Makara jyoyhi

Recently at shabarimala 106 people died of stampede. Probably they are too eager to watch the ‘divine’ makarajyothi. Starting that day many tweets and facebook status messages were on the internet questioning benevolence of religion. Especially by Marxists and atheists.Next day media shunted kerala govt for posing only 4 police men to handle around 3 lakh devotees. Kerala high court is watching the whole case now.

The observing of makara jyothi is considered to be a sacred thing and an astronomical wonder. It supposed to drive away daemons. . Because it starts about the same time harathi is given to lord ayyappa.  I am not sure now but earlier this sacred incident used to be telecasted live in the tv. I remember it because my aunt made me to do namaskaram to the jyothi when its happening in kerala. Yes, I did a namaskaram to the TV..hehe.

But the stampede issue raised the  questioning of divinity of the jyothi again.. Now interesting stories are coming out about it. In olden days, the tribes who live on the hilltops of ponnambalmedu ( it’s the name of the hill over which makarajyothi always been sighted) used to make the fire. Now as the tribes are driven out of forest, the Travancore Devaswom Board took up the fire-making duty every year. To make things easy they even constructed a cement platform there. The encircled part in the picture  is the shabarimala temple complex. And don’t get ideas to go for a trek on ponnambalmedu hill and take pics of the platform with your mobile camera. Its restricted area now.

Is it wrong to create superstations to make  religion more miraculous? . As buchibabu in “chivaraku migiledi” indicates that the cleverest of all the human deeds is the creation of god. Don brown in “Angels and demons” argues that we need miracles in the name of religion to preserve the concept of god.

Yes, many people need god. And they rely on him because he is powerful. So to keep up his image he (or someone else on his name) should show his strength to the world now and then.

But is it right to allow these things (makarajyothi, ganesha drinking milk , mother Mary shedding the tears of blood, ash from baba’s picture, lightening up of lamps in which water is used as fuel…etc etc ) so that we can have faith in god again. No, because usually  its not the fear of god which goes to our head when we see such things, its usually the conceit of religion which gets hold of brain which asks us to hate others. Probably these things might have served the purpose in the old days where each religion is confined to one region. In the era of globalization these are bad for the society.