12 January 2016
Poojya Swamiji: First of all, my humble praṇāms at your lotus feet.
Recently I have seen a Supreme Court observation that women may be allowed to enter Shabarimala. I understand that out of lakhs of temples in India, only one or two have restrictions for women. It has nothing to do with gender discrimination. In Shabarimala, Swami Ayyappan is in Yogic trance (as is Lord Śiva in Kailāsa, devoid of his consort). Also women in menses have a different tantric aura as compared to other days.
Chanting of mantras also changes the aura. This again is given not to keep women away, but to not affect the sensitive aura of the place.
I would like to ask the Hon’ble court whether they will permit any lawyer to come drunk and clad in a bermuda to argue a case. It will not change the argument or the content of the course.
Swamiji, I feel that Hinduism is thus misinterpreted, ridiculed and undefended in India too. Kindly give your valuable solution to this problem.
Śaraṇam Swamiji, J
* * *
10 March 2016
Dear and blessed J:
Hari. Om Tat Sat. Your email of January 12 is before me, and I am reading it again.
The subject you have raised is far from anything superficial. It deals with a practice in vogue for a period, but more so with the fundamentals of our great Dharma, where Śruti, Yukti and Smṛti are the pramāṇas, validating authorities. Whatever is said and seen does not verily mean what is proper, true and acceptable fundamentally.
In any society good customs will be there, but equally so wrong and bad ones too. Unless dhārmic thinkers examine and verify these to set right the corruptions and malpractices from time to time, society will lose its intrinsic strength, purity and power of sustenance.
Bhagavadgeetā’s verse karmaṇyeva-adhikārah-te is a line of instruction which has all along been gravely misunderstood. The matter refuses to get corrected, in the light of what Krishna said earlier and later. I have been striving for 60 years in my disseminational life to clear the confusion and bring clarity.
It is in such a background that I set forth my thoughts below in the matter of women also being allowed to worship in Shabarimala Shrine. Read the thoughts heartily, without any resentment or prejudice.
Men are born of women, breast-fed and reared by them. All our merits, skills and potentials are derived from and bestowed by our mother, primarily. It is the mothers, that teach and train us, not we them.
Menstrual cycle is part of their biological system, very vital for womanhood, for conception and hence for perpetuation of our species. A child is an expression of God, and hence the biological process which results in child-birth is equally so. How can we, by any stretch of imagination, consider any aspect of menstruation as polluting or untouchable? Like evacuation in the form of urine and faeces, this is another kind. That is all.
Any kind of degenerating thought or feeling or description about this female cycle does not become elegant at all. Just as practices of hygiene are necessary in dealing with any discharge from any organ, like stool, phlegm, wax etc., here too necessary safeguards and cleansing measures are necessary. Nothing more. With regard to these, men do not have to teach women, the children do not have to tutor the mothers. The society is safe in the mothers’ hands.
M, aged 66, a member of Kodungallur royal family, is residing here. She told me today that when she was young, a friend (woman) of hers did go to Shabarimala and had darśan, as part of her religious vow. She did not undertake the 41-day vow. Such people generally do not climb the front 18 steps, but take the side steps. This is permitted, and has the sanction of tradition.
To say that Lord Ayyappa is a celibate and the sight of women till they attain menopause will unsettle his celibacy is disgraceful to Divinity itself and absolutely reproachable. To think of anything like this is blasphemous to the concept of God and Godliness itself. To graft human frailties to God is repugnant to our own conscience and reason.
Many sannyāsins have taken up sannyāsa directly from brahmacharya and they continue to live as celibate monks, naiṣṭhika-brahmachārins, as tradition describes them. Do not women devotees go to them, sit in satsang, interact with them? Is there any trouble either to the devotees or to the ascetics?
Lord Ayyappa’s pedestal is far higher. To think that he wants any protection or insulation from women is disgraceful to Him, and discreditable to the humans who are supposed to be intelligent, refined and sublime in every way.
Know it well that everything about God, idol, temple, worship and allied matters has emerged from the human mind and intelligence alone. The word ‘God’, all concepts and formulation about religious worship and allied practices, have emerged from human mind and intelligence. The human alone has to explain and elucidate these, leading people rightly to the goal.
The tradition about Lord Ganesha says: When Parvati wanted to get him married, the son said: “I will marry only when I see one like you in all ways.” The mother said: “Then you sit on the bed of Aśvattha tree, where women come and circumambulate after their bath in the holy tank. If and when you find one suitable to you, tell me, and I shall get her married to you.”
As per the legend, Ganesha still sits there, unmarried. He is not the least disturbed by the sight of females of all ages. Can we say Lord Ayyappa is lesser in any way in His Godliness and all the qualities that go along with it?
It is true that women will find it difficult to have the 41-day vrata (austerity) without the interference of the menstrual cycle. But they can go without that discipline. Special periods should be set aside exclusively for them. In Shabarimala, where the old practices have been changed variously, like opening the shrine during periods other than the Makara-saṅkrama (month of Capricorn), etc. this change will also enhance the grace and grandeur of the Shrine, and give women also the chance to worship and gain peace and blessings from the Lord. Is it right to prevent anyone who wishes to worship in a shrine?
Remember: These are matters which the Hindu society, and its spiritual thinkers, by righteous directions, should resolve. Priests are not the ones to decide, because it is a social and national question, beyond their purview. We have a Constitution under which every inch of India reigns, and every bit of activity prevails. Nothing in the name of religion can infringe upon the Constitution or the rights and duties it enjoins. What is necessary is to enforce this dictum for all religions and make the country safe and uniform in civil and criminal matters.
Instead of resolving the problem ourselves, we lead matters to a controversial and calamitous end that someone approaches the court, and court begins to adjudicate the matter. No good and progressive step has been taken by the hard core religionists. Why did they not allow Temple entry to people of all classes? Was it not later permitted by the King? And did the shrines decline in their divinity or purpose? If the King had not taken such a wise step, the society would still have remained divided heinously.
By opening Shabarimala for women to worship, ensuring necessary safeguards in the matter, the Shrine as well as our society will stand to benefit. It does not matter who brings about this change and who becomes instrumental in the matter.
See how colossal can delusion be! People come for Makara-saṅkrama only to see the Idol decked with the traditional regal ornaments, the decoration being done only that day every year. And lo, instead of seeing the Lord in the Shrine, everybody is duped to see the pseudo flame raised by someone in the neighbouring area! The flame is hoisted after dusk, so that the hoisting persons stand covered by darkness, and the flame alone glitters!
This was done by the some other people, clandestinely, but known to the Devaswam. The Yuktivadi Sangham of Kerala challenged it and wanted to go there and took all measures for the purpose. But even the then Government stopped them persuasively.
Should Hinduism, with all its distinguished shrines be tarnished by mischievous, misunderstood and pseudo practices and glories? Will the ancient ascetic thinkers, who evolved the great thoughts and practices, excuse us, their descendants? And how will the coming generations look at us, their predecessors, if our hoary customs are to be defiled and desecrated like this, for no tenable reason?
Are we not becoming an object of ridicule for others, for the world countries? Is not Hindu dharma the sea of all other rivers of religion in the world? Why not we see matters in the right spirit?
I wonder how you will have read these lines and how your mind feels at the end.
Love and āśīrvād. Swami Nirviseshananda Tirtha and M. Gurupriyā send loving good wishes.
Antarātmā, Swamiji