Sabarimala apparently the most controversial temple in India for the past few years. To be honest, my friend Yuvashree was very happy when the verdict came in 2018. I am being a Christian, my friends father goes to Sabarimala every year without fail, and she have been there four times.

When she was 10 years of age, if anybody could ask her , who is her favorite God or even  a favorite person, she would  instantly say Ayyappan.

This may sound crazy but she was literally in love with that man. She wanted to marry that man. People go to Sabarimala as groups here in Tamilnadu and every group ,at least have one Kanni swamy, who is someone going to the malai for the first time. A group can't depart without a Kanni swamy. The reason behind this tradition is , there is a female deity in Sabarimala waiting to marry Lord Ayyappan and Lord Ayyappa promised her that when there is no Kanni swamy in his premises ,he would marry her on that day.

So every year as a child,  my friend would just beg within herself ,that there shouldn't be any Kanni swamy coming to the temple so that she can marry him. Even there were days that she refused to bow down to that female deity because she saw her as a competition . I don't know what to call this , this is love or devotion or whatever but as a 10 year old child, she had strong emotions towards him.

Back to 2018,she was so happy when the verdict came in . She decided that no matter who opposes ,she gonna go there. Even she had very big argument to me saying that the God doesn't discriminate it only people who do the ugly things.

And within few days ,she happen to see a video of Sadhguru addressing the issue. 

He said that ,the deity over there is in a state of brahmacharyam and that hit her so hard. Suddenly everything made so much sense. Because the deity in this culture is never considered as a representation of a statue of some God. Every deity in every temple is considered as a living being. The deity will be bathed ,fed, put to sleep, and then woken up. Ayyappa in Sabarimala is in a form of Naishtika Brahmachari . In this kind of brahmacharyam , the person should not go in contact with the opposite gender who's capable of reproduction . That's the rule. The rule applies same to the women as well. If the women has taken Naishtika brahmacharyam , she should not go in contact with the men ,who's capable of reproduction. It's as simple as that.

There are many temples in India where men are not allowed . Does that mean they are being discriminated? 

No, it's just the deity over there is in a different form. To put it more precisely, in Tamilnadu ,we have 6 abodes houses of Lord Muruga whom north Indians call as Karthikeya . All the 6 temples are quite famous here.

Likewise in kerala , there are five temples for Lord Ayyappa  as well. Those are,

1.Kulathupuzha Bala Sastha Temple.

 2. Aryankavu Sastha Temple. 

3. Achankovil Dharmasastha Temple. 

4. Sabarimalai Ayyappan Temple.

5. Pandalam Ayyappan Temple .

In all these temples, the deity Ayyappa is represented in different stages of his life. In Kulathupuzha Temple, he appears as a child. In Aryankavu Temple, he appears as a young man. In Achankovil temple , he appears as a Grihastha,which means a married man. Pandalam  temple is the place where Lord Ayyappa lived. In all these temples women can go and worship like any other temple. Even in Sabarimala women can go upto Pamba Nathi ,where one should take bath before climbing the mountain . Only to climb up the Sabarimala , women should not go because the deity separated himself from the outer world ,went up and sat in the mountain as a tapasvi , who as taken brahmacharyam . It's as simple as that.

IT'S CALLED EXCLUSION, NOT DISCRIMINATION. 

See ,my grandma's native there is a river and you have two separate places for men and women to take bath. If anyone break these rules ,there will be a panchayat and they'll be severely punished. Is this called discrimination? No, it's just a exclusion based on gender.

We have lots of temples in India where men cannot enter . Why don't you men go and fight for that?

Stop shouting feminism and activism for everything without knowing the base of the argument. 

Would you feel discriminated if you're not allowed inside a men's bathroom? 

It's for privacy . The deity went and sat up there for the sake of privacy. Why can't we just respect that?

Ofcourse, I agree that a lot of people discriminate against menstruation like they portrayed in THE GREAT INDIAN KITCHEN movie.

See,we have seen lot of videos, like people are sitting in a line,you say something to the first person and when it reaches the last person ,the story is completely changed .

Likewise when things transmitted orally, this can happen very easily. So reformation is good ,and this culture has always been ready for evolving . But I don't think the motive of these people are reformation . There are people in Tamilnadu who make very vulgar comments on Lord Ayyappa saying that he won't be able to control himself if he see women. Do you call this reformation? No. Their motive is purely destruction. Actors like Aishwarya Rajesh made comments like it's discriminating against women. When you have such huge fan  following you should be little more responsible in what you're saying . If you don't have much knowledge in that subject ,JUST SHUT UP.