Lucknow: Under Narendra Modi’s regime, work ‘that remained stuck for 500 years’ was completed, but when he fell prey to ‘too much greed’, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost in all the places Ram visited during his ‘padyatra’, Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati has said.
This is the second jibe from a sitting Shankaracharya aimed at the BJP after the party fell short of the 272-majority mark in the just conducted Lok Sabha polls.
Last week, Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Mutt, said in an interview with ThePrint that the ‘pran pratishtha (consecration)’ of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was hurriedly done, due to elections, and his order considers it a political event.
The Puri Shankaracharya was addressing an audience at a religious event organised by a former Member of Parliament in Agra Sunday when asked about the consecration ceremony in the partially completed Ram temple in Ayodhya and the BJP’s subsequent loss from the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya.
“What happened in Ayodhya?… So, I had commented back then, too…. Shri Ram ji walked from Ayodhya towards Chitrakoot… from Chitrakoot to Nashik, aur sab jagah BJP haar gayi (and the BJP lost everywhere),” the Shankaracharya said.
He recited a quatrain from the Sunderkand — a chapter dedicated to the valour of Hanuman in the epic Ramayana — comparing the BJP’s greed to the greed of a heron.
“Jehi giri charan deyi hanumanta….chaleu so ga pataal turanta….chaubey gaye chabbey banne, dubey bhi nahi rahe (when one aims over his capacity, he ends up performing badly)…Now, what should we say about it? Under the BJP’s rule, work that remained stuck stuck for 500 years has been completed. This is enough for them, but there is a saying in Maithili… atishay lobh bakul ne keena (too much greed killed the heron),” he said.
Also read: Legal notice latest in Sangeet Som-Sanjeev Balyan tussle, Thakur-Jat split out in open in western UP
‘Modi earning a name for no reason’
Narrating the origin story of the Maithili saying, he said, “When the heron became greedy, he tried to eat the crab, but the crab grabbed him by the neck and killed him.”
“In the same way, in the reign of Modi ji or the other leaders of the BJP, work that had remained stuck for 500 years was completed. But, even if Modi ji had been a Brahmin, still he should not have done this (consecration before completion of Ram temple) as a politician,” he said.
“He displayed a tradition of Gujarat — like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had done a ‘pran pratishtha’ of Somnath ji. He (Modi) copied it….but there was not much awareness at that time. Now, Modi ji is earning a name for no reason,” he added.
The reconstruction of the Somnath temple was ordered by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, but the consecration was attended by then president Rajendra Prasad in 1951.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was among the leaders due to whom the foundation of the new Somnath temple was laid in May 1950, but the consecration was attended by then president Rajendra Prasad in 1951.
“Zyaada lobh kiya to jahan jahan Ram ji gaye, vahan vahan BJP haar gyi (he fell prey to greed, and wherever Ram ji went, BJP lost in all those places),” the Shankaracharya said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: Did BSP dent SP-Congress LS prospects in multiple seats? Here’s what seat-wise analysis shows