Atheist Temple Officer, Christian Reporter, and an Honest Devotee of Sri Ranganatha
T R Ramesh
12 February 2012
It
is no surprise that Hindus - lock, stock and barrel - are shamelessly
indifferent to the fact that rank corruption and deliberate
mismanagement is prevalent and burgeoning in one of their holiest
Temples. In Tamil Nadu, it has been so for generations. So what happens
if one brave Hindu amongst this docile and subservient lot chooses to
act differently - by not only refusing to be a sycophant like his
brethren, but also daring to question the corrupt practices of the
Atheist Officer of the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments
(HR&CE) Department and his partners in crime in Srirangam.
Srirangam
Srirangam
is a holy town situate between the rivers Cauvery and Coleroon, near
the city of Tiruchirapalli, popularly known as Trichy. It can rightly
be called the centre of Tamil Nadu.
In Srirangam lies the holiest temple of Vaishnavas, Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple.
It is a huge temple complex with beautiful temple towers, fine
architecture, murals and inscriptions, besides the finest icons and
statuary. Its main temple tower is the highest temple tower in all
Asia. It also has enormous properties, endowments, jewellery and
valuables, buildings, vacant sites and huge hundi and other
incomes running into crores of rupees. When a temple has such endowed
weath and riches, would the rogue HR&CE be far away?
Like
most holy and important temples in Tamil Nadu, this temple too falls
under the viselike grip of the Hindu Religious & Charitable
Endowments Department - the custodian and de facto administrator of
temples, which is accepted blindly by the multitudes of devotees but
highly despised and deplored by those who know better.
[See HR &CE, Rogue Department of Government of Tamil Nadu
There
used to be a fine system of management in the Srirangam temple with
selection of one person of merit from three different denominations to
form the management committee. Like all good systems of hereditary
trusteeship in temple management, this system too was diluted by
successive atheist Tamil Nadu Governments and the nefarious HR & CE
Department. For the last few decades, the trustee appointments in
Srirangam temple had more political and unethical grounds of
appointment than merits. This, sadly, is true for most of the important
temples in Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu Government and HR&CE
Department appoint politicians and sycophants as Temple Trustees so
that their misdeeds in Hindu temples and endowments would remain
unquestioned.
Unlike
the Andhra Pradesh Endowments Act, the Tamil Nadu Act does not even
have a sham section prescribing basic qualifications and merits for
persons who can be appointed as Temple Trustees. All that is required
in the Tamil Nadu Act is that the Trustee so appointed should ‘profess’
Hindu religion and should not be insane or insolvent. He can even be a
criminal. So much so, soon after the exit of the DMK government in
2011, one of the Trustees appointed to the Srirangam Temple by the DMK
Government found himself cooling his heels in jail, arrested on land
grabbing and other charges and detained under the famous Goondas Act.
Atheist Agenda in Tamil Nadu Temples
For
many years now, the Dravidar Kazhagam – an atheist party, supported by
its follower and protector, the DMK party, has been carrying out its
anti-Hindu activities in the heart of temples. It has done so with the
covert and overt support of Christian missionaries, Naxalites and
atheist (read anti-Hindu) groups. For Christian Missionaries
whose intent is to undermine Hindu icons, customs and rituals wherever
they are revered, no tool can serve them better as an anti-Hindu agency
than the Dravidar Kazhagam.
Since
a very large number of Hindus in Tamil Nadu and especially women
regularly visit temples and offer worship, it is in the scheme of
things of these anti-Hindu outfits to create tension and foment enmity
in the temples, and thereby undermine the rituals as well. One famous
example is the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi passing a ‘Government
Order’ permitting unqualified members of the public to ‘sing in Tamil’
in the Pooja area very near to the Sanctum of the famous Chidambaram
Temple in March 2008.
The
hooligans who rushed to the temple the very next day - fully protected
by the Police - to “adhere” to the Government Order consisted of
Naxalites, atheists in the garb of Hindus, Christians and a few
Muslims. Not one sincere devotee was to be found among that group of
reprobates. A melee ensued and the picaroon government arrested ten
priests and trustees and put them in jail on Sivaratri day.
A
former truck-cleaner (or was he a tea-shop assistant?), an uneducated
and uncouth fellow, was propped up as a Saiva sant and minstrel and
asked to “sing in Tamil” as per Government Orders. He mumbled a few
inaudible words and Government claimed that ‘History’ was made in the
temple by permitting Tamil to be sung. Government, their media allies
and Christian propaganda conveniently hid the fact that Tamil was
always held in high esteem in that temple and the priests who carry a
two thousand year legacy themselves sing in Tamil!!! Today that
charlatan is paid Rs.3000/- per month for his ‘service to Tamil’ by the
Government.
Having
thus wreaked havoc in the holiest of Siva Temples, which was not even
under their administrative control, would these knaves be far away from
the holiest of Vaishnava temples, Srirangam Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple
which unfortunately falls under the sway of the despicable HR&CE
department?
Brahma Ratham in Srirangam Temple
Servitorship
and honouring the devotees of Lord Vishnu is an important part of Sri
Vaishnavism. In fact, more honour and glory is due to His devotees than
the Lord himself on certain occasions. The Lord has ordained this many
a time and many sants have recorded this important aspect of
Vaishnavism in their sayings and works.
One such ritual observance is the ‘Brahma Ratham’ ritual in the Srirangam Temple, where one of the descendants of the original Parasara Bhattar and Vedavyasa Bhattar
is honoured before Lord Ranganatha with temple honours twice a year,
and then carried on a palanquin from the temple precincts to his home
near the temple. Similarly, for having rendered Azhwars' hymns, a
descendant of Arayar family is honoured by taking him in a
palanquin once a year. It is the religious belief of Ranganatha’s
devotees that these honours were ordained on those devotees and their
descendants by the Lord Himself. The atheists around Srirangam who have
no positive role to play in the temple and who have never once
worshipped Ranganatha as sincere devotees, started ‘poster campaigns’
against the ritual decrying that a man could be carried in a palanquin
by other men in this 21st century.
The
Executive Officer of Srirangam is of the rank of Joint Commissioner in
the HR&CE Department. The current Executive Officer of the
Srirangam Temple is said to be an atheist. This has been inferred from
his non-acceptance of ‘theertha prasadam’ of the Lord, his action of keeping away from the sacred Gayatri Mandap of the temple and his anti-Hindu and anti-temple activities.
He has instructed the priests of this temple many a time to do the food offering to the Lord at various poojas of the day at one go in the morning pooja itself, so that no time is ‘wasted’ in allowing devotees for darshan. Devotees are made to cough up anywhere between Rs. 50 and Rs. 250 for ‘special’ darshan.
He has also stopped on many days the ritual of Viswaroopa Darshan held
in the mornings when the crowd of devotees is expected to swell to
accommodate darshan for ‘paying’ devotees. It is to be noted
that even in Tirupati temple where an average of hundred thousand
devotees visit in a day, these violations are never done.
One
of the daily morning rituals in Srirangam and many important temples in
Tamil Nadu is the reading of the almanac before the presiding Deity.
This takes between 5 and 10 minutes and is an important part of the
temple ritual. The Executive Officer wanted to do away with this since
he loses out making money for these 5 or 10 minutes.
He
wanted to assign this to an employee of the Temple who has no right to
read the Almanac and passed an arbitrary dismissal order on Vedavyasa
Bhattar who was rendering this hereditary service of reading the
almanac, citing superannuation as the reason for dismissal.
When
the poor priest challenged this order in the Madurai Bench of the
Madras High Court, the Executive Officer avowed that he had the right
to dismiss the service-holder on the ground that he is an “employee” of
the temple. Now what did this ‘gem of an officer’ of this Rogue
Department cite to show that the dismissed person is an employee? The
honorarium of Rs. 1.60 per month fixed nearly a century ago that was
payable to this hereditary priest and claimed to have been paid by this
shameless department every month.
The
judge who heard this writ petition was shocked to learn that Rs.1.60 is
the salary per month for an “employee” of a rich temple like Srirangam
temple. He stayed the arbitrary and unholy order of the Executive
Officer.
When
this very Vedavyasa Bhattar was the person who is entitled to the
palanquin honour, would the Executive Officer keep quiet? The
attendants and porters working in Srirangam temple passed a resolution
“condemning” this ritual and gave a petition to the temple
administration to stop this practice forthwith.
Since
it is only a body of devotees of Srirangam temple clad in customary
clothes and observing solemn rites who carry the Lord’s devotee on a
palanquin, these employees who are fully controlled by the Executive
Officer have no locus standi to pass such a resolution. Yet based on
this irrelevant resolution of base employees, the centuries-old
religious ritual was ordered to be stopped by the Executive Officer. It
should be remembered that any Executive Officer or Trustee has no
authority to make any changes in religious rituals as per the Tamil
Nadu Temple Entry Authorization Act of 1947.
Shri Krishnamachari
Shri
A. Krishnamachari settled in Srirangam town after a distinguished
service in Indian Oil Corporation. His academic accomplishments are
impressive - a Degree in Chemistry, three Post Graduate Degrees in
Tamil, in Public Administration and in Sociology. Above all, his
knowledge of Vaishnava literature and tenets is extraordinary and he is
a recognised expert on the Srirangam temple, its history, tradition and
architecture. Indeed, he has written an 18-volume magnum opus on the
temple, running into over 7100 pages. An upright person who never
hesitated to defend the temple and its traditions, Shri Krishnamachari
has opposed anyone who violates them, however high the violator may be
placed.
Shri
Krishnamachari filed a criminal complaint against the Executive Officer
and his cronies for stopping a religious ritual. He filed RTI
applications with the Commissioner regarding the Brahma Ratham ritual
and got a reply stating that the Commissioner never approved the
Executive Officer’s request to stop the Brahma Ratham. Soon the
Information Officer of the deceitful Department changed her stand and
said the earlier information given under RTI was incorrect!
Shri
Krishnamachari appealed to the State Information Commissioner and after
hearing both sides, the State Information Commissioner issued a
show-cause notice to the Information Officer of the deceitful HR&CE
Department as to why action under the RTI Act should not be taken
against her for misinformation. Needless to say, this show-cause notice
is pending action like the criminal complaint filed earlier. Shri
Krishnamachari has also filed a Writ Petition in Madras High Court
challenging the HR&CE’s unholy and unlawful decision to construct a
huge modern structure in one of the ancient temples in Srirangam.
Enter the Christian reporter
As
Krishnamachari proved to be a thorn in the flesh of the Executive
Officer who was faithfully carrying out the evil designs of atheists
and Christian zealots in the holiest Vaishnava temple town, help was
extended to the Executive Officer from foul anti-Hindu quarters.
A Christian reporter of The Times of India
approached Krishnamachari, lauding his services in protecting the
temple, and spent many hours interviewing him and learning about his
RTI and other initiatives. The unsuspecting veteran gave the reporter
all details, thinking this would expose all the violations in the
temple (TOI had earlier exposed the damage done to the Brahadeeswara
temple, a World Heritage site).
The reporter went to the Executive Officer, ostensibly to hear his ‘version’, and then followed a news item in Times of India
on Jan 12 on Brahma Ratham. It waxed eloquent how the Executive Officer
had ‘discovered by digging deep’ into temple archives that this custom
was self-imposed in 1824 CE and how he had to stop it because it is an
evil custom like ‘Sati’ or ‘Child Marriage’.
Shri
Krishnamachari had given proofs to the reporter that this is an age-old
custom carried out for centuries, but the TOI reporter hid the truth.
He also did not interview true devotees of Srirangam temple or the
Parasara / Vedavyasa Bhattar families and elicit their views. It would
only occur to a man planted by the Church to describe an anti-Hindu
atheist as a God-sent-person, which is how this Christian reporter
described the Executive Officer while ending the article with unabashed
glee.
Shri Krishnamachari sent a riposte to The Times of India
clearly establishing how the Jan 12 article teemed with lies and
fabrications. Yet the Christian reporter was allowed to furnish another
article on Jan 15 swarming with more untruths and concoctions and
accusing Shri Krishnamachari of violations in the temple! These white
lies served dual purposes by maligning the good name of Shri
Krishnamachari and shamelessly praising the miscreant Executive
Officer. This time there was no pretense of hearing the other side.
Shri Krishnamachari again sent a letter to The Times of India,
supported by proofs and documents, that exposed the lies in both. After
more than ten days, the newspaper deigned to print a short version of
his rejoinder (legal action is now being contemplated).
Yet
Hindus in and around Srirangam carry on unaware and blissfully
ignorant, and if aware, shamelessly indifferent to the shenanigans of
the Church, the anti-Hindus and the corrupt HR&CE Department...
There are none so deaf as those who will not hear!
The author is a banking professional and research scholar on Hindu religious affairs
with best regards,
J.R.
