"Men will wrangle for religion,write for it,fight for it,die for it;anything but live it"~Charles Caleb Colton
With all due respect to traditional values and the rationalisation of civilised mind,Culture should be viewed as an evolving enigma.We are all blind men only trying to perceive the shape of the elephant in the room.In a limited time span of our life, the adherence to "so-called" foster practices should only be subjected to the litmus test of time and technology.In this aspect, the judgement of honourable supreme court on Sabarimala issue and the massive protest for its extension to practice,is a classic example of how Tradition can be used as a tool for political and social management.
Speaking as a humanist the first and foremost understanding of mine is that,neither men nor women had chosen themselves to be created the way they are now.Henceforth,nature is beyond taboo and so should our biological evolution be too.In this aspect,it is important to link the evolution, biology, extension of belief as tradition and a tad bit of rationalism.When one introspects these aspects on a self evaluating note one could conclude that humans are "social mobs" and so has been the suggestive facts from history.The examples of religious atrocities ,cultural revolution, rights based revolution were actually based on the massive management of or against traditional status quo.
The "if's and but's" associated with our beliefs need a prolonged time to be broken up into pieces of fact based solutions.Man is never rational but is trying to perceive solutions for the unknown questions within a limited sphere of informed thinking.It is this thought of human kind that gave to the "Saguna" culture(image/idol worship) and equating the super power in closeness to one's heart i.e in the human form.While this gave the freedom for the cultural sprout of many divine features within the ambit of religious divisions,the scenario also paved way for the fear of "if not" tradition to groom up.We fear the so called superpower since most of us believe or have been nurtured to believe that any misdeed against the "status quo" is a taboo and we shall land up either in hell or face the worst form of punishment.Fear forms the base of our belief and in a good way is used to not let man become an animal.However when this status quo of tradition is challenged we let our spree of suppressed anger and fear to take the form of "upholding tradition"-the beginning of mass management.
An ordinary human let alone stand to face his/her belief shall not protest the changing facets of tradition for he/she is too weak to stand against the stride.It is the so called "social mob" tendency that is inherent to us that makes us "resist change".One may raise up question given my argument that I stand against God or religion or whatever names one ought to attach to these beliefs.The answer is "I am a theist but I don't need a mediator to communicate with my creator".Further more,beyond the microscopic inventions of our beliefs, we only form a speck of dust and our beliefs are limited to our own perceptions.The Universe do need a faith and such faith shall not distort the evolving human thoughts.A mass management of tradition has since then been used to keep attached to our beliefs but sooner than later time have "piggy banked" on such belief.The standing example of "barbie krishna" is the witness as to how our beliefs are marketed, made into products and sold into our lives.The idea namely the USP(Unique selling point) has been made as a tool for this management of tradition.We are still the consumers of our accumulated belief and the mass mentality of cumulative faith.
That being said, the breaking of tradition also face the practical difficulties such as definition of divinity, the taboo tag of menstruation and above all the inherent tendency of polar attraction(!).The reasons so far that has led to the uniqueness of the fastening period of Sabarimala pilgrimage have a scientific factor attached to it.The 41 or 48 day fast is a prelude needed for a person to prepare him for the arduous journey of climbing the uphill.All the rituals such as waking at dawn followed by a cold water bath and prayer are ways to converge one's thought process to a goal of attainment.The dietary routine and the hard bed sleep accentuates the physical aspect of making a person ready and accustom to hardships that one may face during tumultuous periods of life.Besides, the customs such as avoiding alcohol and other unhealthy habits secure your health to make the climb.The "No Sex" tradition during fast is again an aspect of securing your potential energy for the process of copulation burns the maximum energy in one's living years.One can equate how our forefathers have established the link between divinity and a healthy living with an earnest thought convergence.
With the above mentioned factors kept in mind and the judgement of Supreme court viewed, one can say that the vast lying scientific factors have not been augmented to strengthen the argument and institutional administrative difficulties were not foreseen.Beside the hijack of "Feminism under traditional thought break" was not warranted for.A rationalist thought should be, not to distort the entire set of practices capsulated so far in one go but to spoon feed it for we are dealing with the most closest issue of our civilisational evolvement.On a note to balance equality and tradition, the practice of allowing women of the particular age group into the shrine should begin on a rationed basis like say only on particular days or with a more rigorous dress code and practices.Also a caution note of expanding businesses in religious politics and a rebel thought of hurting sentiments too be addressed on a pro bono legal basis.Civil and religious laws should be complementing each other for above all ,laws are only meant for the betterment of civilisation.
