PNCDNC Reflection: Diwali, Belief, and the Paradox of Purity

During this Diwali, while the lights shimmered and the fireworks echoed across the city, the PNCDNC team engaged with a group of thoughtful young minds. Our conversation drifted, as it often does, toward critical thinking — the kind that questions not to offend but to understand. One particular question left an imprint: If cow urine and cow dung are pure and divine, as claimed by many, why do we wash idols with milk and ghee — both derived from the cow — but never with urine or dung?

It is a question that cuts deeper than it first appears. It challenges the foundation of belief, rituals, and even selective sanctity.

The Paradox of Sanctity

In many traditions, the cow is revered as sacred — a maternal figure whose byproducts, from milk to dung, are believed to be imbued with purity and healing power. Ancient Ayurvedic texts group these five substances — milk, curd, ghee, urine, and dung — under Panchagavya, considered nourishing and medicinal.​

Modern scientific research supports some limited claims. Studies show that cow urine may have antibacterial and immunomodulatory properties, while cow dung serves as a sustainable agricultural input, enriching soil and reducing chemical dependence. Even IIT Madras Director V. Kamakoti recently reiterated his belief that cow urine holds scientifically proven benefits, citing studies showing antimicrobial peptides within it.​

Yet, the paradox remains: if all five are sacred, why do religious ceremonies emphasize only milk and ghee, never urine or dung, which are often discarded or avoided in ritual spaces?

The Cultural Dissonance

This contradiction reveals something fundamental about how purity is culturally constructed. Rituals often prioritize sensory experience — fragrance, color, texture — over philosophical consistency. Milk and ghee are pleasant and symbolic of nourishment and prosperity, while urine and dung, though praised in scripture, offend modern notions of cleanliness and aesthetics.

In practice, what is described as pure in doctrine is treated as impure in behavior. The selective sanctification reflects our human tendency to accept belief only in the parts that comfort us. It exposes how easily reverence drifts into ritual habit, detached from the inquiry that once birthed it.

Between Faith and Inquiry

Science does not dismiss faith, but it asks for evidence. Faith, in turn, is not meant to fear inquiry. When both meet, wisdom grows. When one avoids the other, hypocrisy brews. The PNCDNC team’s discussion was not an attack on tradition but an invitation to introspection — to ask why we practice what we preach, and why we hesitate to apply sacred principles consistently.

If purity is absolute, it should withstand questioning. If divinity is truth, it should not fear logic. Perhaps Diwali, the festival of light, is the perfect moment to illuminate these shadows within our beliefs.

True light, after all, shines brightest not in rituals but in reason.