Praying Mantis

“You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.” – Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets).

And Scorsese is a Catholic who wanted to become a priest or a gangster. Thankfully, he became a movie-maker. You don’t need a temple, mosque or church to pray. That can be done anywhere. In olden times temples were not just a place of worship. They were places for social gathering and also doubled up as teaching and learning centres. People pray at home. They pray at shops. They pray at offices. Muslims even pray on railway platforms, inside trains and at airports. Many airports now have a special prayer room. So why this ruckus about a temple at Shani Shingnapur by some woman called Trupti Desai and her gang? Her troop has been agitating for entry into the temple (a false agitation) because women were being allowed inside the temple anyway. She and her violent gang want to enter the inner sanctum of the temple where even ordinary men are not allowed. Only the priests doing the rituals are allowed in that place. What is obvious, but not being said in the media, is that there is a concerted and coordinated attack on practices by Hindu temples from Sabari Malai to Shani Shingnapur.

For the past few months, this woman Trupti Desai (in yellow) and her gang have been agitating to enter the temple. This was not even an issue as women were already being allowed entry. Their problem is they want to be allowed into the inner sanctum where other ordinary men and women are not allowed anyway. So they go the Bombay HC demanding entry into the temple. The HC promptly obliges stating they should be allowed entry into the “shrine area”. For the record, this Desai has been reported to be a Congress member, an atheist and also an AAP member. I am in no doubt that her entire operation is sponsored to target Hindu practices and traditions. Personally, I don’t give a damn whether she enters the shrine area or becomes a priest herself. But there is a pattern in the way Hindu institutions are being targeted by certain vested interests. Naturally, many are instantly tempted to point to the hypocrisy of govts and courts when it refuses to enforce equality for other religions. Here’s what the same Bombay HC said on Haji Ali barring entry of women:

So, when it comes to Haji Ali or Muslims our courts don’t want to “interfere”. And the HC also states this is an “era of intolerance”. Mind boggling! It does appear that govt after govt and courts have made it mandatory only for Hindus to follow the Constitution and reform their social and religious practices. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) now claims the Muslim Personal Law is above the Constitution and scrutiny of the Supreme Court. This because some Muslim women have petitioned against the instant triple Talaaq. The SC has taken up the petition anyway. The Punjab Assembly recently passed a Bill which entails life sentence for sacrilege to the Guru Granth Sahib. We are going crazy! This here is the famous Dilwara temple in Mount Abu:

The temple is open from 6am to 6pm every day but between 6am and noon only Jains are allowed in because this is a Jain temple. How do they know you’re a Jain if you’re not a regular devotee? They ask you to chant the first few lines of the regular Jain mantra or prayer before letting you in. We accept that rule and find nothing wrong in it. We don’t go around agitating to seek entry from 6am onward if we are non-Jains. Many temples in this country have rules and practices, as do mosques and churches. But it seems only Hindu temples are to be subjected to courts and spurious agitations. This hypocrisy is to be directly blamed on our govts and courts. They are scared of Muslims and Christians – as simple as that. They are scared of the violence Muslims will unleash and they are scared of the international Christian groups raining down on them. A column-writer expressed her extreme anguish over this in a series of tweets. Here’s one of them and I estimate most Hindus will feel her sense of deep frustration:

Whenever such incidents happen Hindus instinctively point to the hypocrisy of our govts and courts in enforcing Constitutional equality for all, regardless of religion. But I have to say it is just as wrong for Hindus to compare themselves with Muslim society. Their repressive Mullahs have ensured their society is beyond reform. Muslim women roll out mats at their homes facing Mecca to say their prayers. We shouldn’t be comparing with them. Almost all Hindu temples freely allow women. In fact, when Bapus hold “Pravachans” at many major temples most of the audience is made up of women. Hindu religion and society has been far more open and willing to make changes than any other religion. A vast majority of Hindus also keep religion at their homes and don’t wear it on their sleeve like some other communities do. But look at the audacity of some Muslim members (and there are quite a lot of them in public) who nonchalantly lecture on Hindu practices. These cowards and hypocrites need to be run down:

Farooq Abdullah or Shazia Ilmi lecturing on rights of Hindu women at temples? Laughable! It’s like Kim Jong-Un of North Korea lecturing on dangers of nuclear weapons and mouthing disarmament and democracy. Such is the cowardice and hypocrisy of verbal lint. How discriminatory are our govts and Commies in their approach to Hindu traditions and practices? All you have to do is read what the SC said five years ago on fake secularism of the Congis and its Commie partners:

It’s not as if the courts don’t recognise the efforts of some politial parties and Commie outfits to denigrate and destroy Hindu society and all its traditions. SoniaG even wanted to bring in the Communal Violence Bill where a Hindu would be charged and detained endlessly merely on accusations or suspicion. While they may be fighting each other all over the world, in India the Muslims and Christians employ a variety of methods to denigrate Hinduism with their Commie associates. A good reason why I call them Chrislamists. Here’s a Kerala Padre who wants Christians and Muslims to unite against Hindus (read here):

For what? If he had said CPM and Congress should unite against BJP that would be justified as a political statement on political tactics. But why in hell would this hate-mongering guy want two communities to unite against Hindus? And they will not rest until Hindus are fragmented and slowly destroyed. That’s their final goal. And the back-end sponsors of this goal are not only in India but spread across the world.

Why would anyone wanting to pray create a ruckus and agitate violently? Even going to court is a much more peaceful method. Trupti Desai and her gang don’t appear to be devotees of anything except the business of regular rioting and anarchy. This doesn’t happen without a sponsor. Each time either this gang or some other gang acts like the Praying Mantis to go for another kill of a Hindu prey – either in the form of temples or Durga or Karwa Chauth or some cherished Hindu traditions. Fortunately, because of Social Media more Hindus are getting to know about their evil designs. I count a blessing! I’m no pessimist. I’m positive this anti-Hindu nonsense will come to a grinding defeat sooner than later.

PS: Praying Mantis:

The majority of mantises are ambush predators that only feed upon live prey within their reach. They either camouflage themselves and remain stationary, waiting for prey to approach, or stalk their prey with slow, stealthy movements. Larger mantises sometimes eat smaller individuals of their own species, as well as small vertebrates such as lizards and frogs. Most mantises chase tempting prey if it strays close enough, and will go further when they are especially hungry. Once within reach, mantises strike rapidly to grasp the prey with their spiked raptorial fore legs. Some ground and bark species pursue their prey in a more active way.