Amritsar: Pakistani rights activist and former minister for human rights Ansar Burney performed the Kumari Puja here.
The ceremony relates to virgin girls who have not yet hit puberty, and are worshipped on the eighth of nine-day long Hindu festival of Navratra.
It is believed that the goddess, although omnipresent, surely exists in the virgin. Reverence to female children as goddesses is an age-old custom of India.
After performing the rituals, Burney said a girl is important in every role and the universe is incomplete without girls.
“I think the universe is incomplete without the existence of daughters (female), for me the whole universe is a girl child. If we don’t evaluate the importance of a daughter then we cannot value anything in life. A girl is very important in every role, be it a mother, daughter, wife or a sister. A girl or a woman in every role is beautiful and important in its own way,” said Burney.
Worship of a living woman as goddess is of purely tantric origin. It is stated that virgin worship is nothing but Shakti worship.
The virgin worship is performed along with Durga, Kali and other Mahavidyas. The salutation mantra of virgin worship is the same as vidya’s salutation mantra. Sometimes, it is also seen that the virgin is fed and clad and saluted without any mantra. The tantrics believe that the virgin is the Goddess incarnate.
Burney also condemned the recent attack on teen Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, saying it was an attack on all girls across the globe.
“The Kanjak ceremony for me is very important and pious. This teaches us that we must realise the importance of the girl child, we must love them and nurture them in a way they deserve. Like what happened with Malala Yousafzai is very disheartening and unfortunate incident, which shook the whole world and this message went throughout the world and even to Pakistan that today is celebrated in your country as one of the most traditional religious event. With this, Malala Yousafzai is not only the child of Pakistan but also of the whole world. There will be more girls born as Malala Yousafzai. The militants have not attacked and shown their terror not just one Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan but they have attacked all the girls of the universe,” said Burney.
The 14-year-old Pakistani school girl and activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban militants on October 9 in the city of Mingora and is now recuperating in Birmingham.
Yousafzai began standing up to the Pakistani Taliban when she was just 11, when the government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley where she lives to the militants.
She spent the last three years campaigning for girls`` education after the Taliban shut down girls`` schools.
ANI
