HaCkeD By TriCk aka Saywhat? - TeaMp0isoN - PAKBugs

Religion is Farce

Religion – Subservient to Priesthood and Caste – Creation of Priesthood

“We are priests, holy men, next to the deity itself and so we are here to decide who, at what time and how can meet the deity of our temple. Mind it, we are personal secretaries of the deity and we are superior to you in every way (?). What so if you are a minister, but actually you are from a lower scheduled caste. You can’t change your caste, your identity by becoming a minister. You have broken the rules and guidelines recommended by the personal secretary of the deity itself, hence now we will have to purify the whole place as you are unclean. Don’t dare to enter into the temple without our consent otherwise consequences will be even awful.” Perhaps this is the message priests want to convey to all the dalitbahujans of this country what if they are at influential positions or literate too and doing well in the respective fields. Leave apart the social status or educational backgrounds; that act of barring anybody from entering into the temple of choice and to have a glimpse of the deity is straight away violation of human rights. But those priests are sitting at such a mental altitude that what is being human is beyond their contemplation.

The above mentioned quote is in view of a recent drama which took place at a temple in Orissa state of India. Below is the excerpt from that news:

Pramilla Mallick, the women and child development minister, on Wednesday went to the famous Akhandalamani Shiva temple at Aradi in Bhadrak, about 170 km from Bhubaneswar. Although the priests didn’t resist her entry, they performed ‘maha snana’ (purification ritual) of the deity after she left because of her alleged ‘‘objectionable entry’’. Mallick, a Dalit, supposedly went for darshan taking a route meant exclusively for servitors, thereby upsetting the priests.

Courtesy: Times of india, 14/01/209

No wonder these are the regular reactions taking place in a Hindutva Laboratory as a part of bigger experiment or project. And Orissa is a new blue-eyed baby of Hindutva Lobby.

In 2007 too a similar incident took place at famous Guruvayoor Temple of Kerala, when a Chirstan wife of a minister in the left government went to the temple. Post her exit temple was closed and was given ‘purifying snana’. Such incident in Kerala , yes!! should raise the eyebrows as this is one more place which is increasingly being swallowed by superstitions and obscurantism. And hate campaign of Hindutva has got congenial conditions to flourish. This is evident from the podocast at sangh parivar website where the maximum no. of visual footages are from Kerala in comparison to any other state in India.

The above incident not only talks about hate but it deals with two more issues in my eyes. One is environmental and another one is constitutional. So let’s take environmental first. World has only 3% of fresh water reservoirs and the rest of 97% of water is sea or oceanic water, which can’t be used for domestic as well as industrial purpose at most of the times. There is vast no. of areas within India where people are facing water scarcity problem. Though I know that neither the “maha snana” of these temples is causing that scarcity and nor water scarcity problem will be sorted out if no “snana” will take place.

But here I am trying to focus on a larger picture. I don’t have any data yet it is my hypothesis that tons of gallons of water is used for religious ceremonies in India everyday and particularly in brahminical ceremonies, while these kind of ‘snanas’ are bonus. And that used water is sheer waste. It is out of my understanding that why these priests are living in fools’ paradise and why do these idols of deities made of stone or earth need snana.

Another issue is constitutional. As per Indian constitution any person who is holding any public or governmental position like that of a minister should bar themselves from visiting any religious place as s(he) is minister first and then an ordinary person. Also their position can’t allow any particular religion to get special attention. This clause was kept in constitution to keep alive the secular ethos which in recent times we are witnessing, are degenerating from the social as well as political life of India. Hence, in my opinion that minister has to be questioned as to why she went to that temple while still holding the office of the department of child and women development? It makes me perturbed that why Indian media at crucial times doesn’t ask the relevant and objective questions and let the things to go on without dissecting them.

These are the issues which we as human beings have to keep on asking from ourselves too.

Seema Duhan

seemaduhan83@gmail.com

---