Beyond the Laddu: Love Over Shame

Indu Viswanathan, Ed.D.
7 min readSep 21, 2024

For those of you who haven’t been following the Tirupati Laddu scandal that recently emerged from India, there’s an unsettling claim being investigated: that beef tallow or some other animal fat may have found its way into the sacred prasadam distributed at Tirupati. The scandal has sent shockwaves through the global Hindu community. What appear to be official reports are circulating on social media and in the press, and the reactions have ranged from immediate outrage to measured observations of whether or not the evidence is being exaggerated to stoke strong reactions.

By now, those with some critical media literacy know that information is often curated and circulated to control the public. And even though I know this, I still had a strong visceral response to the possibility that this could be true. Here’s the thing. While the truth of the contamination matters, what’s almost as important is the message that is being sent. This isn’t just about contaminated prasadam; it’s about control.

The message is clear: we can get to you. We can get to you through your most sacred spaces. And that is a real part of the unease and panic that’s been sown.

To understand this better, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Hindus in the U.S. are very familiar with the Establishment Clause, which guarantees religious freedom and prevents the government from interfering with religious institutions. In America, this makes churches untouchable — free to operate, to collect donations, and to send missionaries around the world with “good news” to convert those whose souls haven’t already been “saved.” And a lot of that missionary funding is targeted right at Hindus in India. While religious institutions in the U.S. flourish under the banner of religious freedom, Hindu temples in India — the only religious institutions in any democracy controlled by the government — are being stifled. Not such good news.

Hindu temples in India are administered and taxed by the government, a vestige of colonial-era laws, with the funds directed to support minority religious communities in India — “minorities” that are part of the two most powerful, well-funded global majority religions. Meanwhile, the narrative being pushed in India is that Hindus are somehow the only religious community incapable of effectively running our own temples, which is absurd. And so, in this environment, you’ve got Hindu temples under government control, taxed and weakened, while billions of dollars pour into conversion efforts and all of this is protected under “religious freedom.”

So, when Hindus around the world learn about this potential scandal at Tirupati, the message becomes clear: we can get to you. We can get to the very core of what’s sacred to you. This tactic of shame is one we’ve seen before. It’s the same tactic that missionaries have used in India and across indigenous cultures for centuries. We will make you violate that which is most sacred to you, so that you will feel too ashamed to return to it. We will desecrate it, either without your knowledge or against your will, and that shame will make you vulnerable and want to break from it. And, remember, they are sending this message through Tirupati, which is the equivalent of Mecca or the Vatican.

To truly grasp the emotional impact of this scandal, it’s important to understand the sacred role of naivedyam and prasadam in Hindu worship. Naivedyam is the offering of food to the deity during rituals or puja, symbolizing humility, devotion, and gratitude. After the deity accepts this offering, it becomes prasadam — blessed by divine grace — and is shared with devotees. Eating prasadam is more than just a ritual; it is a sacred exchange, where the divine returns the offering as a sanctified gift, imbuing it with spiritual merit and grace. This act of sharing prasadam strengthens the bond between the devotee and the divine, deepening one’s connection to the divine presence. So, imagine that sacred act being defiled, that which is offered to the gods being desecrated — how could that not be a violation of the deepest kind?

For many outside our tradition, it’s easy to misunderstand our relationship with the divine. There’s this misguided idea that Hindus fear our gods, that we’re constantly trying to appease them. But the truth is, we love our gods. We don’t fear them; we adore them. Our relationship is rooted in affection, a deep, benevolent love. It’s like the love of a mother for her child — protective, nurturing, unconditional. So imagine, in that context, someone feeding your child something harmful, something you would never allow. How would you feel? Now, imagine that harm was done not out of ignorance, but as a calculated message. We can get to you. That’s the violation Hindus feel right now.

(Yes, there are traditions within Hinduism that incorporate meat into their puja, and I am in no way suggesting that this practice is harmful within all Hindu traditions. Only that it is not the practice at this temple with this deity and this community. This is how a pluralist tradition works. So, I ask the reader to set aside those arguments.)

Tirupati is one of the most sacred places in the Hindu world. For many of us, it’s where we go for our mundan ceremonies, where we shave our heads and let go of the past, where we take our children, where we’ve gone with our grandparents. I remember the bus rides from Chennai to Tirupati with my grandmother, nothing VIP about it. It was just pure devotion, standing in line with everyone else, waiting for that moment in the Sanctum Sanctorum — that brief, precious glimpse when you step into the womb of the temple, where energy and matter meet, and something shifts within you. It’s not superstition; it’s real. You feel it in your body, in your soul.

Yes, there are issues of overcrowding and classism at Tirupati. It is, in large part, a consequence of the destruction of countless Hindu temples over centuries, leaving fewer sacred spaces for millions of devotees. Tirupati, as one of the most revered and intact temples, now bears the brunt of this diminished landscape, with millions flocking to it for worship, rituals, and blessings. In this context, humans are going to be humans — issues of mismanagement, overcrowding, and strained resources inevitably arise. The temple’s sacredness is intact, but the overwhelming pressure on its infrastructure is a reflection of both the historical destruction of other temples and the enduring devotion of Hindus who still seek a connection to their spiritual heritage.

In Hindus, there are three kinds of temples— the cosmos, the physical temple, and the human form. So now, to hear that the encroachment on our sacred places can also enter our bodies? It’s stunning. It’s a violation of everything we hold sacred. Many of us imagine Venkateswara Swami, the protectors of all creatures, being fed those very creatures. The desecration is not accidental, it’s deliberate. It’s a tactic. We can get to you. But what does this mean for us? What’s the real message?

It’s not just about shame. It’s about power. The message is, “we can make you ashamed, and in your shame, you will break from what’s sacred to you.” If they can make us feel that we’ve betrayed our “angry gods,” that we’ve broken with tradition, then they can make us turn away from it. But we don’t fear our gods. We love them.

And what does that love mean? It means that no matter how many times they try to shame us, no matter how many times they try to desecrate what is most sacred to us, we will return. We will reclaim that love. Every day, we are reborn. Every day, we step back into that space of reverence, of devotion, of love. And no matter how many times they tell us, “we can get to you,” the truth is, they cannot touch the love we have for the divine. That love is stronger than any tactic of shame, any act of desecration.

This is about defending our temples and our traditions while remembering what holds us together. The weapon used against us may be fear and shame, but the truth Hindus carry in our hearts can inoculate us — Love is the source of creation and the engine of our community. And that love, that connection to the Divine, cannot be broken and cannot be shamed out of us. It is stronger, more resilient, more eternal than any force that seeks to diminish it. So to my fellow Hindus, remember: they can try to shame us, but what holds us is far more powerful. And together, we will reclaim it, over and over again.

Come what may.

Now let’s get our temples back.

I also tried to following prompts on ChatGPT

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Indu Viswanathan, Ed.D.

Mother | Daughter | Immigration & Teacher Education | Dharma | Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu