In a shocking show of bending over backward to please the ruling party, Tamil Nadu HRCE officials have allowed decorated umbrellas used for deities to shelter the CM’s wife from rain. Hindus have condemned this sacrilegious act as even kings who built magnificent temples weren’t in favour of such desecration.
On one hand DMK leaders, including the CM, abuse Hindu deities and beliefs freely in the name of rationalism. On the other hand, CM’s wife is given a welcome exceeding even kings. CM MK Stalin’s wife Durga visits temples, does puja/parikrama often and claims to be a devout Hindu in interviews. She is accorded a very cordial welcome by Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment(HRCE) department officials whenever she visits temples in the state.
It is not surprising or out of ordinary that the wife of a CM would receive such hospitality and welcome. But to break agama rules and use the deities’ properties for a human is nothing short of sacrilege. Durga Stalin had visited the Thiyagaraja Swamy temple in Thiruvottiyur, Chennai last weekend. It seems that a procession was also taking place at the same time.
From a video circulating on social media and reported by news media, it appears to have started raining as Durga entered/left the temple after the deity. Even though men around her had ordinary black umbrellas one of them can be seen ushering another man holding a decorated umbrella, used only for the deities during processions, to shelter Durga from rain. But the deity being carried in front of her was given a black umbrella. The act has received a lot of criticism and condemnation on social media.
While Hindus criticised the man’s action and Durga not stopping him, Dravidianists mocked the deity saying “it’s only stone”. BJP leader Subramanya Swamy has defended Durga saying there is nothing in shastras against holding a deity’s umbrella for a human. A few others have come to the defence of Durga saying that she was unaware that the deity’s umbrella was being held for her. But it was a sacrilegious act nonetheless and only because it was the CM’a wife it happened in the first place.
More than Durga Stalin getting such privileges, it is the act of the man who ushered the umbrella which needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms. It is such behaviour encouraged by political parties, in their hunger to get their hands on temple wealth, appointing people bereft of even basic respect for Hindu beliefs, that has led to such desecration.
One might recall incidents of crypto-Christians being employed in HRCE as a result of such greed and ideological pomposity. Even kings like the great Raja Raja Chola took pride in installing their sculptures at the entrance in a posture welcoming devotees. But today’s politicians want to claim the status all the while abusing Hindu beliefs, destroying Hindu traditions and encouraging such sacrilegious acts. It should be noted that when it comes to freeing temples from government hold, DMK holds the position that they are equal to Hindu kings who built the temples and so have every right to control them.
In that case they should declare the state as a Hindu Rashtra, vow to follow Hindu dharma and work for its betterment. What Stalin and his cronies do is the exact opposite of that. They not only abuse Hindu beliefs but squander temple wealth in the name of development projects as well. One can criticise the pujaris for allowing such sacrilege but then one look at how the DMK government is hounding Chidambaram Dikshitars would show how powerless they are.
It is time seers of all sects of dharma rise to the occasion and call out the attempts being made to erase what little of sanctity is left in the temples.
