What the women believe

At Sabarimala, their religious beliefs have come to the fore.

Sabarimala, Sabarimala temple, Makaravilakku, Makaravilakku Sabarimala, Lord Ayyappa, Vayalar Ramavarma, Kerala Sabarimala, Indian express, latest news — Even the revolutionary Malayalam poet, Vayalar Ramavarma, had sung about the pilgrims’ quest: “We come to your doorstep, Ayyappa/With the heaviness of our good and bad karmas”.

Before getting to the Sabarimala imbroglio that the Marxist-led government faces in god’s own country, we need an answer to a sensitive question: Is the “Makaravilakku” phenomenon — the “celestial light” that appears above the skies of Sabarimala on a particular day — man-made or not? Is it true that the Kerala State Electricity Board spends a lot of money and labour to create this “divine” visual which enthrals millions of devotees coming from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu? If this is so, is not that, in very simple terms, a betrayal of the people by the government? Why would any Marxist government continue this act of cheating millions?

Decades ago, Sabarimala was a serene temple. In the misty mornings of December and January, devotees wearing black carried the imaginary double-load of their papa-punya as bundles on their head, trekked to the temple all the way through forests. Self-realisation was the motto. Even the revolutionary Malayalam poet, Vayalar Ramavarma, had sung about the pilgrims’ quest: “We come to your doorstep, Ayyappa/With the heaviness of our good and bad karmas”.

River Pampa had pristine water then. When it was cold (though Kerala can never be as cold as the north), the devotees would dip in the river and continue their journey to the temple. And at the doorstep of the Absolute, they would leave the heaviness of their hearts — the papas and punyas of all their karmas — and would descend with a clean slate. With time, Pampa lost her pristine nature. This was the impact of a kind of Sabarimala tourism. It started attracting a lot of pilgrims from neighbouring states; money started flowing in. The cash-strapped government sat up and took notice. The state, which could never depend on industrial growth, was always looking for other areas of resources. Pilgrimage became tourism.

The yearning for a stone bench, to unload one’s heaviness of existence, is an absolute necessity for man. But it underwent some transformation too. The new way is, indulgence as much as possible, and then look for redemption. Everything is in flux in the style of Heraclitus. Life is short, enjoy it in the Epicurean line. Then there is this fear of the unknown in the subconscious mind as a back drop, which makes one look for redemption.