New Delhi: The Shankaracharyas of the four cardinal directions have struck discordant notes on the upcoming pran pratishtha of the idol of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on 22 January.
Two of the religious leaders — the Shankaracharyas of Puri and Jyotish Peeth (Joshimath) — have criticised aspects of the planned ceremony and said they won’t attend. On the other hand, the Shankaracharyas of Sringeri and Dwarka have endorsed the ceremony without saying that they’ll personally attend.
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) working president Alok Kumar told PTI Friday that none of the four Shankaracharyas would attend the ceremony.
The heads of the four mutts, who trace their monastic lineages to the philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, are among the most prominent religious leaders in Hinduism.
The Shankaracharyas’ influence has often been felt in India’s politics, including in matters concerning the Ram temple from the 1990s onwards. Some of them have been close to the Congress, and their relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) haven’t always been smooth sailing.
What effect their possible absence from the upcoming ceremony might have on the wider Hindu public is debatable, especially considering the BJP’s hold over the Hindi heartland, according to author and political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.
Mediaeval roots
“A person may mistake a rope for a serpent…. The appearance of the serpent lasts until the rope is closely examined. The world can be compared with the serpent and the Brahman with the rope. When we acquire true knowledge, we recognise that the world is only a manifestation of the Brahman.” This is Adi Shankaracharya’s analogy for the relationship between the appearance of the world and the ultimate reality, as cited by K.M. Sen in his book Hinduism.
Modern historians date Shankaracharya to roughly the eighth century CE and hold him to be the author of texts ranging from commentaries on the Upanishads and stand-alone philosophical works to devotional hymns. He championed the monistic philosophy of Advaita or non-dualism, which asserted the identity of Atman (the soul) with Brahman (the supreme consciousness).
In his book The Eternal Religion: Glimpses of Hinduism, scholar and Congress leader Karan Singh writes, “Shankara stressed the supreme importance of liberation achieved through knowledge which in turn is born of asceticism and meditation.”
Traditional accounts have far more to say about Shankaracharya, who is seen as the central figure in the Advaita tradition. It’s believed that he was born in the village of Kalady (now in Kerala’s Ernakulam district), became a sanyasi at a young age and travelled the length and breadth of the subcontinent, spearheading a brahmanical revival and defeating Buddhist monks in debates.
In the mediaeval period, a tradition emerged that Shankaracharya, in the course of his travels, had established four monastic institutions — one each in the north, south, east and west of the subcontinent. These are known as peethams or mathas, commonly anglicised as mutts, and their heads take the title of Shankaracharya.
The four mutts are: Purvamnaya Shri Govardhana Peetham in Puri (Odisha), Dakshinamnaya Shri Sharada Peetham in Sringeri (Karnataka), Pashchimamnaya Shri Sharada Peetham in Dwarka (Gujarat) and Uttaramnaya Shri Jyotish Peetham in Joshimath (Uttarakhand).
At present, the four Shankaracharyas are Avimukteshvaranand Saraswati (Joshimath) Nishchalanand Saraswati (Puri), Bharati Tirtha (Sringeri) and Sadanand Saraswati (Dwarka).
A fifth monastic institution, Tamil Nadu’s Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, also claims to have been founded by Adi Shankaracharya, although this is disputed by the Sringeri mutt. Nevertheless, it was in the limelight for much of the 20th century, largely thanks to the charisma of Chandrashekharendra Saraswati, who headed the mutt from 1907 to 1994.
Also read: ‘No dharm, only politics’ — Congress on incomplete Ram temple consecration, cites Shankaracharyas
Shankaracharyas and politics
The mutts have been seats of political power and patronage right from mediaeval times. The Sringeri mutt, for instance, was once closely associated with the rulers of Vijayanagara. In modern times, political leaders have often visited and consulted with the Shankaracharyas. Chandrashekharendra Saraswati of the Kanchi mutt in particular was an influential figure across eras and met with many leaders, from Mahatma Gandhi to Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.
Another example is Swaroopanand Saraswati, who served as the head of both the Dwarka and Jyotish peethams for decades until his death in 2022, voiced his often controversial opinions publicly and was close to Congress leaders, particularly the Nehru-Gandhi family.
A close associate of Swaroopanand, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “People from the Congress, the BJP and all political parties used to come to meet Swamiji (Swaroopanand). He never openly supported anyone in politics. But during the time of Rajiv Gandhi, he was very close to him and had a lot of affection for him.”
After Sanjay Gandhi’s death in 1980, Swaroopanand reportedly met with Indira Gandhi and told her that Rajiv should stop being a pilot. When she asked what he should do instead, the Shankaracharya said he ought to dedicate himself to the service of the country.
In a message paying tribute to Swaroopanand after his death, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also said that he had conducted a housewarming ceremony for her family in 1990.
…उदारता व सद्भावना पर उनके साथ चर्चा करने का मौका मिला। स्वामी जी ने मेरे पिता के रहते हुए 1990 में हमारी गृहप्रवेश की पूजा कराई थी।
ये पूरे समाज के लिए एक अपूर्णीय क्षति है। ईश्वर से प्रार्थना है कि इस कठिन समय में स्वामी जी के अनुयायियों को कष्ट सहने का साहस दें।
ॐ शांति!
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) September 11, 2022
It was in the same year that Chandra Shekhar became prime minister and decided to appoint T.N. Seshan to the post of chief election commissioner (CEC). Seshan’s tenure as CEC would be groundbreaking but according to his autobiography, he was in a quandary over whether to accept the position at first, and only did so after consulting the Kanchi Shankaracharya.
A couple of years later, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao tried to get all the Shankaracharyas on board with his plan to set up a trust led by the Sringeri mutt’s head, Bharati Tirtha, to construct a Ram temple in Ayodhya. However, Swaroopanand reportedly backed out, demanding that the government cease its involvement and allow the Shankaracharyas complete freedom in building the temple. Nishchalanand of Puri followed suit, and Rao’s plan went up in smoke.
Swaroopanand was also a trenchant critic of the Sangh Parivar on many issues, including the “politicisation” of the Ram temple project — a project with which he himself was long associated. And when Narendra Modi was campaigning for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in 2014, the Shankaracharya reportedly complained to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat about the ‘Har Har Modi’ slogan, calling it vyakti pooja (worship of an individual) and an “insult to Lord Shiva”.
Swaroopanand and Nishchalanand also made remarks critical of the Modi government’s three contentious farm laws in 2021, saying the farmers should have been taken into confidence before the laws were enacted.
However, a year before that, Nishchalanand had also spoken in favour of a move by the Modi government — the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. He said that India, Nepal and Bhutan should be declared Hindu rashtras, although he added that the protests against the law could have been avoided if there had been proper deliberation first.
Also read: Varanasi’s mini-Tamil Nadus live in mutts, family shivalayas and stories of saints
Pran pratishtha
In 2021, Swaroopanand — who had earlier said the time decided for the Ram temple’s bhoomi pujan in 2020 was inauspicious — raised questions about the trust formed to carry out the temple’s construction. “There is not a single person in this who can perform the pran pratishtha,” he said.
Now, with the pran pratishtha scheduled for 22 January, both Nishchalanand and Avimukteshvaranand — who succeeded Swaroopanand at Jyotish Peeth after his death in 2022 — have said they won’t be attending.
While Nishchalanand said he was “conscious of the dignity” of his position and asked what he would do while “Modi ji inaugurates and touches the idol”, Avimukteshvaranand said the pran pratishtha wouldn’t be in accordance with the shastras — the biggest problem being the temple’s incompleteness.
Avimukteshvaranand also said that all four Shankaracharyas would skip the event, but there has been no official confirmation either way from the Dwarka or Sringeri mutts.
However, the Sringeri mutt has issued a statement expressing support for the pran pratishtha — encouraging believers to take part — and denying claims that Shankaracharya Bharati Tirtha had expressed displeasure over the ceremony.
The Dwarka mutt has also issued a statement on behalf of the Shankaracharya, Sadanand Saraswati, endorsing the ceremony while hoping that it would be carried out in accordance with the Vedas and Shastras.
On Saturday, the Puri Shankaracharya clarified that there were “no differences” among the four leaders over the ceremony, while also emphasising that it must be carried out in accordance with the shastras.
Speaking to ThePrint about the possible absence of the Shankaracharyas at the ceremony, Heramb Chaturvedi, an author and former professor of history at the University of Allahabad, said, “Any consecration done without their blessings is incomplete. They have to be there, seated on the highest seats. They used to be seated highest, above the kings.”
According to Chhotu Goswami, the priest of Banke Bihari temple, Vrindavan, “Shankaracharyas hold the most senior positions in the religious world. They are supreme among us. There are some issues regarding the inauguration, but it could be the matter of the date. We were also thinking it would be better if this happened on Ram Navami (in April this year), but by then the aachar sanhita (Model Code of Conduct, for the general elections) will be implemented.”
Kidwai thinks the absence of the Shankaracharyas won’t bother the BJP much. “They are not in a position to influence the discourse. The BJP has its own faces as champions of Hinduism. It maintains cordial relationships with religious leaders but the moment they step off the turf, the BJP turns against them,” he said.
He added: “Politically speaking, Shankaracharyas have zero influencing power as the BJP holds sway over the Hindi heartland. States like MP, Gujarat and UP have BJP governments.”
“These religious leaders (Shankaracharyas) want to dictate to whoever says they are the faces of Hinduism (like the BJP). But the BJP is very clever and understands Shankaracharya’s announcements and world views are very different. In the caste matrix, the Shankaracharyas’ influence is dominant among the ‘upper’ castes, and that doesn’t help the BJP,” said Kidwai.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
Also read: Education, justice, poll tickets — what are Karnataka’s mutts & how they became power centres