Post No. 12,791
Date uploaded in London – – – 2 December , 2023
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Kottayam , 19-1-1937
Speaking in Hindi Gandhiji said,
I am delighted to address for the first time in during my pilgrimage a women’s meeting. I should therefore have given you much longer time and tried to make fuller acquaintance of you who have gathered together in such a large number, and , where for the first time a sister has made her reception speech in Hindi. I thank you both for the welcome and for the Hindi address.
I have often said that untouchability is a great blot on Hinduism and it threatened the very life of Hinduism. The Proclamation (allowing all Hindus into temples) has come in very good time to enable us to wipe out the blot. But by itself it cannot do so. The Maharajah’s work was finished with the proclamation. It is for you to root out untouchability by carrying the proclamation in full effect. This work of carrying through the process of purification devolves principally on Savarna Hindus (caste Hindus). I have often said that it is women alone who can be protectors of religion inasmuch as they are the custodians of the purity of the people. It is particularly women’s work, because the purification of religion is ultimately a matter purification of ones heart.
Gandhiji took inspiration from the fact that Travancore Maharaj goes to the Thiruvananthapuram Anatha Padmanabha Swami temple before leaving the state and comes to the temple on return, before taking up his work again.
Gandhiji praised King Marthanda Varma and said that the idea of dedication did not originate with Marthanda Varma. Lithic records show as early as 14th century the Maharajhs of Travancore called themselves,
Shri Padmanabha- Padakamala- Paramaradhaks.
Padmanabadas is only a beautiful abbreviation of this older appellation.
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Gandhiji after returning from Travancore answered a believer in an interview,
“I certainly left Travancore with spiritual treasures that I had newly discovered. For what I saw there was beyond my expectations and more than delighted my hear . the temples gave me a loftier and nobler idea of temples and temple worship. I had visited temples before in North India but I had not done so in devout spirit, and they had failed to stir me. But the majestic Travancore temples spoke to me. Every carving, every little image, every little oil lamp had a meaning for me. But that does not mean that I am satisfied with everything. I put my revolutionary plan before His Highness in my last speech, for I took upon the Proclamation itself as revolutionary”.
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Temples – Link with Gods (13-1-1937 Trivandrum Speech)
I must mention what I saw at the great Padmanabha Temple. It will perhaps best illustrate what I am saying about the purely religious and spiritual revival. In the days of my youth, I went to many temples with the faith and devotion with which my parents had fired me. I have refrained from going to temples unless they were opened to everyone called untouchables.
In the Trivandrum temple there were thousands awaiting arrival of my party . but there was no noise no bustle. Untouchables of yesterday were in the silent concourse, perhaps equal numbers. I could not distinguish between the two. All had almost the same caste marks on their bodies, all had the same kind of garments.
Priest was interpreting each figure in his own choice. But without giving me that particular interpretation he made me realise that these temples were so many bridges between the Unseen,, Invisible and Indefinable God and ourselves who were infinitesimal drops in the Infinite Ocean. we the human family are not all philosophers we are of the earth very earthy, and we have not satisfied with contemplating on the Invisible God. Somehow or other we want something which we want to touch, something which we can see, something before which we can kneel down. It does not matter whether it is a book , or an empty stone building or a stone building inhabited by numerous figures. A book will satisfy some, an empty building will satisfy some, an empty building will satisfy others and many others will not be satisfied unless they see something inhabiting these empty buildings. Then I ask you to approach these temples not as if they represented a body of superstitions. If you will approach these temples with faith in them, you will know each time you visit them you will come away from them purified, and with faith more and more in the living god.
In another address Gandhiji said that he had never visited so many temples in his life. It was a pilgrimage.
–subham—
Tags- Temples, women, link with gods, untouchability , abolished, Kerala
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