First, Purify Your Mind

SONAL SRIVASTAVA





Priests at Shani Shingnapur temple, Maharashtra, performed a purification ritual when they learnt that a women had accidentally stepped on to the unlocked platform where Shani's statue stands. In another case, recently , the Sabarimala Temple Trust's tradition of banning entry to women of menstrual age group was challenged in the Supreme Court.When temples are places that are meant to bring people closer to divinity and temples represent the Sagunarupa (with form) of the Nirakar (formless), why should anyone be barred entry? Temples and idols are not ends in themselves; they're part of a spiritual journey a seeker undertakes to eventually become one with Brahmn, Universal Consciousness. For the uninitiated, it may not be easy to grasp the reality of the formless; hence the Sagunarupa, and rituals such as burning of incense sticks, chanting and conch-blowing that help a seeker focus.
Going beyond the form helps us realise the underlying oneness in the cosmos and attain nirvana. In the Mundaka Upanishad, Saunaka asks Angiras, “What is it through the knowledge of which everything becomes known?“ Angiras replies that there are two kinds of knowledge: the lower and the higher. `Lower knowledge' consists of the Vedas, phonetics, rituals, grammar, etymology , prosody and astronomy .
But the Imperishable is attained through higher knowledge. Perhaps we need to focus on higher knowledge to rise above dualities of gender and the fickleness of our own minds.