Indian culture,LGBTQ, Section 377 & Gay marriage

Indian culture,LGBTQ, Section 377 & Gay marriage

In a historic judgment delivered on June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of making the United States of America the 23rd country that allowed same- sex marriages. In India a few years back the Delhi High Court struck down the 150-year-old Section 377 of the IPC, thus legalising consensual homosexual activities between adults. However to the dismay of many, the Indian Supreme Court, which has had a distinguished record in recent times of ensuring fundamental rights and liberty are not taken away by the state, overturned the Delhi HC decision. While the matter is expected to come up for hearing once again before the Supreme Court to review, the issue of "gay rights" seems to have divided the nation.

Those opposing the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships among consenting adults include a number of "conservative Indians" led by various religious heads who call this sexual choice "unnatural".  Unfortunately for those with different sexual choices, this issue seems to unite the priests, babas and maulanas from different faiths, who never seem to agree on anything except on this one topic. And often one finds them in television studios giving sound bites on how homosexuality is against the "great Indian culture".

Indian mythology has several stories of alternate sexual choices or even those of men turning into women or vice-versa. Shiva bathes in the Yamuna and becomes a gopi so that he can participate in the raas-leela with Krishna. Another tale is that of Aravan, the son of Arjuna and Ulupi, who had to be sacrificed to ensure victory of the Pandavas in the war. However Aravan did not want to die without being married. As no woman wanted to marry a man who would die the next day, Krishna took his female form, Mohini, became Aravan's wife, spent the night with him and then mourned for him next morning, as his widow, when he was killed.

Mohini the female avatar of Lord Vishnu is worshipped throughout Indian culture. Amongst her other stories in the Purana's are how Shiva and his wife Parvati go to Vishnu's home. Shiva asks Vishnu to take on the Mohini form so he can see the actual transformation for himself. Vishnu smiles and takes the form of the gorgeous Mohini. Overcome by lust, Shiva chases Mohini as Parvati hangs her head in envy. From their coupling is born the god Maha-Sastha. Then there is another story of Vishnu who took the form of Mohini to save Shiva's life from a demon that was chasing him. Mohini enchanted the demon Bhasmasura and made him touch his own head thus reducing him to ashes, saving Shiva's life. In the Shiva-Purana the birth of Hanuman is attributed to the union between Shiva and Mohini. The Mahabharata also has in one of its stories the episode when the great archer Arjuna had gone to visit his father god Indra in Amravati during his exile. There he spurns the advances of Urvashi who at being rejected curses him to become a eunuch. His father the king of Devas modifies the curse so Arjuna loses his manhood just for a year and advises him to live the curse in the 13th year of the exile where the Pandav's are expected to be in hiding.

Another chapter from the Mahabharata is the story of Budh (the planet Mercury) which is neither male nor female. Brihaspati (the planet Jupiter) discovers that his wife Tara (the goddess of stars) is pregnant with the child of her lover, Chandra (the moon god). He therefore curses the unborn child. The neuter Budh (Mercury) later marries Ila, a man who becomes a woman when he accidentally trespasses into a forest. In the Ramayana, two widows who want to give birth, drink a magic potion and make love to each other. In the Valmiki Ramayana, in order to taste Ravana, Rakshasa women kiss other women on their lips.

Then there is also the story of Narada who desired to understand Lord Vishnu's Maya. The lord asked him to bathe in a lotus pond. As soon as he entered the pond, he transformed into a female form and forgot his earlier identity. He then got married to a king lived the life of a queen and even had children. The gender and sexual divide was often diminished by Indian writers. Hence today when Babas or other religious heads preach to us or government votes (against the benefits for same-sex couples working at the UN) with Russia, Pakistan and Iran to curtail the rights of those who have alternate sexual orientations, under the garb of "Indian culture" I have my doubts whether they actually have studied what Indian spirituality was all about.

In this great land it is the soul that is important. The body is just temporary. As lord Krishna teaches us that the true meaning of enlightenment is to go beyond all things worldly and to achieve this, we as people must start to accept the infinite possibilities that the universe throws up. So let us accept it, celebrate it, and empathise with those whose choices may differ from ours. Because we can only achieve the next level when we destroy all lines that we ourselves have created.