01/20/2026
Understand menstrual exclusion, it is as usual the inversion from what many westerners believe to be true at first glance. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D588YacZX/
In ancient times, a menstruating woman was considered so pure that she was worshiped as a Goddess. What is pure we don’t touch, and what we don’t touch we call a taboo. So the reason for the taboo of not allowing a woman to enter a temple is precisely the opposite of what we think: she is not impure. Quite the contrary, she is a living Goddess at that time. So when she enters the temple, the energy of the God or Goddess, which is there in the temple’s mūrti, will shift over to her and the idol will become lifeless—because a menstruating woman is life. That is why one of the greatest sins against woman is telling her there is something impure about her menstrual cycle.
In Guwahati, Assam, we have the Kāmākhya Temple, where the Goddess menstruates. During her period, she is considered so holy that people are not allowed to go in and see her.
The thing is, Kali and Sundarī are the same Goddess. Kali is the dark one and Sundarī is the bright one. This same Sundarī becomes Kali when she menstruates; meaning dark, unknown fears are present at that time. Kali is worshiped as Rajaswalā when she is menstruating, and as Sundarī when she is not.
