Mangalore, Oct 6: Various religious rituals were performed in the Kudroli Sri Gokarnanatheshwara Temple by two widows, here on Sunday, October 06.
Special pooja to the prime god of the temple, Gokarnanatheshwara, was performed by these two women are further appointed to be the priests in the temple.
They inaugurated the new idol of Lord Dattatreya and offered special worship poojas to Annapurneshwari, Hanuman, Navagraha, Krishna, Dattatreya and Sharadha, followed by teertha and prasada distribution to the devotees.
Speaking to the media, Janardhan Poojary said after the death of her husband, a woman has been treated isolated in the society. She has not been allowed to take part in any auspicious occasion. earlier there was a system called sathi system, which means the woman who has lost her husband had to jump to his pyre.
Brahmashree Narayana Guru had told we all are children of god and we all posses’ equal rights before him. Hence his preaching has been followed here. In the earlier periods, the backwardclass of the society were also not allowed to enter into the temple, but Narayana Guru was the one who changed the whole of the untouchability system. Even he had to face lots of criticisms and threats.
This system that has been introduced in this temple not only gives dignity to widows, but also helps others to look at women in the motherly feeling. This will also further help in reducing atrocities on women, rape and raggings.
The two widows have taken the priest ship in the temple today, they are Lamxi Shanthi, resident of Bantwal Mooda and Indira Shanthi of Balloor, Puttur. One of this lady is also a member of the Gram Panchayath in her village. They have been trained for the priest ship by Lokesh Shanthi from the past 4 months.
Even if married women or girls irrespective of caste creed and religion, come forward to take up priest ship, we will train them, he added.
Temple President H S Sairam, VP Raghavendra Kulur, Padmaraj R, Madhava Suvarna, B K Tharanath, Ravishankar Mijar, K Maheshchandra, Harikrishna Bantwal,Kallige Tharnath Shetty, MLA Moideen Bawa, corporators Deepak Poojary, Rathikala and Kavitha, Arun Coelho and others were present.
