who saw Godliness in all beings, who celebrated the feminine in all its forms and who taught the world that there was a man in every woman and vice-versa (ardha-nareeswara). Any expansionist idea thrives on conflict and as such feminism became a convenient weapon in the hands of those who wanted to conquer the idea of India. Half-truths and lies are paraded as the truth, and this is exactly what is happening with regard to Sabarimala too.

There is NO BAN, NO BAN on entry of women into Sabarimala as is being reported by sections of the media. There is only a restriction on women of a particular age, and it has to do with its local customs. To understand it, one needs to have a deeper knowledge of the history and practises of Sanatana dharma, which is easier said than done.

The media and the feminists also crookedly hide the fact that, there was a court hearing on this very issue and the honorable high court had clearly vindicated the fact that, there’s no gender discrimination at Sabarimala.

Kerala high court on Sabarimala “Our conclusions are as follows :

(1) The restriction imposed on women aged above 10 and below 50 from trekking the holy hills of Sabarimala and offering worship at Sabarimala Shrine is in accordance with the usage prevalent from time immemorial.

(2) Such restriction imposed by the Devaswom Board is not violative of Articles 15, 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India.

(3) Such restriction is also not violative of the provisions of Hindu Place of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act, 1965 since there is no restriction between one section and another section or between one class and another class among the Hindus in the matter of entry to a temple whereas the prohibition is only in respect of women of a particular age group and not women as a class

Yet, this is very clear that, the feminists and the leftists have an agenda but to bring a harmonized society in to clash and bring chaos in the society. If they had faith in our courts and law they either would have abided by the existing ruling of the court of would have waited for the Supreme Court verdict on this. But, instead if that, they are running a smear campaign on Sabarimala and Hinduism that, both of these dharmic institutions are anti-women and women has no freedom in Hindu Dharma.

#Ready To Wait was Karma calling and started as a trickle with some of us battling it out individually on the social media. But the response to the hashtag was overwhelming. Women of all hues have since pledged their support. I have no qualms to say that over the years, Indian women who were once even learned in Vedas and who led the society from the forefront have since retreated to their private spaces, thanks again to what I said earlier is the semiticisizing of our minds. This is a call for them to come out of cocoons which the society created for them and make themselves count. It is in the space that they vacated which the fake feminists have tried to encroach. There is an attempt to portray our movement as women against women. It is not. This is against fake feminists who are driven by partisan political agendas. Feminism has failed to live up to its name in places where it’s most necessary. This is to tell the world that we are feminists too, feminists who are more interested in the welfare of women and humanity and not in playing politics. This should mark the beginning of a new renaissance in Indian society, not one dictated by the anti-pagan monotheistic agenda to foist Abrahamic puritanism on gullible people but one which celebrates diversity and respects the greater truth that the human species is nothing but a part of universal consciousness.

Anjali George
Anjali George is an Independent researcher from Kerala, living in Germany. 

Thanks to this GREAT WOMAN OF WISDOM & KNOWLEDGE IN HINDU CULTURE, HERITAGE....&  ITS RIGHTEOUS PRINCIPLES & VALUES...............JK

J.KANNAN, M.Com, FIATA

"WE DON'T THINK TO BREATHE

 WE BREATHE TO THINK"