Women at the Temple Door

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JE02Df01.html


This year, Preeti Agarwal, a 30-year-old housewife, broke tradition during February rituals to worship the birth of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge.

For the first time, she invited a female priest to her home to conduct the puja, or ceremony, to mark the auspicious day when children learn to read and write their first letters or words. Families dress in yellow - symbolizing spring and the blossoming of mustard flowers - and gather to pray for the blessing of knowledge in an elaborate ceremony set against a background of chants and drumbeats.

In the past, Agarwal has followed customary practice and invited a male priest - known as a pandit - to observe the tradition.

"Most of the time, a pandit would be so busy that he would just chant the mantras and finish his job and leave," says Agarwal. "He wouldn't explain the meaning of the mantras or the meaning behind the rituals. This is not the case with women priests. I first saw a woman conducting religious rituals at a friend's place and was impressed. I decided that the next time there was a puja at my place, I will invite a woman priest only."

This year, the puja was different, she says. Her seven-year-old daughter asked lots of questions and Sunita Joshi, the female priest who conducted it, answered them all patiently.

Agarwal lives in Pune, a university city in the western, progressive part of India some 190 kilometers south of Mumbai where women are joining the priesthood even as they are barred from entering temples in other parts of the country. Pune led the first efforts in India to draw girls into school and educate them, and was also one of the first cities to allow widows to remarry, a concept that was once largely absent in traditional Hindu culture.
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(Republished with permission from Women's eNews a prize-winning, non-profit daily Internet-based news service covering issues of particular concern to women and their allies. Copyright 2008 Women's eNews.)
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taking charge of our own power

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Jai Saraswati!

I think that it is indeed apt that this ritual was done to honor the Goddess of Knowledge. For Knowledge is Power.