What is the Vedic perspective on the Sabarimala issue?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
What is the spiritual perspective on the Sabarimala issue? Answer we could say there is there are three parts to it there is the religious custom there is the politicalization of the issue and then there is the analysis of the issue through the gender angle. So let’s start with the religious custom part that different religions have different practices and the freedom of the right to religion which is given by the Indian constitution to every individual means that people are allowed to practice their particular religious practices in their own way. So thus for example when some when people enter a temple they are expected to take out of their footwear when people enter a mosque they are expected to carry a particular cloth around their head or in the ear when they were enter a Gurudwara there are particular rituals like that also.
So if one particular temple has a particular practice to allow only certain people to enter in that should be fully allowed according to the religious angle. There is no reason to disallow that and encroach on the right of people to practice their religion. Is this religious discrimination or gender discrimination because of religion? No because there are other temples where only women are allowed and no men are allowed and there is an internal logic at least that this particular deity is said to be an Aishtik Brahmachari and therefore women in the menstruating period are not allowed to enter over there.
Now while it is true that women don’t menstruate all the time but it’s very difficult to ascertain when they are in that period and that’s why while they are in that age group then there could be a tradition that they are not allowed. Again is this gender discrimination because say this kind of fluid comes out only from the body of women and not from the body of men. It’s not a matter of again of gender it’s a matter of hygiene of cleanliness.
In general any emission from the body is considered to be impure. If somebody has a spit coming out of their body of their mouth they don’t look attractive or smart or cultured or somebody has phlegm coming out of their mucus coming out of their nose. In general any emission from the body is considered to be unclean and women have a particular body by which a particular emission comes out of their body during a particular phase of their life.
So the principle is of not of men or women the principle is of purity and emission from the body is considered impure. So if it is that those who are devoted is it that women are being deprived of this right the question comes up how much does this actually interfere with a woman’s quality of life. How much does it in any way how much does it affect them in pursuing a life where they can fulfill their aspirations.
If somebody says oh but a woman also has a right to be a devotee and she can also worship her deity. Yes she can but a whole point of worship is to to love and serve and worship and please the object of worship. So if that object of worship is practicing celibacy and therefore there is a rule that women in a particular condition should not come to that particular temple not to any other temple then what is the reason for trying to break that regulation.
How is that in any way a sign of devotion. Ultimately devotion is about pleasing the object of our love not imposing ourselves on that object of love. If we impose ourselves and what we are practicing is not devotion it is it is willfulness.
So either it is a if it’s a woman’s rights issue then when the question comes up what are women being deprived of by this right. If they think that they are deprived of the right to worship then the integral to worship is pleasing the object of worship and imposing oneself on the object of worship is not worship at all. And if you see even the women who have actually entered in the temple are not really devotees they are activists of various kinds who have imposed there just to show that the women’s rights have been fulfilled that they have been able to do what they wanted to do to gain women’s rights.
And this does not lead to any kind of either advance the cause of women or advance the cause of the right to freedom of religion. It’s often the politicalization of the issue by seeing it from the gender angle and then of course by seeing what electoral gains can be got from the issue that things become complicated and thereafter the worship becomes almost impossible to manage. So we are having a huge agitation on trying to gain admission into entry into temple while at the same time leading to an enormous amount of distracted energy which does not lead any way forward in life.
Rather than fighting for gender rights then we can all make our go for spiritual rights by growing in our spirituality and by recognizing that at a spiritual level we are all equal and at a material level let’s make the best of the situation that we are found can find ourselves in. We do find ourselves in and progress ahead in our lives. For all of us we can create a meaningful life for ourselves if we focus on the things that are important for our growth and not make small things into such big issues that they distract invaluable national energy time and resources from activities that lead to sustainable development to activities that just evoke wild sentiments and distract people from life’s real issues.