Indian devotee gets stuck under elephant statue: ‘Excessive piety is injurious to health’
Chaos ensued at a temple complex in India when a devotee became stuck between the legs of a small elephant statue while performing a religious ritual.
A 36-second-long viral video, uploaded to Twitter on Sunday, showed the man struggling to wriggle his way out of the small statue’s legs as the temple priest and other passersby appeared to be amused at the man’s unenviable luck.
The video, viewed nearly 200,000 times, showed one man trying to pull the man’s legs to extricate him for just a few seconds before giving up and the priest, also unhelpfully, tugging at the man’s shirt.
The man can be seen lifting up his arms and twisting his sides to pull himself out as well, failing at both attempts.
The temple priest and others offer the man useless tips as well.
“Tuck in your tummy,” one man could be heard saying.
“Keep turning your midriff,” suggested another.
It was unclear when or where in India the video was shot or how the man was finally extricated from the statue.
Any kind of excessive bhakti is injurious to health 😮 pic.twitter.com/mqQ7IQwcij
— ηᎥ†Ꭵղ (@nkk_123) December 4, 2022
News channel NDTV said the man was attempting a ritual at a temple in the western Gujarat state, but some Twitter users said the scene was from a temple in the central Madhya Pradesh state.
The user who shared the video, identified only by his first name Nitin, captioned the video: “Any kind of excessive bhakti [piety] is injurious to health.”
Hundreds shared the video and remarked on the incident.
One user said: “This is from Narmada Mandir, Amarkantak MP. Locals say that if you’re paapi [sinner] then you’ll be stuck.”
Another user said the video was “proof” that the man was a sinner.
“Only fat people will get stuck, are all fat people paapis [sinners]?” countered the user who uploaded the video.
A social media user shared a YouTube video from 2019 of a woman attempting the same ritual and trying to wriggle out of the elephant statue’s legs.
The woman, however, could be seen enjoying the process as she smiled and posed for a photo while her torso was stuck between the statue’s legs.
This is from Narmada Mandir, Amarkantak MP. Local say that if you're paapi then you'll be stuck. Now that is their belief which should not be mocked. You believe in some thing, that is fine. But don't mock others.
— Sukh Punn (@SukhPunn) December 5, 2022
Several Twitter users wondered how the man finally was rescued from between the statue’s legs. One person asked for the “complete video”.
Funnily enough, there are a few news articles of a woman getting stuck under the same elephant about 3 years ago.
— Akshay (@PlayaAkshay) December 6, 2022
“Interested in knowing how the man was rescued?” the user said.
