Every year, on the first day of the Malayalam calendar month of Makaram (capricon), the hills at Sabarimala and its premises are blessed with a view of a celestial golden light. In Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, people still believe that God comes to earth then. According to legends there, that vision is supposed to cleanse all sins and everything else. Year after year, the crowd around the temple increases and the danger of a stampede or a bigger accident happening keeps looming large. This year an accident occurred… a stampede happened and yet in its aftermath, of all paper reports and comments, there is really no mention anywhere in any press or any news item for this whole act to be completely stopped.
There are news reports of scams about everything… lot of news reporters and tv channels are hell bent on trying to expose wrong doings. Then, why can’t someone really stand up and stop this ‘government sponsored’ and ‘government run’ scam? Sabarimala is a tribal hillock… with all the money pouring in, the whole area has been transformed into a concrete jungle. A place filled with filth and terribly designed buildings. The money is not used to improve the facilities. I am not sure, that place can withstand this crowd for long. In the greed to make money, people are forgetting that there is an element of human beings involved. I will put down a small example...
I lived most of my student life at Vizag and near my house we had the dhobi, who used to also iron the clothes. His family consists of three children two girls and one boy. Every year he saves all the money that he is earning and makes the pilgrimage to see makarajyoti. He believes that if he is not true to his 41 day ritual, he will be eaten by tigers. All that money that he saves around the year, he comes and deposits at the temple, returns and continues work. He lives in a small hut, and for the all the 4 years that I knew him he has lived there. That is just a single story and likewise there would be many out there. Isn’t it time we stopped this cruelty? Every town in Kerala waits the coming of “ayyapas” from Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh so that this state can make money. From transport to lodging to food… tourism is not what gets Kerala its highest revenue but its from its own tribal god.
An accident was waiting to happen and by the look of it its only going to get worse… nobody is interested in the welfare of people… greed takes prominence. How can we make more money? After all the money we are making is long time ago, a simple tribal warlord called Ayyapan did a brave thing in fighting the poachers and robbers who were looting the forests of Sabarimala and surroundings. That young tribal warlord is now seated as the second richest god in India
In my personal opinion, its high time we stop this reality show.
In all the newspaper reports that I read, some people have suggested solutions - ‘to increase the time of the “jyoti” and to make it visible from more places…’
Oh my god! … Are we really living in a sane world?
1 comments: on "Makara Jyoti – “the divine light”"
It's high time that the Kerala governemnt take all necessary action possible to stop this temple fraud.In my school days i too had the feeling that it was a divine jyothi that appears on the Sabarimala hills on the day of Makaravilakku, and i very well remeber occasions when I had entered into quarrels and endless debates with my friends who had questioned, may be just to anger me, the authority of the Jyothi. But as I grew up and started reading and observing things around me, I realised that there is nothing divine in the Jyothi and that it's a hoax.
I think, a lot of Malayalees know that the entire thing is a drama being staged every year, by the Devaswam Board, KSEB, Police and the Forest department, to cheat, exploit and defraud the unsuspecting members of the public, majority of whom come from outside Kerala, just to accumulate huge and unimaaginable amount of wealth.
This is a crime.A crime carried out every year by a democratically elected governemnt. A lot of Rationalist associations in Kerala have pointed out at different periods of time since 1970's, that this is stage-managed and that it should be stopped. Nobody took notice of their claims. Some governments even tried to contain the movements and voices which were raised against this, may be just not to touch the feelings of the Bhakthas. I don't agree with this.
While almost all the Print and Visual media tried, not to disseminate truth in this matter, it's really a great relief that the Blog and the Buzz comunity came out in cyberspace giving voice to their concerns and opinions against this stupidity. I salute them.
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