One has heard that faith can move
the mountains, but this year a mountain could not stand the weight
of faith. Tragically on 14th Jan, 2011, a hillock where thousands
of devotees had congregated to have a glimpse of Makar Jyothi, due
to the melee of the devotees, the hillock crumbled resulting in
the stampede and death of 102 people. Makar Jyothi is supposed to
be the divine light, appearing in the sky to pay tribute to lord
Ayyapa. Similarly at the same place 52 people died in 1998 on the
same date.
This raises multiple questions. It goes without saying that the
government has to ensure that the civic arrangements have to be
perfected even in the matters related to faith. Be it Kumbh mela
or Haj, while the government should not interfere in the people’s
choices, the civic arrangements can not just be left to the bodies
managing these events. There is a small problem here, some
managements are very rigid and one recalls that at Sabrimala, few
years ago the temple authorities refused to let a woman IAS
officer, who was supposed to ensure that arrangements are in
place, was refused entry to the temple on the ground that women of
menstruating age group (15-45) are not permitted to enter the
temple as Lord Ayyappa is a bachelor!
Sabrimala congregation of the 14th April is the second biggest
religious congregation in the country. While there are various
diverse interpretation of the history of Sabrimala shrine and Lord
Ayyapa, one thing is very clear and that is the devotees also pay
the homage to Waver, a Muslim. He is addressed as Waver Swami by
the pilgrims. The Hindus believe that they must first visit this
Waver mosque.
Some dimensions of Sabrimala episode are very shocking to say the
least. The divine light is supposed to be the Aarti, devotional
ritual with a lamp and song, offered by Sages to Lord Ayyappa. As
such the reality is that the light is due to the huge chunks of
camphor placed in urns which are burnt by the state electricity
board officials on that day. Earlier Adivasis used to create fire
as a devotion to the Lord. Many decades earlier the Adivasi ritual
was going in to oblivion. This ritual has been taken over by the
Temple trust, Ayyappa Devaswam, and through the state complicity
burning of camphor was started at good distance from the temple.
It was propagated that it is a divine light and different stories
started being associated with the light. Gradually it was
popularized that watching the divine light is a good omen, for
which thousands and later lakhs of pilgrims started making a
beeline for the area. To have the vantage point of view the people
started congregating on the hill, which is crowded to the hilt.
This also brought in good amount of money as the offering to the
temple trust.
The government cannot be excused in any way for the lapse in the
arrangement and being part of camphor burning to create ‘divine
light’. The temple trust can neither be excused for continuing
this fraud, nor for interfering in the Government work, when it
makes the rule that Government female officials cannot enter the
precincts of this place for making the arrangements. With such
massive loss of lives, the responsibility of the tragedy should be
squarely placed on the heads of the authorities concerned. One is
shocked to know that the minister in charge of temple affairs in
Kerala has been aware of this fact but has not done anything to
stop the man-made light being propagated off as the divine light
inviting the hoards of pilgrims from all over. The Devaswom
Minister G Sudhakaran openly said a couple of years ago that “"I
was present on the Makaravillukku day at the Sabarimala last
season. I saw the celestial star and it is at that very time that
Makaravilakku is lighted. There is no doubt about it that it is
lighted by the men.''
This also raises larger questions about the acts of our
authorities, including the religious trusts. While one respects
the faith of devotees, what does one do if one knows clearly that
the particular event is man made and is being passed off as a
divine happening. Our Constitution instructs us to promote the
rational thought and scientific temper. In Kerala various groups
working for rational thought have been struggling to bring to
light the truth behind this phenomenon. They have been campaigning
to stop it, but to no avail. Faith often can be a big support
system for society but one has also to know the difference between
faith and blind faith. If we know the rational explanation about a
phenomenon, should we sit over it or make it public. One also
recalls that faith was constructed around the scientific
phenomenon of ‘capillary action’ to spread the rumor that Lord
Ganesha idol is drinking milk! And tons of milk went down the
drain, with some top politicians endorsing the phenomenon,
violating the basic norm of Indian Constitution.
The most difficult part of explaining matters of faith and
opposing blind faith is the fact that faith is associated with
religion and so a Benny Hinn will go on to give religious veneer
to the well understood psychological phenomenon of hypnosis or
hypnotherapy. Most of those struggling for social transformation
for better society, better rights for deprived have opposed the
blind faith and bypassed faith based understanding. Starting form
Charvak of Lokayat tradition, to Lord Gautam Buddha, to the saints
like Kabir, Tukaram to Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Dr Ambedkar all
called for promotion of rational thought in their own way. Gandhi
while recognizing the state of people in the society talked in the
language of religion but kept the faith based rituals miles away.
Nehru was most forthright in his opposition to the misuse of faith
and talked for promotion of scientific temper, something which is
not much in vogue in current times. Currently, misuse of faith is
the order of the day. Nehru’s emphasis on scientific temper and
his opposition to blind faith has been a major pillar for growth
of Modern India. One must see the complex situation prevailing
today where we need to respect the people with all their frailties
and still try to also put forth the rational view of things in an
honest way.
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