No, My God Wouldn’t Like That!

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(Viewers restriction: The ones who strictly wouldn’t like criticism of the ritual of sacrificing animals to gods and goddesses stay away from this article. I don’t want to hurt you.)

 

“Where are you taking this goat?”

“I am taking it to the Deity, to sacrifice ‘it’ for ‘my’ good luck this year.”

This is the conversation I had with one of the devotees, who was on the way to Pathivara Temple from Mathlo Fedi along with its goat. We shared the same path most of the time.

I belong to Hinduism because my parents are Hindu and I am raised in such a background. Even though we have thousands of gods and goddesses in our religion and carry a strong mythical history, I know very little about it. I am not a religious person and I am not even against it. I do celebrate the festivals that are part of my religion and I enjoy them.

It is a month of October. It has started being a bit cold already in Nepal; especially the hills are getting colder, let alone mountains. I had been travelling a lot this month. Recently I went on a three days trip that included Jeep ride mostly and a short trek as well. On the seventh day or Saptami of the Dashain festival –considered the most important festival of Hindus- I began my trip to Pathivara Temple that is located in Taplejung district of Eastern Region. It is famous and is a beautiful touristic area of Eastern Nepal. The major reason behind the trip was to explore the mountains and then, yes, to see the ancient Statue of Goddess Pathivara that is believed to have a lot of power. I began trekking at 4:30 am in the morning. I was so sleepy and really not in the condition to climb the slope that was greater than sixty degrees probably. On the way, I met different people. I was amazed to see the old age devotees. They were plenty. They were making small steps and walking slowly. And yes, there were kids too. Some were walking themselves while some were being carried. It motivated me to walk faster. I could see people taking goats along with them. I was shocked to know that they were carrying a goat this entire path to sacrifice it to the Goddess Pathivara. So the creator itself wants the sacrifice? Interesting. I made a short debate with the devotees with goats. I was disappointed with their opinions.

“Today is Astami, we need to sacrifice a goat to the Devi, and else we will have a bad fortune. We will pour the fresh blood of this goat to the Devi, and take its body back. This will be eaten as Prasad of Devi this Dashain.”

It was the answer I got for my question. The religion that I follow has a lot of gods in it. The creator is a god itself. This is what we believe in. The one that creates a life probably wouldn’t like to see its creation being sacrificed like that, in its own feet. At least, this is my opinion.

One should never take death in its own hand, rather be of it or somebody else. May be our gods are different. My god is ideal. My god doesn’t like the human beings taking death in their hands. I know people kill animals for eating. It is a large industry. But, why in the name of gods? This is truly disgusting.

As I mentioned before, I don’t know much about the myths. But, what I know is, people used to sacrifice ‘their’ blood to the Devi in the first place. Devi is a source of energy and yes, blood is considered the source of energy too. If one wants tremendous energy, one should be ready to sacrifice his/her blood. But then, people brought innocent animals in the process of sacrificing blood. You cannot increase ‘your’ energy by sacrificing the blood of the innocent life that really wants to live. There is some kind of misinterpretation to what was being taught and what is being followed. In the holy book Ramayana, Ravan sacrifices ‘his’ head ten times. In Chandi, it is written that, King Surath and Businessman Samadi regain their happiness after making the Devi happy by sacrificing a bit of their ‘own’ blood. It could be their belief or something that was for satisfaction. At least they are sacrificing their ‘own’ blood. Sacrifice comes from oneself. If one wants to sacrifice something, it should be ego, pride and cruelty rather than the blood of the innocent lives. You want to sacrifice blood? Try yours. We are misinterpreting the religion that carries an amazing history.

“But how can you have a good fortune by sacrificing animal’s blood instead of yours, to the Devi? Aren’t you being selfish?” was my question to the devotee. I was replied like –”This is something our ancestors have taught us. We need to follow the guidelines of the ancestors to keep the trend running.”

The cavemen roamed naked in the Stone Age. Do we roam naked? So, ultimately we changed our minds, we learnt. Even if I am wrong, and the ancestors really sacrificed the innocent lives to earn fortune for them, we can stop that now. We definitely have more knowledge than our ancestors had. Sometimes, bad cultures need to be abolished and some new needs to be hugged.

After having such a conversation with the devotees on the way, I felt like returning back. But, after all, the travel had begun and at least for the beautiful view of mountains I made it to the temple. The view was horrifying. Though I didn’t enter the temple for myself, I caught the sight of the sacrifices. The pure Deity was flooded with the blood of the lives that were not ready to be killed. I had to return back with the horrible experience rather than some good memories.

It is still my personal opinion that animal sacrifice is not something that should be followed as the part of our religion. If somebody believes in good fortune comes with sacrificing blood, be it be his/her own blood. The best way to sacrifice blood for good fortune or satisfaction is donating blood to the needy. Why take the lives of others by sacrificing them to the Deity, if instead you can sacrifice your own blood and actually save some lives? My god created lives to be lived not to be sacrificed in its own name, and NO, MY GOD WOULDN’T LIKE THAT!

Aleena Rayamajhi

10/26/2018