Sabarimala row and beyond

There seems to be more to the controversy surrounding the defilement of Sabarimala temple by a Kannada actress, Jaimala, than meets the eye. Her revelation came after the temple conducted a deva prasnam — an astrological examination of the state of affairs of the temple -- which had reportedly found several ‘inauspicious’ goings-on in the management of the temple’s affairs.

She says she touched the idol with utmost reverence after being pushed by the crowd. But I don’t know how it could happen since the idol is not in a place where you can even accidentally come in contact with it. Secondly, during her visit, she was clearly at an age where it would have been apparent to anyone (importantly, the large number of officials and policemen) that her presence was in contravention to temple regulations. What were they doing?

There were deva prasnams before also, but no indications of defilement were noticed.

Regular rituals and other procedures for conforming to spiritual correctness can and should carry on in accordance with temple rules and customs. I have no dispute with that. After all, these are matters of faith, and temple administrators are the best to determine what is right and what is wrong. We aren't dealing with science here.

But that doesn't mean certain temporal aspects should be lost sight of. Sabarimala temple officials should focus more on enhancing facilities for devotees. Of course, things have improved by leaps and bounds. Every year, one can see some change for the better. But considering the increasing number of devotees there’s a lot more to be done.

Every season, it’s always a near stampede-like situation. The officials should think in terms of throwing open the temple permanently, rather than merely during the season and on the first of all Malayalam months. The queues should be more efficiently managed. The present situation is a danger to life and limbs. The administration should computerise the queue system and examine options like providing advance tokens etc.

The temple officials should also set apart of good amount of the income to charitable work, like providing educational aid to children, sponsoring orphanages and old-age homes, helping to make the lives of terminally ill patients more comfortable, subsidising life-saving drugs for the poor etc.

A society progresses not merely from government patronage but also from philanthropic activities of communities, among them especially cash-rich religious institutions. Serving the poor and disadvantaged, after all, is the best ritual and offering to the God.