Animal sacrifice, which has long been a blemish on the Hindu religion and the image of India in general still exists. In a Temple-of-Doom‘ish gesture, devotees of the Hindu goddess Kali, captured and sacrificed goats and lambs to “appease Kali”.
Devotees in Orissa’s Jajpur and Puri districts sacrificed hundreds of goats and lambs to invoke goddess Kali’s blessings, eyewitnesses said Saturday.
The culling, which started Friday night continued till Saturday.
About 120 goats and lambs were sacrificed Saturday morning at the Maa Kali temple in Katarapur village of Jajpur district, some 100 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar, a villager told IANS
Mola Ram approves.
Humor aside, this is a serious issue. The media was prevented by the temple authorities from accessing this ceremony. While that is deplorable, it may not necessarily be such a bad thing given the propensity of Indian media to sensationalize these happenings instead of discussing the underlying issues. The underlying issue is that while most Hindus largely condemn activities like animal sacrifice, it still exists in this day and age.
While this may sound like comparing apples to papayas, a man marrying a dog to “atone” for his bad karma of killing mating dogs [link], Aishwarya Rai reportedly marrying trees because she was a manglik [link], people mistaking barking dogs for praying dogs [link], Nepal’s pre-adolescent goddess [link] and parents indulging in at-home blood transfusions among siblings to transfer “smarts” [link], are all intertwined to this barbaric ritual of animal sacrifice in Hindu temples [link], whether we like or not. These incidents stem from superstitions, religion-sponsored superstitions. The religion happens to be Hinduism in this case.
People may point to the governor of Georgia praying for rain [link] and make a counter point that other religions have their own superstitions also. My answer is, so what? Two wrongs does not a right make and an act of blind faith by someone from a different religion or country does not make our homegrown superstitions any more legitimate.
Perhaps a good starting point to rid our society of these superstitions would be to eliminate minor religious superstitions like the nimbu-mirchi and kaala teeka from our daily lives.
Note: Yes, it did rain in Georgia a day after the governor held his prayer session. Miracle, perhaps? Not!! Any idiot with an internet connection could’ve looked up weather.com days in advance and seen a storm system heading for the entire east coast. How convenient, the governor would hold his prayer session for rain a day before the storm system hit his state.
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