Tens of thousands of people have crowded Hindu temples across India this month because of reports that gods and goddesses were “drinking” the milk that worshippers offered them.
The milk “miracle” first surfaced in 1995 when temples in India, Britain and Canada were crowded with believers who said that the portly god of good fortune, Lord Ganesha, was now choosing milk instead of the candy he usually prefers.
Belief and worship hold an important place in the lives of most Indians. But the Indian Rationalist Association says the latest milk-drinking “miracle” is just milk being sinking into the statues through tiny holes in the stone.
PHOTO: EPA
Even so, there was a reported 30-percent jump in the price of milk when the “miracle” was first reported.
“Forget deities. I fed a cup of coffee to a statue of Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first prime minister) right before television cameras,” Indian Rationalist Association president Sanal Edamaruku said in New Delhi.
“Even bricks are drinking milk,” he said.
His opinion came under fire from Hindu priest Mahant Surendra Nath.
“Why disbelieve when these things are happening right before our eyes?” said the priest.
The milk-drinking-deity craze came just days after many Muslims in the western Indian city of Mumbai drank “sweet” seawater.
Tens of thousands of Mumbai residents drank strangely colored seawater even though doctors said it was full of the city's waste water.
Scientists said that the seawater had become less salty because of heavy rains which caused nearby rivers to overflow.
“The mass hysteria was simply ridiculous — and lethal,” said Edamaruku.(AFP)
本月全印度成千上萬的民眾湧入印度廟，因為有報導指出，廟裡眾神明會「飲用」信徒供奉的牛奶。
牛奶「神蹟」首次出現於一九九五年，當時印度、英國和加拿大的廟宇擠滿了善男信女，聲稱胖嘟嘟的好運神─象鼻神甘那夏現在改喝牛奶，不吃平時偏好的糖果。
信仰和敬拜在多數印度民眾的生活中扮演重要的角色，但印度唯理協會指出，近來的「飲用牛奶奇蹟」，其實只是牛奶透過石頭的小洞孔滲入雕像中。
儘管如此，「奇蹟」初次被報導後，牛奶價格據報暴漲了三成。
印度唯理協會主席沙紐?伊達馬魯庫在新德里表示：「不要說是神明，我才在電視攝影機前餵尼赫魯（印度第一任總理）的雕像喝了一杯咖啡。」
他說：「連磚瓦都在喝牛奶。」
他的言論受到印度祭司馬翰蘇蘭卓?那特的抨擊。
他說：「為何不相信這些就發生在你眼前的事？」
在印度西部城市孟買許多穆斯林飲用「甜」海水之後，便出現了這波「神仙喝牛奶」的熱潮。
儘管醫師們指出海水充滿城市排放的廢水，成千上萬的孟買居民仍飲用著顏色詭異的海水。
科學家說附近河流因豪雨氾濫成災，導致海水鹹度降低。
伊達馬魯庫說：「大眾歇斯底里的現象簡直荒謬─而且危險。」
（法新社╱翻譯︰鄭湘儀）
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