Question about Hanumaji .

[Aditya, The Hindu Skeptic]

On Fri, 21 Apr 1995 hshah at ccmail.muller.com wrote:
>      Last Friday night I went to this Hanuman Mandir in Long Island for 
>      Hanuman Jayanti celebrations. It was fun. But, I was sort of shocked 
>      looking at the happenings in this temple. It brought up a lot of 
>      questions in my mind. Maybe someone could address them.
>      
>      Hanumaji was a Brahamachari. Are women allowed to touch his idol ?
>      Are women allowed to do his aarti ?
>      I have never seen this happening in India. Are people in India just 
>      too orthodox ? or Are people in this temple more liberal ?
>      
>      This temple is run by a women, who is a expert astrologer. Throughout 
>      her speech she referred to Hanumanji as Baba. Have you ever heard that 
>      before ?
>      
>      I will greatly appreciate if someone could shed some light on this 
>      subject.
It looks to me that this subject belongs to alt.hinduism more than this list.

As regrads the subject matter, it a matter of personal belief and practice.
There is nothing to prevent anyone from worshiping any idol. 
Mythologically speaking, I have seen pictures of Hanuman carrying Sita on 
his shoulders, therefore there is no taboo against touch by women. If 
Hanuman can touch Sita innocently, other women should be allowed to touch 
him without any danger to his Brahmcharya.

BTW: How do you decide who is an _EXPERT_ astrologer since all the astrology 
is bogus and has no validity anyway?