Sunday Reading August : Patriotism and Religious Fervour : Shitala Satam

Here is my answer on Shitala Satam , task given by Dr. Dilip Barad sir click here to view about this task .

• Shitala Satam :

shitala , also called Shitala , is a folk deity, worshiped by many faiths in the Indian subcontinent, notably in North Indea , West Bengal, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. As an incarnation of supreme Goddess Durga, she cures poxes , sores, ghouls, pustules and diseases. Goddess Shitala is worshipped on the eighth day after festival of colors , on the occasion of Shitala Asthami.

• Name and Variants :

Shitala literary means " one who cools" in Sanskrit. Shitala is worshiped under different names in various parts of the subcontinent. Shitala is more often called Ma and Mata and is worshiped by Hindus, Buddhists and tribal communities. She is mentioned in Tantric and Puranic literature and her later appearance in vernacular texts has contributed to strengthen her status.

Shitala is primarily popular in regions of North India. In some traditions she is identified with an aspect of Parvati, the consort of Shiva. Shitala is addressed as mother, as a seasonal goddess and with honorific titles such as Thakurani, Jagrani ,Karunamayi, Mangala, Bhagavati, Dayamayi. The role of shitala in South India is taken by the Goddess incarnate Mariamman, who is worshiped by Dravidian-speaking people.

• Why do people eat cold food in Shitala Satam?

In some regions of Gujarat Shitala Satam is celebrated on sud satam, while in remaining regions it is one vad satam of Gujarati month of sravan. People specially women's of the family worship goddess Shitala and pray for good health of her family. They eat food made on previous day, as called cold food.The faith behind this is this will prevent diseases ori and similar.

the scientific reason behind this may be by eating previous day food (with bacteria)will increase  immunity.

• Smallpox : 

Smallpox is a serious , contagious, and sometimes fatal infections disease caused by a virus called the variola virus. The disease gets its name from the Latin word for "spotted" and refers to the small pusfilled blisters that appear on the face and body of an infected person. Smallpox is spread from person to person by several means.

• Edward Jenner :

On may 14, 1796, Edward Jenner Vaccinated a boy against the often-fatal disease smallpox in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. The Vaccine was made of material from cowpox, a much, much milder disease.

Jenner was not the first researcher to recognize the connection between cowpox and smallpox, or even the first doctor to vaccinate a patient against smallpox using a cowpox vaccine. Jenner did, however, carefully document each stage of his experiment using the scientific method:

1. First, he deliberately infeccted a patient with cowpox , which usually caused blistering and fever.
2. When the patient recovered, he used the common anti-smallpox technique of variolation. Variolation is the process where a patient is deliberately infected with a strain of smallpox taken from a recently recovered or variolated smallpox victim. This was an incredibly dangerous procedure, but could induce a milder from of the disease. (Being variolated was less dangerous than contracting smallpox.) Variolation had been used for centuries by cultures from China to Turkey to immunize patients against smallpox.
3. The boy who had been vaccinated did not contract any from of smallpox, even after being being variolated - deliberately infected. 

Jenner repeated his vaccination process on dozens more patients, all with similar success.

Today, Jenner is nicknamed the "father of immunology." In 1979, the World Health Organization declared smallpox a globally eradicated disease.

• Vaccination :

Fever than ten year after British physician Edward Jenner vaccinated his first patient against smallpox using a vaccine derived from cowpox, the procedure was accepted enough to satirize. Here, patients vaccinated with the cowpox materials sprout bovine features.

• Religious vs science :

People of many different faiths and levels of scientific expertise see no contradiction at all between science and religion. Many simply acknowledge that the two institutions deal with different realms of human experience. Science investigates the natural wold, while religion deals with the spiritual and supernatural- hence, the two can be complementary. Many religious organizations have issued statements declaring that there need not be any conflict between religious faith and the scientific perspective on evolution.

Now those day's people blindly believe on religious belief . We know that shitala is a name of disease Smallpox but people believe that shitala is goddess and they are made many temple of shitalamata. They doing vrata and prayer for shitalamata. It is not any mata or goddess it is the dangerous disease and Edward Jenner found rshi of this disease.I would like to mention here one today's recent example of how people blinds and connected  situation with goddess. I'm on travelling and I see one accident. One couple travelling through bike  suddenly her small child fall down on road front of temple of shitalamata. Do you believe that what people said, people said that she don't doing vrata of sitalamata in proper way so it's happened. I shocked that people say anything without thinking and When we try to say something they shouting on us.We fail to argue with religious practice as well with scientific inventions. On the occasion of such days, we feel the conflict between science and religion in our lived experience.

Reference :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitala

             Thank you......................