Baffled religious leaders in India have been swamped by a bizarre new transvestite cult for men to live as a Hindu love god.
Thousands of devotees are now dressing up as Radha – the goddess lover of Krishna – like retired railwayman V K Saxena, 72.
“I can’t put it into words properly but I feel more holy dressed as a woman,” said Saxena of New Delhi. “The Lord told me he wanted me as his bride.”
But the cult has astonished traditional religious leaders.
Senior priest Mohammad Ahangar said: “There are many ways to be closer to the Lord without trying to be his girlfriend.”
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““The Lord told me he wanted me as his bride.” /// If God ever talks to me, bet your bottom bippy I’ll – – — well, actually, I’d tell him to go f+&k himself.
But I can see the temptation to do whatever he says. Being god and all.
I’ve stopped saying “now I’ve seen everything” because I’m always wrong.
This shouldn’t be astonishing or baffling.
Clearly cross-dressers or transgendered people can be religious too.
I can’t think of a reason why, as a group, they’d be any more or less religious than the general population.
#3–Greg==so you think god is gay collecting up all those male brides? I thought he only married Catholic Nuns?
>> bobbo, the devout evangelical anti-theist said,
>> #3–Greg==so you think god is gay collecting up all those male brides? I thought he only married Catholic Nuns?
You got great snark but I’m not sure what it has to do with what I wrote.
BTW, the Hindus I know generally don’t talk about a singular “god” but name a specific one.
I think it is great that transgendered Hindus have found a way to make their religion meaningful to them. (what little I know about it, anyway)
But, good or bad, I don’t think it is astonishing or baffling that it would happen.
#5–Greg==yep, you spotted the error I made in my overwhelming desire to serve up a portion of snark.
It is much easier to “deal with” just one god. And I guess because I’m a Westerner, it makes more sense too.
With a plethora of gods, you’d think those Hindu’s would have a special one for transsexuals, or males who want to marry a male type god???? They probably do.
That puts another twist on is the one god behind all the multitudes of god. If he can be 3-4 or 5 versions of himself in Christianity, I don’t see why some missing chapter in the bibble can’t let him slop over into all the Hindu gods as well.
#4 – bobbo
God, if such a thing exists, is beyond gender. Hell, God’s beyond the infinitesimal capacity of human understanding. Anyone that claims to know, is just showing their hubris.
#6, Bobbo: “It is much easier to “deal with” just one god.” Well, everybody makes up their own god anyway; nasty, nice, vengeful, tolerant, etc. Pick one from column A and one from column B and pretty soon you have a custom made deity.
On the other hand, God told this guy to dress like a woman and may ask Michelle Bachman to run for president. Boy, that god’s a real kidder isn’t he.
bobbo,
Wow, you can be pretty thoughtful about religion, besides the snark!
Hinduism has endless gods. In India or Nepal, you literally are stepping over them on the sidewalk.
But there is an “A list” and I doubt that Radha is on it for most Hindus.
Maybe Radha is to Krishna as Sandra Bernhard was to Madonna… not on the A-list but close-enough to still be a famous.
(Oops… now I’m being snarky!)
and many good folks think God is totally male because he (“he”) made man in his image which was ADAM==the male of our species. While being all knowing, in that mysterious way of his, he decided Adam needed something to do with his dick, so he created women. Now, all the “other” animals on earth were paired off but not Adam. Maybe god thought of adam as an amobea or a virus? Hard to tell with god.
God is/ain’t whatever, but this thread is about belief systems or those that decide to worship him in their own chosen way. Those are knowable.
I threw up in my mouth…
>> pfkad said, on August 18th, 2009 at 6:44 am
>> #6, Bobbo: Well, everybody makes up their own god anyway; nasty, nice, vengeful, tolerant, etc.
That may be true in trivialized religious expressions but established religious communities have a more fixed understanding of God.
Hindusism, as I understand it, allows for both. In their main pantheon of gods, identities are firmly established. But Hindus are allowed personal or community gods where there is more freedom to define them. Arguably, this accommodates human nature better than we monotheists do.
#12–Greg==thats why there are saints. When god doesn’t fill the job, we make up our own substitutes–all while not committing idolatry or worshiping false gods.
What law school do you think god went to?
I am just amazed. There is a religious discussion that made it down to 12 comments so far that were not bashing Christianity.
#14–benji==in all religions, its a sin to raise the religion above the Deity.
But your desire to be positive is the best of errors to make. I don’t think god agrees with me, but then, I want to be positive too.
#13, Bobbo,
What law school do you think god went to?
Fallwell U. with an undergrad from Robertson U.
We need this in the Gay Parade in San Francisco. Actually, it’s now the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trangendered, and Queer and Questioning” Parade. (But I think they dropped the queer and questioning part because it bespoke corrupting young kids.) But, it could be the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trangendered, and Hindu God Worshipping Crossdresser” Parade. Rolls off the tongue.
oddly east indian culture is somewhat repressed about sex, this could be their start of a sexual revolution there..
as frighteningly as it ma appear. 😛
This looks like a Rip Taylor gag.
This has as much to do with Hinduism as Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin have to do with Christianity. We could throw in the Rabbis from New Jersey having anything to with Judaism.
Yep it is STRANGE.
As I told my former friend R.S. when he crossed the line “You are cut off of tech support… your life as you know with the transvestites and shemales online is over”
Guess R.S. had to travel directly to India
Hope that he has a good flight and hotel lodgings
A serious discussion about imaginary supernatural beings. (sigh)
I’m concerned either God is making strange calls lately or these may be prank calls.
>> AdmFubar said, on August 18th, 2009 at 7:46 am
>> oddly east indian culture is somewhat repressed about sex, this could be their start of a sexual revolution there.. as frighteningly as it ma appear. 😛
Having lived in South Asia for a long time, I would call sexuality paradoxical rather than repressed.
We Christians have similar issues. If you walk around the churches of Italy, for example, you see total shameless nudity on the walls. Yet, you’ll hear something different from the pulpit.
>> Improbus said, on August 18th, 2009 at 9:10 am
>> A serious discussion about imaginary supernatural beings. (sigh)
Your cluelessness doesn’t make it imaginary. (double sigh)
Wait! A Hindu priest (excuse me, senior priest) called Mohammmad? Would be be able to commit suicide before someone kills him first?
>> bobbo, god is a function of what you believe said, on August 18th, 2009 at 7:09 am
>> #12–Greg==thats why there are saints. When god doesn’t fill the job, we make up our own substitutes–all while not committing idolatry or worshiping false gods.
You make a good point. My own church tradition doesn’t have saints so I kind of forgot about that.
The Catholic saints are more like a menu than a “create your own” kind of deity, wouldn’t you say?
However, a figure such as “Our Lady of Guadalupe” seems like a way for indigenous Mexicans to localize Catholicism.
>> slyfox said, on August 18th, 2009 at 9:47 am
>> Wait! A Hindu priest (excuse me, senior priest) called Mohammmad? Wo
Good observation there, slyfox! I totally missed that.
Likely he is a convert from Islam to Hunduism. That could get you killed in Muslim countries but I think conversion is still legal in India, despite what the RSS might want.
However, it still might get you killed by fanatics anywhere.
I don’t get it. Where’s the “story” here?
The cross-dressing? The feeling that one has been “called” by a “higher power?”
Have you looked at your run of the mill Pope, lately?
Or is it the bright makeup and many bracelets?
This is merely change caused by something they believing in.
As for God? Maybe she’s a lesbian. Certainly she is bi.
Didn’t I see an episode about this on National Geographic channel recently? I think is was NG, and I can’t remember what program it was. But it was very interesting.
Might have been The Travel Channel. Or A&E. Or something like that.
Did anyone else catch it?