Marijuana Served As Prasada In Karnataka Temples Helps Devotees 'Achieve Enlightenment'

Following the Sandalwood drug racket, police are out arresting drug-peddlers in many areas in Karanataka. While the state's Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai ordered a crackdown on drug supplies in cities and towns across the southern state, there's an undeniable irony behind it all.

There are a few temples in Karnataka that actually offer the drug as prasada or a sacred offering.

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Among Sharana, Aruda, Shaptha and Avadhuta traditions, devotees consume marijuana or ganja in various forms believing it helps 'achieve enlightenment,' TOI reported.

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Mouneshwara temple at Tinthini in Yadgir district, in fact, has an annual fair in January were devotees gather and receive small packets of marijuana as prasada. The devotees then smoke the prasada after praying to Mouneshwara or Manappa.

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The devotees and saints believe this sacred grass shows the path to "enhancing knowledge of spirituality and achieving enlightenment."

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¡°During the fair, anybody can come here and smoke. While some eat ganja after boiling it, others consume it like tobacco powder,¡± Gangadhar Nayak, a member of the temple committee, was quoted as saying as he talked about the wide usage of marijuana.

Temple officials have refused to admit the fact that drug is given out for recreational purposes.

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Siddarameshwara Shivayogi, a seer from Siddavata Dama Shivayogi Ashram in Shorapur taluk in Yadgir district who consumes ganja (marijuana) once a day told TOI that it's 'sacred' and added that it's an 'agent that assists meditation.'

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Meenakshi Bale, a professor researching Sharana community believes that people who smoke at these temples are not addicts.