Temple gender row: Ravi Shankar claims to have found solution

Mediating on the issue of gender bias at Maharashtra's Shani Shingnapur temple, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar today claimed to have arrived at a solution that allows both men and women to have darshan of the deity some distance away from the sacred "Chabutara" (platform).
Citing two models of facilitating darshan, practised at Kashi Vishwanath and Tirupati Balaji temples, Ravi Shankar said, "It is agreed that no one - man or woman - will step on the sacred Chabutara at the Shanti temple where oil is constantly poured as it can result in possible skidding."
"This contentious issue has been settled. There will not be any discrimination based on gender and all will have equal right of worship," he told a press conference at Balewadi near here.

While the temple trustees present at the meeting agreed with Ravi Shankar's formula based on the Tirupati Balaji darshan model, Trupti Desai, who led the recent agitation of the Bhoomata Brigade seeking women's entry into the temple's inner sanctum, said, "If nobody is to be allowed on the Chabutara, the priests who perform pooja of the deity at the sacred platform should include women."
Desai said if both men and women are going to be banned from stepping on the Chabutara, activists of Bhoomata Brigade should be given an opportunity to perform the "last pooja" on the sacred platform in the temple in Ahmednagar district, in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Ravi Shankar said, "It is not that you do not get

blessings of god if you have a darshan from some distance."
According to the spiritual guru, all men and women could have darshan of the Shani deity from a distance of three feet without any gender discrimination.
He also supported the Bhoomata Brigade's demand for women priests.
Desai claimed the trustees were still insisting on a "male mindset" in supporting the proposal to ban men from stepping on the Chabutara in order to perpetuate the tradition prohibiting women from doing so.
She said she had told Ravi Shankar that it was wrong to say that the tradition banning women from stepping on the Chabutara was 400-year-old.

A trustee of the temple said it would not be possible to allow women to perform "last pooja" before implementing uniform ban on both the sexes.
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Meanwhile, Sadhvi Harisiddha Giri of Juna Akhada based at Trimbakeshwar town, was today stopped from entering the inner sanctum of the Lord Shiva temple there by local women and members of the Devasthan trust, a police official said.
The Sadhvi then sat on a fast outside demanding that women be allowed to enter the place.
"I am representing all women of the country (requesting) to allow us entry into the temple's 'garbha griha' (sanctum sanctorum), but as per tradition women are not allowed to enter it," she said.