Fwd: Weighing in on this Vexatious issue: Government control of temples is destroying Hinduism

March 17, 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------Dr Jonn Mumford <drjonnm

Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 12:59 PMWeighing in on this Vexatious issue: Government control of temples is destroying HinduismAnanda Bhavanani <yognat2001, Dr Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani <abb, " Dr.Ananda Bhavanani " <yognat

Weighing in on this

Vexatious issue:

Government control of

temples is destroying Hinduism:

I

would like to congratulate Dr Ananda for publishing the original article and

all of those who have commented. I

may well be that my contribution to this problem will please no one - at my age and Vanaprastha phase it does

not matter really.

The

second point is that I am not Hindu born, nor a

resident citizen of India however, hopefully, an outsider viewpoint, albeit one

who has lived and been initiated in India, may be refreshing, if painful.

Firstly

I believe it is quite tragic that one of the most notoriously corrupt and

inefficient Governments in the World, in the biggest Democracy on the globe,

has indeed set about to gain control over the property, finances and money of

the temples and Ashrams.

All governments are at risk of corruption, and the truism, “Power

corrupts – absolute power corrupts absolutely” stands for all

institutions including temples, Ashrams, and most assuredly, and in the biggest

way, the Indian Government!

The majority

of the population live in India under appalling conditions of poverty, lack of

medical care, and unhygienic conditions that border on insanity – all

ignored by the Indian Government which spends less than 1% of its revenue on

health care.

This in spite of the best efforts of Journalists (India has some of the best

Journalism in the World), dedicated Social Workers and Indian philanthropists –

all to little avail!

After A.M. Puja I like to read in bed for a while and currently I am reading

»The White Tiger« bythe young Indian, Aravid Adiga. This is a first time author and his

novel has won the Man Booker Prize for 2008. His writing not only has outstanding

literary merit, but it is so witty each morning I can hardly wait to read

more. Much to the dismay of the

Indian Government he has blown the lid off the endemic corruption and

ineptitude of the Politicians responsible for guiding the masses of India.

http://indiachildwire.blogspot.com/2006/12/media-watch-indian-children-are.html

and try this

one:

‘1/3rd of

world’s undernourished kids in India’

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/1-3rd-of-worlds-undernourished-kids-in-india/3754/

Yes you read

correctily

Given

the indisputable facts of the Indian Governments failure to address the issues

of the 21st century I am puzzled by several pieces of input thus

far.

I am perhaps missing something ( maybe

it is just senility -or pre-Alzheimer’s),

however I cannot grasp how quoting the “Pope” as an example of a

good administrator is a guide map or justification for Government control of

temples and Ashrams?

I have much respect for the highly educated present Pope, and

the Holy Roman Church and by the same token some of the doctrines of this

venerable institution are as out of place in the 21st century as

Islamic Sharira law is!

The ban on

condoms and birth control in a globe sinking under the weight of

over-population plus endemic AIDS in many poor countries, including India,

defies rationality. This is on par

with the utter ignorance of the former South African President who maintained

for years that no such disease as AIDS existed!

Supporting the

Indian government to take over the temples and Ashrams is equivalent to putting

the village fox to administer the local chicken coops!

I am also extremely puzzled how the original article could

possibly construed as “anti-secularism” – I thought “Secular”

was the official policy of separating Church and State?

ONE REASON

WHY ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL THE TEMPLES IS MISGUIDED

To

understand why this is so deleterious we need to contemplate the

fact that the glue holding Hindu Society together is Hinduism and an attack by

a corrupt and inept government to take over the temple's is a very serious

assault on the foundations of Hinduism which is ritual.

Ritual

(Puja) provides hope, faith, and courage to the extent that even the poorest of

India's inhabitants can muster a smile - which is more than can be said for

many walking down the streets of our Western busy cosmopolitan cities.

Right and rite are

semantic cousins and are cognate, in the Indo-Aryan language tree, with the

Sanskrit prefix Ri meaning to flow

with or away with. Indeed the worth of a ceremony we

can understand by the neologism Karmamony i.e.

the doctrine that every action has a consequence and therefore the value of

careful a correct ceremony is to ensure the consequences of the activity are are benign.

Entrusting the Indian

Government to take over the temples is equivalent to asking George Bush to take

over the World economy – and he did and look what he brought down upon

the globe!

On the other hand if

you want India to be transformed from a land where magic still exists into an

American consumer driven big McDonald’s –why not?

OM TAT SAT

ANANDAKAPILA

PREM

Swami Anandakapila Saraswati

“You are one

and the same”

In happiness and sorrowfulness,”

-Ashtavakra Gita 5:4

Distance Learning with Swami Anandakapila

http://www.jonnmumfordconsult.com/

Swami

Anandakapila's OM Kara Kriya ® Graduate

Teachers

http://www.geocities.com/anandakapila/

“You are one and the same

In happiness and sorrowfulness,

Desire and despair,

Life and death.

You are already overflowing divinely.

Let yourself melt.”

-Ashtavakra Gita 5:4

Saturday, March 14, 2009

2:27 AM

Digest

Number 1174

Rishiculture

Ashtanga (Gitananda) Yoga

Messages In This Digest (2 Messages)

1a.

Re: FW: Government

control of temples is destroying Hinduism venkatesan

venkatesan

1b.

Re: FW: Government

control of temples is destroying Hinduism Yogacharya

Gowrishankarananda

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Messages

1a.

Re: FW: Government control of temples is destroying

Hinduism

Posted by:

" venkatesan venkatesan "

dvenkatesan_yoga

Fri

Mar 13, 2009 2:56 am (PDT)

At first showing partiality towards minorities was to improve their

condition of living, so the system of allocation of seats under a common

sub-group had to be put into force. Since they have enjoyed it, they ask for

separate sub-category seat allocation that finally leaves just 10 seats en somme for the General category, which is the category for

the so called forward class & ofcourse a general

way of obtainining seats in a professional college,

& other 50 seats for the various communities & sects. Under the SC

itself nowadays they ask for a separate seat allocation for a community. I wish

that the government should slowly cut the quota's given. But `a contraire, they

r increasing the quota seats which finally might atleast

leave 1 seat to the general category. This doesn't say that i'm

from general category & so i want to vanish the system of quota allocating;

i too have the priviledges to enjoy the quota

allocation since i fall under their special

category of OB but this system should bereally

brought down & may be if the government really wants to help the needies, a new system based on annual income may be

subdivided & quota allocations may be based on them. Some good member of

this community who also belong to the central government, could possibly put

forth this way. Because some from the so-called forward class too, there r

people suffer due to economic status. What will they do, when there is no seat

for them in the general category?!

Some one should think of this.

Thanking you,

yours sincerely,

Venkat <> " ~~~tHe~cRusader~~~ " <>

By the way the above picture is an ambigram....

If u don't know what's an ambigram just ask me ..

I made this one for myself!

________________________________

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani <yognat2001

Thursday, 12 March, 2009 8:47:13 PM

Re: FW: Government control of temples is destroying

Hinduism

thanks venkat

i have personally suffered from this anti-hindu

attitude of the govt and am sympathetic to this story

cause of that

secularism is equal for all and not to be minority appeasement too!!

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER

Hon General Secretary, Pondicherry Yogasana Association

25, 2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry, South India-605 013

Tel: +91-413 - 2622902 / +91-413 -3203314/+91- 413 -2241561

Mobile: 9842311433

Website: www.icyer.com

www.geocities. com/yognat2001/ ananda

http://youtube.

com/profile_ videos?user= yognat2001 & p=r

--- On Wed, 3/11/09, venkatesan venkatesan

<dvenkatesan_ yoga (AT) (DOT)

co.in> wrote:

venkatesan venkatesan

<dvenkatesan_ yoga (AT) (DOT)

co.in>

Re: FW: Government control of temples is destroying

Hinduism

Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 11:00 PM

Sir, actually this e-mail is full of anti-secularism. ...To bring a good

& organised systems in hindu

temples, the government has to

regularise these management of hindu

temples...Lots & lots of acres

of land wasted & was earlier enjoyed only by a few percentage of

people who govern them. This condition started to become as an act due

to few temple authorities prevent some sects of people entering &

worshipping the Lord who is common for all. In the case of Chidambaram

temple, those people who were incharge of the

management earlier wanted

their [temple's huge] land or properties to be with them & they

themselves wanted to enjoy their property, for this they l'd

marry only

amongst their group so that their property never goes in others hands.

Christian churches are well managed by a single higher authority, the

Pope. So there is someone to organise the management

& to see to

that all are in order. But here in Hindu temple, Each & every

individual who builds that temple wants to be the only person who

manages them or their income.

A huge acre of land is not at all made useful to common people or for

their help. The private authorities may say that it is an agriculture

land and they have left many common farmers to work there, & have

the benifit from the land, but truly, the person

allowed to enjoy those

lands would be the relatives or close servants of the managing

authorities. So it may be right to give those lands to some

missionaries. Or those huge acres of land would be, in future, used to

build some universities or colleges. If they really wanted to have

those land benifitted by others, educational instituitions governed by

the government would be the correct one.

This is just because the majorities in India are not given proper

recognition & they think that the priorities are given only for the

minorities [of course this may be true in some cases like allocating

seats in higher studies]. We are the real minorities in the world. If

we think they r the minorities & don't give them the respect that a

human needs surely when one goes abroad none will respect us.

It's always good if the government takes all the hindu

temples &

organise them under a single department & the

useless, overflowing

properties of the temples can be used for the development of the

country's educational, spiritual conditions.

Politics prevail everywhere, be it government or private party. But

when it's under the government's private under taking this politics too

have a meagre amount of existense.

Like the temple's properties let

them belong to the government, but to the better management &

organisations let the private parties take them under the control. Like

in the case of BSNL or Air India, the highest share

holders are

private, so the government has to fear about the private parties too.

It may seem to be that i'm making it more business

oriented, but this

one would be more organised only if that condition

prevail rather than

just a single private party holding that temple, not allowing other

sects of people to get benifitted by the Lord's [who

never sees

partiality over religion like us] property which is given by him to all.

From the original message, it's seen that the author of the message has

lost the priviledges to the government to own or run

or manage the

administration, the properties or the income to the government. So he

just puts out his hearteous feelings.

The temple's land is not for us [hindus] alone. The

land space is

minimum in this earth. God gave us land to live & not to own it. So

we don't have the authority to say this piece of land belongs only to

hindus, christians or muslims. All of us can share & enjoy this

precious opportunity [life] given to us & try atleast

1% to attain

SAMADHI. It's not possible to attain any of the samadhi when we fight

for land, then what's there in even thinking about DHARMAMEGA

SAMADHI,

the highest one according to Maharishi Patanjali.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

Venkat <> " ~~~tHe~cRusader~

~~ " <>

By the way the above picture is an ambigram....

If u don't know what's an ambigram just ask me ..

I made this one for myself!

________________________________

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani <yognat2001 >

Wednesday, 11 March, 2009 9:32:39 AM

FW: Government control of temples is destroying

Hinduism

________________________________

Samskrita Bharati [ samskritam (AT) gmail (DOT)

com ]

March-09-09 7:24 PM

Michael Deslippe

Government control of

temples is destroying Hinduism

Government control of temples

is destroying Hinduism

By J.G. Arora jgarora (AT) gmail (DOT) com Organiser, New Delhi : March 8,

2009 & March 15, 2009 http://www.organise r.org/dynamic/ modules.php? name=Content & pa=showpage & pid=280 & page=43

Apart from Pak-Bangla terrorist and demographic

invasion,

another problem tormenting Bharat and its heritage is the outrageous government

control of all prominent Hindu temples.

It is shocking that though India

is a Secular Republic , and though secularism commands

separation of State and Religion, state governments have taken over all

prominent Hindu temples and shrines which is an anti-secular act.

All

well-known Hindu temples including those at Puri, Tirupati,

Guruvayoor, Kashi, Mathura

, Ayodhya, Badrinath, Kedarnath,

Vaishno Devi,

Mumbai ( Shree Siddhi Vinayak Temple ),

Shirdi, Amarnath, Srisailam, Madurai

and Rameshwaram are under government’s control.

And in

the latest of such takeovers, the ancient Shiva temple at Chidambaram in Tamil

Nadu is being grabbed by the government.

And only Hindu temples have been targeted for government

control whereas no Christian church or Muslim mosque has been touched.

This is not to suggest that churches and mosques should be

taken over by the government. This is just to stress that Hindu temples also

should enjoy the same freedom from government control as enjoyed by churches

and mosques, and that Hindus too should have the same liberty to manage their

places of worship as given to non-Hindus.

Moreover,

as discussed hereunder, the state governments are not applying the income from

Hindu temples for the cause of Hindus or Hindu religion. Rather, the state

takeover

has resulted in appropriation of temple funds by government, and as in

Karnataka, even for Madrassas and Churches. Besides,

state takeover has

resulted in gross mismanagement and embezzlement of temple funds, closure of

many smaller temples, encroachments, sale and alienation of temple lands, and

dismantling of temple infra-structure which is leading to gradual demolition of

Hindu religion.

ANTI-SECULAR AND DISCRIMINATORY

Government control of Hindu temples is anti-secular and

anti-Hindu. It amounts to suppression of Hindus’ right of

religious freedom guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution of

India. Besides, it is discriminatory since only Hindu places of worship have

been targeted for control.

Because

of government takeover, persons with no devotion and no knowledge about

Hinduism, and even non-Hindus are governing Hindu temples.

Though as per Article 25 of Indian Constitution, all

persons are equally entitled to the right to profess, practice and propagate

religion, and though as per Article 26, every religious denomination

“shall

have the right (a) to establish and maintain institutions for religious and

charitable purposes; (b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion; ©

to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and (d) to administer such

property in accordance with law”, various state governments are

controlling all

prominent Hindu temples and their estates thereby depriving Hindus of their

Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26.

DEVASTATION OF INFRASTRUCTURE

All over

the country, there are serious allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement of

income and assets of the government controlled temples. Only a few

illustrations are given here.

In

states like Andhra Pradesh, the devotees’ offerings to temples are

appropriated

as government revenue; and are not used for Hindu community, or to promote

Hindu religious activities. Besides, in several districts of Andhra Pradesh,

thousands and thousands of acres of land owned by government controlled temples

have been sold, alienated, gifted and permitted to be grabbed by land grabbers

though the government has no right to do so since it is not the owner of temple

lands.

In Bhadrachalam and Simhachalam,

hundreds of acres of temple land have been given

to Christian organisations. Moreover, the Endowment department has sold over

1600 Acres of Srisailam Temple land to various

Missionary Organisations. And in 2005, 245 acres of prime land belonging to

Seetharama Chandra Swamy temple at Devarayamjal was sold at throwaway prices

causing huge loss to the temple.

And in

2006, the centuries old, 1000 pillar Mandapam in Tirumala complex was demolished.

Situation in other States is equally appalling. As reported

in a section of the press, for the years 1997-98 to 2002-2003 for which figures

are available, major portion of temple income in Karnataka was allocated to

Madrassas, mosques and churches; whereas temples got

only a little amount.

In Kerala, state control has rendered innumerable temples dysfunctional.

Besides, under the Kerala Land Reforms Act, over 12,000 acres of Guruvayoor

temple’s land has been reduced to a few hundred acres only. And in

Sabarimala, 2,500 acres of temple land has been sold

by the government’s Board.

In Orissa

also the administration has been selling Jagannath temple endowment lands.

In Jammu and Kashmir , even Mata Vaishno Devi Temple

University

created with the funds of Vaishno Devi Temple

does not have Hindu religious studies in its curriculum.

Tamil

Nadu’s position is equally dismal because of the problems inherent in

government control of temples.

And

though the Church is the largest real-estate owner in the country, no Church

land has been controlled or alienated by the government.

SHACKLING HINDU FAITH

Though a

secular state can neither reward nor punish any religion, shackling Hindu

religion through state control of temples continues all over India except in

Himachal Pradesh where in 2008, the government decided to liberate the temples

from its control.

Government

control of their places of worship has crippled the cultural, social and

spiritual life of Hindus. Apart from depriving temples of their income and

wealth, this un-secular government action is ravaging the body and soul of

Hinduism.

While the

government subsidises “Haj”

pilgrimage with hundreds of crores of rupees every

year, state control is destroying the self-supporting edifice of Hindu

places of worship.

Apart

from being the centre of Hindu community’s religious, social and cultural

life,

the temple is supposed to be the focal point for learning Vedas,

Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Tirukkural etc. from religious

scholars. But Vedic learning and Sanskrit have been banished from most of the

government controlled temples.

As

reported in media, Andhra Pradesh government has brought Christian institutions

into the decision making body of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) and its

institutions. JRG Wealth Management, a Christian

organisation has been employed

for Prasadam materials for use in Tirupati temple.

And

there are apprehensions of evangelists’ design to build a Church at Tirumala.

WAY OUT

Since

temples belong to Hindu society which has built and maintained them over the

centuries, they must be restored to Hindu community to give religious freedom

to Hindus. Like other communities, Hindus too have a constitutional right

to manage their places of worship. And they must not be denied this fundamental

right.

Independent

Boards comprising of Hindus must govern Hindu temples and shrines as is the

case with places of worship of other religious communities. And temple income

should

be used for educational institutes, hospitals and welfare activities for

general public, and also for Sanskrit and Hindu religious studies.

All

pro-Hindu individuals and organisations have to assert themselves and force the

State governments to liberate the temples. Alternatively, apart from demanding

the amendment of Hindu Religious Endowments and Charitable Trusts Act, 1951 to

make it compatible with Articles 25 and 26, suitable legal action should be

taken by filing writ petitions / public interest petitions in the respective

High Courts since the government control of Hindu temples violates Articles 14,

25 and 26 of Indian Constitution which bestow the fundamental rights to

equality, freedom of religion, and freedom to manage religious affairs.

As per

Kathopnishad, “Uttishthta

jaagrta praapya

varaan nibodhat”

(Arise, awake, and do not stop till the goal is

achieved).

Personal

greed of a few individuals, and Hindu community’s suicidal tolerance of

gross

injustice of confiscation of their temples must not be allowed to destroy

Hinduism in truncated India

the way Hinduism has been liquidated in Afghanistan , Pakistan and Bangladesh

which too used to be Hindu lands.

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Messages in this topic (5)

1b.

Re: FW: Government control of temples is destroying

Hinduism

Posted by:

" Yogacharya Gowrishankarananda " gowrishankarananda

gowrishankarananda

Fri

Mar 13, 2009 8:12 am (PDT)

Divine Souls, Namaste!

I struggle to find the words to express my mind with regards to the temple

takeovers that The Indian government has pursued. The words I do choose

below are rare for me and the tone even rarer. Please excuse my emotion but do

not excuse the sentiment, especially if it is in anyway similar to your own.

Frankly speaking, it is absolutely outrageous what has and is continuing to

happen. The Indian government in killing the Hindu culture for very unconscious

reasons. I have never felt spiritual experiences inside a church ,

rather I have always felt the presence of the divine in nature. The two

exceptions to this have been when I have been to the Kambliswamy Madam, and to

Chidambaram! The energy these two holy places provided to me was profound and

sublime beyond words; I still feel them and it is as though they are speaking

to me. I have been to Government run temples and all I felt was a great

sense sadness emanating from a weakened life force barely able to speak; for

me, this too was profound. I feel my hands are tied with the thought that

the powers that be will continue to move on their self destructive path.

Imagine If India still had the hundreds of thousands of temples that have

been destroyed over the years. Imagine the energy mother India would still have

and the power she would still be. India is the divine mother and when

we limit our devotional avenues the Atma Prasadinum

that come back to us is so too weakened. There is no argument that can

justify any path that decreases the energy of devotion that these

holy sites provide. In fact to do so is to decrease our own energy and our

connection to what is sacred.

The path of right " use " ness is always aligned with truth. Every

citizen, especially every politician in India should know well the

teachings of the Mahabharata. There is right and there is wrong, and those who

are not aligned with truth will always fall. Those who

intellectualize over what is to be done need only go to the thousands of

government run temples in India and see for themselves, they may as well go to

the circus. In fact there are circuses all over the world and some would say

" why go to India? " The government is not just and we the people are

not outraged enough to stand up and say ENOUGH!

Yours In The Service Of Yoga,

Yogacharya Gowrishankarananda

Atmalaya® Ashram

Tat Tvam Asi...Thou Art That!

www.atmalayaashram.com

________________________________

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani <yognat2001

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:02:39 PM

FW: Government control of temples is destroying

Hinduism

________________________________

Samskrita Bharati [ samskritam (AT) gmail (DOT)

com ]

March-09-09 7:24 PM

Michael Deslippe

Government control of temples is destroying Hinduism

By J.G. Arora

jgarora (AT) gmail (DOT) com

Organiser, New Delhi : March 8, 2009 & March 15,

2009 http://www.organise r.org/dynamic/ modules.php? name=Content & pa=showpage & pid=280 & page=43

Apart from Pak-Bangla terrorist and demographic

invasion, another problem tormenting Bharat and its heritage is the outrageous

government control of all prominent Hindu temples.

It is shocking that though India is a Secular Republic , and though secularism

commands separation of State and Religion, state governments have taken over

all prominent Hindu temples and shrines which is an anti-secular act.

All well-known Hindu temples including those at Puri, Tirupati,

Guruvayoor, Kashi, Mathura

, Ayodhya, Badrinath, Kedarnath,

Vaishno Devi, Mumbai ( Shree Siddhi Vinayak Temple ), Shirdi, Amarnath, Srisailam, Madurai and

Rameshwaram are under government’s control.

And in the latest of such takeovers, the ancient Shiva temple at Chidambaram in

Tamil Nadu is being grabbed by the government.

And only Hindu temples have been targeted for government control whereas no

Christian church or Muslim mosque has been touched.

This is not to suggest that churches and mosques should be taken over by the

government. This is just to stress that Hindu temples also should enjoy the

same freedom from government control as enjoyed by churches and mosques, and

that Hindus too should have the same liberty to manage their places of worship

as given to non-Hindus.

Moreover, as discussed hereunder, the state governments are not applying the

income from Hindu temples for the cause of Hindus or Hindu religion. Rather,

the state takeover has resulted in appropriation of temple funds by government,

and as in Karnataka, even for Madrassas and Churches.

Besides, state takeover has resulted in gross mismanagement and embezzlement of

temple funds, closure of many smaller temples, encroachments, sale and

alienation of temple lands, and dismantling of temple infra-structure which is

leading to gradual demolition of Hindu religion.

ANTI-SECULAR AND DISCRIMINATORY

Government control of Hindu temples is anti-secular and anti-Hindu. It amounts

to suppression of Hindus’ right of religious freedom

guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India. Besides, it

is discriminatory since only Hindu places of worship have been targeted for

control.

Because of government takeover, persons with no devotion and no knowledge about

Hinduism, and even non-Hindus are governing Hindu temples.

Though as per Article 25 of Indian Constitution, all persons are equally

entitled to the right to profess, practice and propagate religion, and though

as per Article 26, every religious denomination “shall have the right (a)

to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes;

movable and immovable property; and (d) to administer such property in

accordance with law”, various state governments are controlling all

prominent Hindu temples and their estates thereby depriving Hindus of their

Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26.

DEVASTATION OF INFRASTRUCTURE

All over the country, there are serious allegations of mismanagement and

embezzlement of income and assets of the government controlled temples. Only a

few illustrations are given here.

In states like Andhra Pradesh, the devotees’ offerings to temples are

appropriated as government revenue; and are not used for Hindu community, or to

promote Hindu religious activities. Besides, in several districts of Andhra

Pradesh, thousands and thousands of acres of land owned by government

controlled temples have been sold, alienated, gifted and permitted to be

grabbed by land grabbers though the government has no right to do so since it

is not the owner of temple lands.

In Bhadrachalam

and Simhachalam, hundreds of acres of temple land

have been given to Christian organisations. Moreover, the Endowment department

has sold over 1600 Acres of Srisailam Temple land to

various Missionary Organisations. And in 2005, 245 acres of prime land

belonging to Seetharama Chandra Swamy temple at Devarayamjal was sold at throwaway prices causing huge loss

to the temple.

And in 2006, the centuries old, 1000 pillar Mandapam

in Tirumala complex was demolished.

Situation in other States is equally appalling. As reported in a section of the

press, for the years 1997-98 to 2002-2003 for which figures are available,

major portion of temple income in Karnataka was allocated to Madrassas, mosques and churches; whereas temples got only a

little amount.

In Kerala, state control

has rendered innumerable temples dysfunctional. Besides, under the Kerala Land

Reforms Act, over 12,000 acres of Guruvayoor

temple’s land has been reduced to a few hundred acres only. And in Sabarimala, 2,500 acres of temple land has been sold by the

government’s Board.

In Orissa also the administration has been selling Jagannath temple endowment

lands.

In Jammu and Kashmir , even Mata Vaishno Devi Temple

University created with the funds of Vaishno Devi Temple

does not have Hindu religious studies in its curriculum.

Tamil Nadu’s position is equally dismal because of the problems inherent

in government control of temples.

And though the Church is the largest real-estate owner in the country, no

Church land has been controlled or alienated by the government.

SHACKLING HINDU FAITH

Though a secular state can neither reward nor punish any religion, shackling

Hindu religion through state control of temples continues all over India except

in Himachal Pradesh where in 2008, the government decided to liberate the

temples from its control.

Government control of their places of worship has crippled the cultural, social

and spiritual life of Hindus. Apart from depriving temples of their income and

wealth, this un-secular government action is ravaging the body and soul of

Hinduism.

While the government subsidises “Haj” pilgrimage with hundreds of crores

of rupees every year, state control is destroying the self-supporting edifice

of Hindu places of worship.

Apart from being the centre of Hindu community’s religious, social and

cultural life, the temple is supposed to be the focal point for learning

Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Tirukkural etc.

from religious scholars. But Vedic learning and Sanskrit have been banished

from most of the government controlled temples.

As reported in media, Andhra Pradesh government has brought Christian

institutions into the decision making body of Tirumala

Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) and its institutions. JRG

Wealth Management, a Christian organisation has been employed for Prasadam

materials for use in Tirupati temple.

And there are apprehensions of evangelists’ design to build a

Church at Tirumala.

WAY OUT

Since temples belong to Hindu society which has built and maintained them

over the centuries, they must be restored to Hindu community to give religious

freedom to Hindus. Like other communities, Hindus too have a

constitutional right to manage their places of worship. And they must not be

denied this fundamental right.

Independent Boards comprising of Hindus must govern Hindu temples and shrines

as is the case with places of worship of other religious communities. And

temple income should be used for educational institutes, hospitals and welfare

activities for general public, and also for Sanskrit and Hindu religious

studies.

All pro-Hindu individuals and organisations have to assert themselves and force

the State governments to liberate the temples. Alternatively, apart from

demanding the amendment of Hindu Religious Endowments and Charitable Trusts

Act, 1951 to make it compatible with Articles 25 and 26, suitable legal action

should be taken by filing writ petitions / public interest petitions in the

respective High Courts since the government control of Hindu temples violates

Articles 14, 25 and 26 of Indian Constitution which bestow the fundamental

rights to equality, freedom of religion, and freedom to manage religious

affairs.

As per Kathopnishad, “Uttishthta

jaagrta praapya varaan nibodhat” (Arise,

awake, and do not stop till the goal is achieved).

Personal greed of a few individuals, and Hindu community’s suicidal

tolerance of gross injustice of confiscation of their temples must not be

allowed to destroy Hinduism in truncated India the way Hinduism has been liquidated

in Afghanistan , Pakistan and Bangladesh which too used to be Hindu lands.

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