Thinking Activity:-
Hello Readers, This blog is in response to the task which is assigned by Kavisha ma'am, the department of English, Mkbu. We have Swift's 'A Tale of A Tub' in our course which happens to be a religious satire. So here I compare A Tale of A Tub with Religious Fervour.
In this blog I am going to discuss the myth and science behind the festival "Shitala Satam" .
Religious fervour and Tale of A Tub:-
'Religion is a culture of faith,
Science is culture of doubt.'
- Richard p. Feynman
Science and Religion are like two different windows for looking at the world. The two windows look at the same world, but they show different aspects of that world.
fear of the lord or god phobia:-
The Bible says that man should have a healthy fear of The lord for betterment of life. However, an unhealthy, persistent or irrational fear of god is a specific Phobia to the sufferer and his loved ones. phobias are the mind's way of protecting itself.
As is the case with most phobias; fear of The Lord Phobia also originates in the unconscious under certain situations. A Real-life childhood experienced: bad grades, death of a loved one following a bad conduct might be linked to "God's wrath or bad karma". Mild cases of childhood Theophobia generally go away by the ages of six. However, some persist well into adulthood. Other catalysts for Theophobia include movies, stories, news reports which show example of similar Sitations. I have found that in the society, people are following such traditions by fear as all the belief laid a kind of fear that if you will not do this you will be punished by the gods or goddesses for your disobedience. as a part of saving and proving their statements some people are even comparing those beliefs with the science, but only a few things or events can be viewed as having scientific insight. Otherwise all fail to prove that things.
so let's have discussion on the topic of Shitala satam.
Myth of Shitala Satam:-
The month of august is patriotic as well as religion month. In this month we can find independence day and month of kranti and revolution. on the other side, we can find so many religious festivals like...month of shravan , Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtmi, Pateli, Bakri-Eid, Molakat- Gaurivrat, Divaso etc...
Shitala ( she who is cool ) Indian goddess of SMALLPOX and of other infections diseases. she is worshipped under this name throughout the regions of South Asia in which Indo Aryan languages are spoken. In India she is widely worshipped in the rural areas of west Bengal state. Her mythology is highly elaborated in west Bengal and Bangladesh, where Mangal Kavya ( auspicious poem) in Bengali, dating mainly from 18th and 19th centuries, describe the appearance of the goddess among mortals, their rejection of her, and the smallpox epidemics that she visited upon them. she is worshipped in Villagewide rites mainly in the dry weather of winter and spring, the season most Favourable to smallpox transmission.
The origin of the myth of Shitala lies in Skand purana which states that Shitala purana which states that shitala holds the broom in one of her hands and a kalash in the other hand. The most astonishing thing is that people also take vrat on this day. The myth is taken so Seriousely in most parts of India that they even blindly worship Shitala anywhere, like on the road itself where they find the empty place. There are some Youtube videos describing the glory of Shitala, there are various myths surrounding this glory which you might be familiar with.
Have a look at one such video of a Shitala Satam,
God was an illusion and worship were reverting to childhood needs of security and forgiveness.
- Sigmund Freud
So religion played a vital role in shaping human thinking. Every festivals born from fear. Firstly we can see there is some problem regarding this particular god and goddesses and then they become a god and people start connecting it with god and divinity. we had similar temple for corona virous. temple manager Anand Bharathi k said, we are worshiping the virus in the form of a goddess and praying to her every day to reduce the impacts of this disease.
Corona Mata:-
The first corona Mata temple appears to have been established in Kerala. "I am worshiping the coronavirus as a goddesses and doing daily pujas for the safety and well being of healthcare professionals, police personnel and scientists, who are toiling to discover a vaccine," the temple priest at Kollam district in Kerala explained. In its essence, the worship of corona Mata reflects the distinct outlook of the Hindu mind, which believes that humans will be reduced by divine Orses if the gods are paid adequate tributes in the form of offerings. we can say that in this 21st century, people believe in such things, which shows the dire situation of India. rather than being at home , people go to pray Mata corona at the mandir.
Science vs Shitala Satam:-
Shitala Satam is a Hindu festival in which people eat cold food which people eat cold food which was cooked a day before and not allowed to cook new Shitala Mata become angry and took your child away. there is one story behind the festival that....years ago there is a terrible disease called Shitala, and there is no medicine for it so people become restless from the death of this illness and they started to worship this Devi named Shitala and in the whole year at least one day they eat cold food.
Question raised when one scholar found inoculation and vaccination for this diseases which we called smallpox. Now people raised questions about why we eat cold food on that particular day.
There one more science behind eating cold food is to overcome the deficiency of B12. But at that time there is no practice to eat cold food to overcome the deficiency of B12. People do this in the influence of fear of Devi Shitala. but after that three is one research paper done by great scientist Homi k. Bhabha that Shitala is the festival to overcome deficiency of B12.
Edward Jenner was a British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. when Adward Jenner tried to tell the people that he found a vaccination for this illness he become hatred.... Becouse he ultimately tried to tell the people that there is nothing like a goddess Shitala and she is not going to cure your disease. so this is how science and religion always stand opposite. But we can say that,
"If there is no religion than there is no science and if there is no science than there is no religion."
The myth of Sisyphus the existentialist philosopher Albert camus compared the punishment to humanity's futile search for meaning and truth in a meaningless and indifferent universe. Sisyphus repeatedly tries to complete the task and so do mortal being repeatedly go to the temple and embrace the idol as their own which is totally absurd.
The worship of Shitala is conducted only by women but now also take part in the ceremony. she is primarily worshiped in the dry seasons of winter and spring on the day, which is known as Sheetala Satam. There are many arti sangrah and stutis for the puja. some of them are Shri Shitala mata chalisha, aarati. According to common belief, many families do not light their stoves on Ashtami day and all devotees cheerfully eat cold food in the form of prasad. The idea behind this is that as spring fades and summer approaches, cold food should be avoided.
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