Mumbai: Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, met Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence, Matoshree in Mumbai, Monday. He also attended a puja ceremony at Matoshree.
Speaking to the media, the Shankaracharya said Thackeray is a ‘victim of betrayal’ and in the Hindu Dharma, betrayal is a sin.
“Uddhav Thackeray has been deceived. I told him that all of us were pained by the betrayal he had to face. Our pain will not be relieved until he becomes the chief minister of Maharashtra again,” he said.
The Shankaracharya added, “A person who commits deceit cannot be a Hindu. The one who bears it is a Hindu. The people of Maharashtra are anguished by what happened with Uddhav Thackeray and it was also visible in the Lok Sabha elections. This is also a disrespect to the people who choose their leader. It is wrong to pull down a government before its term ends and insult the public mandate.”
The Shankaracharya, who met Thackeray upon the latter’s request, however, added that his remarks were not political in nature and merely centred around the concept of betrayal. “We don’t have anything to do with politics, but we are talking about betrayal which is a sin according to our religion. All of us are followers of Sanatana Dharma. We have a definition of ‘Paap’ and ‘Punya’. The biggest sin is betrayal,” he said.
He, along with the three other Shankaracharyas, had in January this year turned down the invitation to the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya.
Commenting on Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami laying the foundation stone of a Kedarnath temple in Delhi on 10 July, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath said: “When the address for Kedarnath is in the Himalayas, how can it be in Delhi? Why are you confusing the people?
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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What an absolutely deceitful game. No wonder Hindu society declined so much. When leader of one of its imp institutions shamelessly panders to those who harm Hindu interests, the decline is inevitable. Uddhav was the one who got greedy for CM chair and broke alliance with BJP and betrayed fadnavis. Irrespective of the results of LS polls, he deserved to lose his party.
This man should stop hiding behind his shankaracharya seat and be open about his political inclinations. He has an equal right to be a political individual. But be open about it, and not hide behind the seat of shankaracharya.