News from Puri
I'm not taking sides in this...I know better. Just stating the obvious; that this is going to keep on till somebody or a bunch of somebodies (probably in
south India) holds a referendum to "officially" redefine or define in the first place, since it was never defined in any scripture, what is a "Hindu."It's not the first time the guardians of Puri's purity have been asleep the switch. Last year an Australian (I think) got in - which precipitated a ritual cleansing of the grounds - and around the same time there was a diplomatic faux pas when some Indonesian (presumably Balinese?) Hindus were not allowed in (guess they did not look Hindu enough...?).
At the time of the Indonesian incident, I read an Indian news report that such a conclave was being held, but never heard results.
Now I read of an incident involving the Thai Princess (--are Buddhists part of Hinduism? depends on who is counting, and why. In my experience, when it's to Hindu advantage, Buddhists are part of the "Om Kar Parivar") and another where a Bhubaneshwar temple was cleansed after a visit by someone - government minister in fact - from a "low caste." (not enough to be Hindu - you need to be the right kind of Hindu.)
The temple cleansing episodes remind me of the old story about Buddy Holly's family. Holly, the Texas rock legend, was very adamant about integration and socializing with Blacks. (It's okay to call them Black again...) This happened in a small town in the 1950s. Holly insisted on inviting some Black musicians in to his parents' house for dinner. After they left, he said, his parents "scrubbed the dishes five times with extra soap."
And why doesn't anyone fuss at the Parsees about the same issue? Well, for one thing, the Parsees are consistent!
Hey Balinese guys, next time "dress like a sadhu."
According to police, the foreign visitor, Sebastian, dressed like a sadhu. That made it difficult for security guards at the entrance to make out whether he is a Hindu or not. “He looked like a sadhu. He was wearing ochre robes of Hindu monks and yellow kurta with a shawl. He had also anointed sindur on forehead,” Singhadwar police station inspector-in-charge Arun Dalai.
Fearing more tension, the policemen escorted Sebastian out of the temple and detained him at the office of the Jagannath temple for hours.
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