Posted on: 28 Oct 2018
Shri Surya asked:- Padanamaskaram Swami. A person Jatayu commented as given below in Yahoo news on Your message about entry of ladies in Sabarimala temple. “A person who is not able to control his mind by observing ritualism is not fit to visit the shrine. What is the use then. If females also go and then if he able to follow the rituals by controlling his mind then only he is worthy to be called Ayappan. It shows that the good olden Brahmins who postulate these rules might not have control over their senses and thus prohibited the women not to entry on some invalid sayings which seemed to have continued till date. The Supreme court rightly said that every human beings including the females have the right to visit the deity.”
Swami replied:- I have already given a message on this topic. You said that if senses are not controlled, what is the use of visiting the holy shrine of Lord Ayyappa? It is very easy to pass such statements standing merely in the theoretical phase. When you stand in the practical phase, you will understand its real power. If you see the story of the birth of Ayyappa, it is said that even Lord Shiva was fascinated by Mohini, the climax of feminine beauty, who gave birth to Lord Ayyappa. Of course, even females have such desire since they too are human beings just like men. Sex is a very powerful force and its power can be realized only in a practical situation. Even sage Vishvaamitra was attracted to the heavenly dancer called Menaka. Are you greater than sage Vishvaamitra, who created a new heaven between the sky and earth? Due to this truth, sage Vashishtha advised in the beginning of his book, called the Yoga Vaasishtam, that an ordinary human being should always stay away from worldly attractions. Only an Incarnation of God can have full control even in the presence of these attractions. God Shiva is said to have been fascinated by Mohini only to indicate that it is impossible to escape from such fascination. It is only an Arthavaada, which is a lie told for a good purpose).
You criticize Ayyappans (devotees of Lord Ayyappa) that they are not fit to be Ayyapans if they cannot control their senses! This reminds Me of an incident that happened in My early life. I joined a college as a lecturer. After one year, My probation period ended and I was called by the owner of the college to give Me a confirmation of the job. Do you know, what he said? He said to Me “We hired you as lecturer since you are a Ph.D. degree holder. One year has passed away, and you could not even get a Nobel prize!” I so shocked that I left that college immediately and joined another college!
Other than Lord Ayyappa Himself, no human devotee (Ayyapan) has perfect control over his or her senses. It is only to achieve this control that the devotees practice this special worship for forty days following very strict rules. When such devotees go to the temple after forty days to surrender to Lord Ayyappa, the presence of females between the ages of ten to fifty years is not at all good, since the devotees’ minds are highly unstable. This is the background of the devotees, who visit that specific temple after forty days. It is for this reason that women are not allowed in the temple. One should not go to the extreme of doubting the control of senses of Lord Ayyappa Himself in this issue!
God Ayyappa exists in every Ayyappa temple. It is not that He exists only in the Sabarimala temple. Moreover, all the statues of different deities in any temple are only the representative models of God. God does not directly exist in the statues (Na tasya pratimaa —Veda). But the worship of the representative models certainly improves the person’s theoretical devotion and is very much necessary for beginners (Pratimaa hyalpa buddhiinaam).
This problem can be solved in any one of the two ways:
God never considers the differences of caste and gender. These differences are only for foolish souls. The menstrual cycle of women is not unholy. It is said in the scripture that Indra divided his sin into four equal parts and transferred it to four items. They are the earth, water, flowers, and women. As a result, the earth began releasing its part of the sin in the form of odor. Water began releasing its part of the sin as froth. Flowers began releasing their part of the sin as pollen grains. Women began releasing their part of the sin in the form of menstrual blood.
When the scented earth, water with froth and flowers with pollen are not unholy in any worship, how did women in menses become unholy? Yet, this concept of ‘unholy menses’ was imposed on women even by the good tradition. If you analyze the hidden intention behind this false concept you will realize that it was not bad at all! The background intention of this ‘unholy menses’ concept is that women are forced to take rest for four days in a month. Effectively, they are being treated as patients who need rest due to the bleeding. If the truth had been revealed, women would not have taken rest. Such a creation of a lie to achieve a good purpose is called an arthavaada. The only thing that is unholy is always being involved in worldly issues. The only thing that is holy is being involved in spiritual knowledge and devotion to God. Some people say that in a particular temple of a Goddess, the statue of the Goddess shows marks of Her being in menses every month. The temple is kept closed for the four days. But every statue of that Goddess or any other Goddess does not go through menses. It means that what happens in that particular temple, is a miracle. The miracle indicates the human form of God, who is the real goal of worship. God is beyond caste and gender. He always gives weight only to our devotion, which must be based on perfect spiritual knowledge.