The Covid-19 scare is getting worse and people are opting for all sorts of precautionary measures to protect themselves from contracting the virus. Hand sanitizers are literally flying off the shelves and its shortage at Mumbai’s ISKCON temple has led to a bizarre incident. The temple has now resorted to using cow urine as a substitute to hand sanitizers. You read it right. Sunday onwards, the temple guards started spraying gaumutra on visitors’ hands as a safety measure against coronavirus.
According to a Quint report, this was done without the visitor’s permission. ISKCON’s spokesperson Parijata said, “What was used was distilled goark (cow urine). It is a disinfectant and it is anti-bacterial. We used it for a short time while we tried to procure hand sanitizers. In the restaurant, we had regular alcohol-based hand sanitizers but at the main gate, we used gaumutra for some time (sic).”
Temple officials admit spraying gaumutra on visitors’ hands
The temple officials claim they kept hand sanitizers at entry points of the temple and at the door of the Govinda restaurant. On Sunday, they ran out of stock and that’s when they used Goark. “It is an antifungal, anti-bacterial, bio-enhancer anti-cancer agent. Therefore, till the time we got new stock, we used distilled cow urine as a hand sanitizer,” added Parijata.
She stressed that they didn’t force the visitors to use it, and it was entirely their choice. She told India Today, “We did not forcefully ask everyone to use cow urine as hand sanitizer. People were free to use it or not use it. People went to the washroom and used soap to clean their hands. It is personal hygiene and precautionary measures everyone has to take (sic).”
Visitor files complaint against the temple for violating human rights
On Sunday, Raju P Nair, the General Secretary of Ernakulam’s District Congress Committee, visited the Govinda restaurant and then narrated his experience on Twitter. In no time, it created a furore and netizens went berserk.
Nair wrote, “How can they spray urine on someone without their permission? On questioning, they said people even drink it. I don’t care who drinks or takes a bath in it. I don’t intend to wash my hands with anyone’s urine. I carry a sanitizer with me.”
He further wrote, “It was insulting and offensive for the ISKCON authorities to do it without anyone’s permission. I was not even visiting the temple and was going to the eatery for lunch. This is against my faith and values.”
Nair also lodged a complaint with Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police (CP) against the ISKCON temple authorities in Juhu. In his official complaint, he said, “This is a violation of human rights. I take strong objection to this since this is against my scientific temper and an attack on my self-respect. This is also a violation of the protocol declared by the government in dealing with the pandemic COVID-19, and hence puts normal people’s lives at risk. I view this as a social issue that affects hundreds of people who visit there.”
Swami Chakrapani hosts a special ‘gaumutra party’ to cure the pandemic
This incident doesn’t come as a surprise considering the very recent ‘gaumutra party’ organised by Swami Chakrapani, the president of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha. At the event, Chakrapani claimed, “Coronavirus has come because of the people who kill and eat animals. When you kill an animal, it creates a sort of energy that causes destruction in that place.”
Gaumutra is yet to be proven a sanitizer or for having any medicinal or anti-bacterial properties and it’s misleading the masses to believe that consumption of cow dung or urine will cure the virus. While the doctors worldwide are still testing the vaccination for the cure, Chakrapani and his followers strongly believe cow urine will do miracles in fighting the novel virus. What world are we living in?
Image Credits: @RajuPNair, Twitter and istock
