With the Shani Shingnapur Mandir controversy adding to the already raging issue of women of menstrual age not being allowed inside the Sabarimala temple, we now have Jaggi Vasudev who goes by the moniker Sadhguru terming it as mere discretion rather than discrimination based on gender.
Founder of the Isha Foundation - a non-profit organisation which offers yoga programmes across the globe - Sadhguru is a popular Indian mystic yogi and philanthropist author.
On January 26, bowing to political pressure, the Ahmednagar district police in Maharashtra had suppressed an agitation led by the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade to protest against debarring of women from the inner sanctum area of the Shani Shingnapur Mandir.
Expounding on the same, Sadhguru waxes eloquent on how the occult rituals conducted in the said temple are not compatible with female presence in any form.
Entry of women in the sanctum area of a temple –he says- would be subject to rigorous specialized training, which is more easily imparted to the menfolk rather than their female counterparts owing to certain biological advantages of the male species.
Sadhguru views temples as not mere places of prayer as perceived by the masses but as areas where different types of energies are consecrated. These external forces according to him impact the course of one’s life to the extent each human allows it to do so.
He is quick to follow it up with an analogy of the Linga Bhairavi worship of which he is a known propagator since 2010, wherein men are not allowed to enter the inner sanctum.
The only way out of the ignorance of such mass protests -Sadhguru believes- is to educate people on the scientific thought that goes into the construction of these temples and why they are built and for what purpose.
So even though he admits that the manner in which such restrictions are imposed may seem crude and discriminatory, Sadhguru believes these to be necessary hurdles in blocking out the negative energies of planetary influences on human lives.
And here we were working ourselves up into a stew on the freedom of movement, worship, expression and the like. All this time, it was just the planets playing truant with us poor humans.
Wake up, all ye rationalist ignoramuses out there to the pontifical words of Sadhguru!