Jaimala and Sabarimala

Last week, Times of India was full of news about Jaimala, her visit to Sabarimala, her alleged touching of the idol, and subsequent claims of various actresses that they too had made the journey minus the touching of idol. All this became such a big issue because women passing through their reproductive, menstruative years are not allowed to go to Sabarimala since Lord Ayyappa is a devout brahmachari and doesn't want temptations of any sort. Frankly, I find it very funny. There are hundreds of Ayyappa temples around Kerala and other parts of the country, and almost all of these temples allow women of pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive stages in them. Won't the Lord get tempted with the devotees then?

I have been having these doubts now for a long time, and when in such situations I usually approach my grandmother for answers. She has this habit of coming up with logical answers to such posers. She thought that this might be because earlier the route was pretty dangerous through forests where it wasn't really safe, and probably, it was thought that such a route wasn't very safe for a young woman. Now, that is more logical answer than I can think of myself, but even this has a hole in it. How would a forest be safe for a girl or an old woman? Even my grandmother can't answer that. Well, one reason could be that with such a huge number of men assembling there, a majority of whom might have been abstaining from any sort of contact with the fairer sex, things might get out of hand when you have a fair amount of young women around. People might not exactly have Ayyappan in mind, I guess.

Having said all that, I still don't know how Jaimala could touch the idol. I have gone to Sabarimala 14 times, and quite a few times when it was jampacked. I have been pushed around a fair bit near the sanctum sanctorum, but never have I been able to touch the idol. The main reason for that is that I am not, and I mean I am not, 8-9 foot tall!!! You have to be a real huge person to actually do it. I haven't heard of anyone claiming this, and you cannot say that all the rest don't weigh up to Jaimala in their fervour.

The sad thing is that the newspapers have already moved on in life and have totally forgotten about the sexual equality etc. I seriously wonder whether we are actually bothered about all the stuff that appear there. I sincerely hope that our temples stop being so adamant about implementing 12th century rules etc. Let us take Hinduism forward, not backward.