I decided to write this article after I visited a temple in Baroda. Most of times when I visited Baroda, I happen to go to sports complex for jogging, basketball, football... On one such fine evening, my parents also accompanied me to sports complex for a walk. On our return home we
decided to visit a temple... I usually never plan such visits but on that day I agreed :-)
We entered though the main gate of the temple. Inside the temple premises there were many smaller temples, one each for different deity. People say God is unique but still they made them sit separately. My parents proceeded to one of the smaller temple. While I was removing my
shoes and socks, suddenly a security guard approached me saying,"Shorts are not allowed inside temple premises. Have u not read the notice-board outside the temple". I was wearing a round neck T-shirt, Knee length sports shorts, socks and shoes. So actually the bottom leg portion of skin which was not covered was from my knee to the top edge of the socks. I did not argue at all with the security guard as he was doing his duty, I told him that I would leave the premises and started to wear the shoes again. After a while as I was leaving he told that he has a dhoti kind of cloth piece which I can use to tie around my waist and then would be permitted to go for the darshan. But as I was not interested, I said NO to him and left the premises. Outside I waited for my parents to return and when they were back I told them this episode.
I was just wondering about who would have made this dress code. Do the God(s) have made it for their devotees? Hope not :-D
decided to visit a temple... I usually never plan such visits but on that day I agreed :-)
We entered though the main gate of the temple. Inside the temple premises there were many smaller temples, one each for different deity. People say God is unique but still they made them sit separately. My parents proceeded to one of the smaller temple. While I was removing my
shoes and socks, suddenly a security guard approached me saying,"Shorts are not allowed inside temple premises. Have u not read the notice-board outside the temple". I was wearing a round neck T-shirt, Knee length sports shorts, socks and shoes. So actually the bottom leg portion of skin which was not covered was from my knee to the top edge of the socks. I did not argue at all with the security guard as he was doing his duty, I told him that I would leave the premises and started to wear the shoes again. After a while as I was leaving he told that he has a dhoti kind of cloth piece which I can use to tie around my waist and then would be permitted to go for the darshan. But as I was not interested, I said NO to him and left the premises. Outside I waited for my parents to return and when they were back I told them this episode.
I was just wondering about who would have made this dress code. Do the God(s) have made it for their devotees? Hope not :-D
What would be the factors which the management would have considered to arrive at a decent dress code. Let us consider the factor "open skin" or say "visible skin". The temple pujari wears only a dhoti(that too at times translucent) and does not wear anything on the upper body. So comparing my visible skin area with that of pujari clearly indicates that the pujari's skin area is more visible. I can also comment on the women’s attire(Contemporary Hindu daily dress like saris tend to often show bare stomachs, but the feeling of culture and tradition covers such exposure.) to support my state but let me keep this aside for time being. The other factor which I thought might be because wearing shorts while visiting temple is a sign of disrespect. But do God really complain about it. I wish to pray to God in temple but I was not allowed as I wore sports shorts, but while playing game I can pray to God wearing the same attire. At that time the temple authorities do not come and say, "Hey boy u are wearing shorts and you cannot pray God wearing this". Cricketer while playing match pray to God, athletes, swimmers all pray to God and God has no problem with what they are wearing. Respect should come from the heart and not through the attire which one wears. My attire was neither revealing nor it was indecent. Only the management or trustees of temple have problem and they lay such strict rules. But I am very sure that these rules are not going to remain the same and would definitely change over a period of time, but the change would be gradual.
The dress code at the famous temple in south india - Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guruvayur_Temple Strict dress code exists both for men and women. Men are supposed to wear Mundu around their waist without any dress covering their chest(OMG why the God would be interested in seeing bare chest of men ??). Women are expected to wear saris and not allowed to wear trouser like dresses or short skirts. Though the rules have been relaxed for women to wear churidaar and salwar kameez. So here comes a point, after a certain period of time, the dress code which existed(only saris for women) has to be relaxed. So the attire which I wore (sports shorts) after a certain period of time would also be allowed after some x years. x can be any number :-P
Temple means a place of worship for Hindus. While considering a cross-section of religions the problem becomes much more complex. Christianity allows to wear shorts for boys, short skirts for women. Also during the marriage ceremony the couple can also kiss each other in the church. But such acts are not allowed in Hindu religion. So for the same human being the religion preaches different things.
I am very sure that God irrespective of any religion have not created any such rules or restrictions, but the greedy human being has customised the religion according to his needs and forces others to follow it.
In Hindu religion, non-veg is not(never) allowed while Muslim religion preaches it followers to eat meat. Isn't this is a striking difference. Even those who followed Hindu eats non-veg, but some people at times say, “Today is xyz-day and we cant eat non-veg today” “Aree aaj mandir jana hai isliye non-veg nahi kha sakta”.. but this very person gets changed afterwords just to eat what he or she wants. Simply cant understand why to use religion for following/not following these things.
The discussion about dress codes might end up in a debate. Creating a dress code for a workplace, public or religious places can be a tricky thing ;-). Swiss bank has to make special dress code for women http://www.indianexpress.com/news/swiss-bank-dress-code-no-tight-skirts-no-c/725647/
4 comments:
culture is strange :)
I feel, you should not compare temple with playground.
Like everyone says "god is every where", then why do people go to temple,church or mosque. They can sit anywhere can pray right.
Temples/churches/Mosques are treated as Holy places (by human), where they want people to be disciplined. They want people should be with Positive thoughts and feelings when they are at such places. And no-one should disturb others.
Now coming to your point, the rules of discipline are getting changed like the world is changing.
Like in old times, stealing a single penny is treated as crime. Atleast people have that feeling in their mind that stealing things or corrupting is wrong.
But now a days people don't mind about small crimes. Unless if it involves a murder or corruption in Lakhs or Crores, they dont even care about it.
Great blog!
I've always believed that "No culture is right or wrong, it's only different"
What you've arrived at in your blog is value-system. A value is a culturally shared perspective of something being acceptable or unacceptable. Value-system if discussed it even more unreasonably wierd. For example, guys staying with their parents after adulthood is something strange in western culture, but in India, its is expected. Even the most liberal Indian man would come from office and relax, while his wife (who might also be working) will toil to cook dinner for the two. Same would not be the case with other culture.
So, what do we do when we endorse a different view than our 'culture'? It's is difficult to generalize, but i think what Jigu did was perfect. Respect the feeling of the majority if it does not hurt us too much and it's not disrespectful to us. However, if u think that what is being demanded of u is unreasonable, confront it, after all, it takes some courageous person to change the generally accecpted value. For, example if someone restricts temple entry on the basis of caste heirarchy, then it becomes the duty of the person to defend his pride.
So, chil and let the world pass by... each generation thinks of the previous one as retrogradive and the next one as rotten :-)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Temples-go-for-dress-codes-in-Saurashtra/articleshow/19309032.cms
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