Call this divinity?

To speak with even an iota of conviction that Lord Ayyappa8217;s temple, Sabarimala, has lost some of its divinity because a woman entered its premises and touched the feet of the idol is reflective either of the speaker8217;s religious arrogance or his self-delusion. In the former case, he has to be shown the earthly, undivine slime he stands in; in the latter, with compassion, he needs to be introduced to a psychiatrist. For, if indeed this man is able to distinguish divinity from non-divinity, he is himself worthy of being worshipped 8212; only a person who has undergone the great transformation from man to God can dare to comment and tell us lesser beings what is divine and what8217;s not. Which, again, is granting far too many concessions.

To believe this as Truth is granting temple managers a spiritual status that8217;s beyond their limited religious vision. They are nothing but self-declared intermediaries imposed on the rest of us through a complex socio-politico-religious nexus. It has nothing to do with spirit or God. In the spiritual evolutionary scheme of things, from the spirit came desire, from desire came matter, into matter came life, into life came mind and that8217;s where we stand today. Underlying all these, of course, is the Timeless, Spaceless Spirit, a part of which sits in us as our Psychic 8212; as much in the woman as in the man, as much in Valmiki as in Vyasa, in the butcher as in the brahmin, in the bathed businessman or government functionary who gets to go closer to the same defiled god as in his unshaven driver who, perhaps with a deeper devotion, has to stand longer, farther.

To assume that this evolution has stopped is a conceit, a deception, a falsehood that man has created to control, to exert power over others. Not too different from politics but with far less accountability and risk 8212; you don8217;t vote temple managers; they are selected from a narrow cosy club, as much, if not more dynastic as politics, business and films. Such retrograde and sexist policies should be banned; reflections from backward classes being allowed into temples are social evolutionary precedents worth benchmarking. If forcing a woman to apologise for seeking God is a sin, giving it any legal sanctity would be Asuric.