SHANKARACHARYA’S REPS URGE GOVT TO RECONSIDER DECISION

SHANKARACHARYA’S REPS URGE GOVT TO RECONSIDER DECISION

Bhubaneswar

Representatives of Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri Gobardhan Peeth Swami Nischalananda Saraswati and office-bearers of the Peeth on Saturday urged the State Government to reconsider the suggestion given by the seer to completely bar the devotees to climb the chariots of three deities, Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra during the nine-day long Rath Yatra.

Gobardhan Peeth spokesperson Manoj Rath addressing the reporters here said the Shankaracharya expressed unhappiness over the State Government’s ambiguous decision to ban devotees to climb the chariots and touch the deities during Rath Yatra, Bahuda Yatra and Suna Besha.

The Government didn’t say anything about the status of the rest of the days of the festival, while the Daitapati servitors said in the media that the devotees could climb chariots and touch the deities except on the three occasions, he added.Rath said the State Government should take such a sensitive religious matters causally and respect a verdict given by the High Court in Bira Kishore Dev versus Odisha Government in the year of 1955.

“If the High Court takes suo motu cognizance into the matter, we will be obliged to the court,” said Rath, adding, “Even the State Government had clearly told that a decision will be taken after consulting with Shankaracharya, but now the State didn’t follow the seer’s suggestion and took an ambiguous decision unilaterally to appease a few.”

The representatives of the seer lamented that for the first time the State didn’t take the suggestions of Shankaracharya, Gajapati Maharaj Divya Singh Deo and other pundits and scholars of the Jagannath cult seriously and declared the decision after holding discussion with a few people of a servitor group which is not a good thing.The representatives appealed the devotees of the State to come forward to raise voice against the decision taken by the State Government and file public interest litigations (PILs) to ban the unholy thing of climbing onto chariots and touching the deities.