“Why should women compel the Sabarimala deity to grant them darshan when the deity does not want to as per tradition,” asked the supreme court on Monday according to The Hindu.
The half-day hearing was for a petition filed against the ban on women of a certain age group from entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala and worshipping the presiding deity who is celibate.
Senior advocate and amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran stated before the bench that included Justice Dipak Misra, Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice Kurian Joseph that a ban on women worshipping a deity because of their gender was unfavourable to their self-esteem.
Reportedly, he said that any other morality, including an institutional one based on tradition that denies access to worship for women aged between 10 and 55 at Sabarimala temple as it would disturb the celibate deity, was subservient to constitutional morality which condemns discrimination based on gender, sex, caste, etc.
Ramachandran also added that it was a shallow argument to say that only women of a certain age are banned entry as the ban affected women during their most active years. He also argued that women could worship Lord Ayyappa at any other shrine except Sabarimala.
Justice Kurian reportedly interjected at this point and asked, “Why do you worship?” Ramachandran replied saying to get blessings and to say thanks.
“The second part of saying thanks is corollary to the first part—blessings. Only if you get the first will you say the second,” Justice Kurian remarked.
Justice Kurian then asked, “But here if the deity says ‘I don’t want to see you’, why do you compel Him to see you? If the deity does not want to be pleased, why do you compel Him to be pleased?”
Ramachandran replied saying that this popular notion of the deity wanting to keep distance from women worshippers of a certain age was just an “interpretation created by those who have managed the temple.”
“If I, a woman, have faith, if I want to worship, I must have access to see Him . . . that part is protected by the Constitution irrespective of sex, gender, caste or biological phenomena,” Ramachandran added according to The Hindu.
