K.V. Seetharamaiah
Change of an individual’s loyalty to another party or change of party’s loyalty to another bloc results in shift in ideologies also. Latest example to illustrate is of Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi. Congress, once a bête noire of Shiv Sena is now fair-weather friend of Shiv Sena (UBT). She has drawn a parallel between the top Congress stalwarts not attending to Ayodhya event and the four Shankaracharyas skipping the event. Congress is caught in the dilemma of respecting the event in which BJP and RSS have significant role and fear of erosion in vote-share if the event is boycotted in the mask of ‘respectful rejection of the invite’. In her defence of Congress, Chaturvedi has questioned whether the four Shankaracharyas who have declined to participate are also wrong. Congress has declined the invite for a different reason and Shankaracharyas have also declined the invite for a different reason. The wavelength of Shankaracharyas and Congress cannot be the same. Therefore both of them cannot be seen in the same page. Chaturvedi philosophically says “Lord Ram resides in all our hearts, minds, religion, faith, decisions and acts”. She has not been saying anything that has never been said by anybody in the past. If this is her considered view and everyone born in this world can subscribe or had subscribed to her views, there would not have been a single temple, mosque or church or gurudwara on earth. Congress had described Ram as an imaginary figure. While the party has declined to take part in the Prana Prathishtapana function, it has changed its stance to a little extent with the statement of some Congress leaders coming out that they would visit the temple any day after January 22. Certainly the party leaders are well within their rights to attend or not to attend the event or to visit or not to visit the temple even after January 22. In doing or not doing anything it is the vote calculation that matters. There are also some sincere Congress leaders who have not liked the decision taken by Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to skip the Ram Temple event in Ayodhya. There are Ram devotees in Congress also. It is such people who only abhor the decision taken at the top.
There is dissenting view among the four Shankaracharyas on the religious principles and practices. They have high respects in Ram. If they do not attend the function, it is not because of politics but because of the honest differences of opinion with other seers about the Pran Prathishta taking place even before the temple construction is completed. Two of the four Shankaracharya have reportedly agreed to support the event. Swami Avimukteshwaranand is of the view that the construction of the temple doesn’t signify a victory of Sanatana Dharma. He is also of the view that the ceremony is not followed with the norms of Hindu religion. The view of Swami Nishchalanand Saraswati Shankaracharya is that the event is against scriptures. The report that Shankaracharya Bharati Teerth will not be attending the event has been dismissed by the Sringeri Mutt. His visit to Ayodhya has been neither confirmed nor denied. Even silent seers are also dragged into controversy. Reports say that Shankaracharya Sadanand Saraswati is not going to attend the function. The report has been neither confirmed nor denied. Apparently, the temple not fully constructed is not the main reason for not attending to the event by the said Shankaracharyas. If incomplete construction is the reason for not attending the event, people indulge in house-warming ceremony before the building is fully constructed. The rationale behind this is that the evil eyes would fall on the building if the building is fully constructed and opened. Gruha Pravesham is performed with some part of building not constructed because the eyes of people must divert towards the incomplete portion. With this belief only new buildings are opened when it is not fully constructed. This is in practice particularly among Hindus. Shankaracharyas are not so cheap to do politics in it. They have left politics to politicians. Shankaracharyas are capable of sorting out the issue. Chaturvedi has to take note of this.
