BHUJ: Thousands of devotees of Shree Swaminarayan Temple in Gujarat's Bhuj town on Wednesday took out a massive rally in support of Swami Krushnaswarup Dasji, who has come under flak for his remark that menstruating women who cook food for their husbands will take birth as dogs.
In a statement, the temple management said their opponents had made Swami's clip viral to defame the temple as well as the Swaminarayan sect.
It added that although Swami did not intend to hurt the sentiments of women, some people were trying to tarnish the image of the sect.
Following an appeal by the temple authorities, thousands of its devotees, including women, gathered at the temple and then took out a rally till the district collector's office to show solidarity with their religious leader.
In the viral video clip, Swami Krushnaswarup can be heard saying that as per religious texts, menstruating women who cook food for their husbands will take birth as dogs in their next life, while men consuming food prepared by women having periods will be reborn as bullocks.
Swami Krushnaswarup Dasji belongs to "Nar-Narayan Dev Gadi" of Swaminarayan Sect.
Bhuj temple is one of the important temples of this sect.
He is associated with the temple, which runs a college in Bhuj whose principal and female staff had allegedly forced more than 60 girls to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating for "breaking a hostel rule that girls having their periods are not supposed to take meal with other inmates".
While the incident led to the arrest of four women, including the college principal and hostel rector on February 17, a local court in Bhuj granted bail to all the four accused women on Wednesday on completion of their two-day remand.