‘Pran pratishtha without head, eye’: Shankaracharya explains why Ram Temple incomplete

Uttarakhand Jyotish Peeth Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand on Sunday explained why he said the Ayodhya Ram Temple is incomplete and hence he won’t be able to join the inauguration event as it will go against the religious scriptures.

He said a temple is the body of God, the temple’s peak represents God’s eyes and the ‘kalash’ represents the head. The flag on a temple is God’s hair, the Shankaracharya said. “It is not right to instill life (pran-pratishtha) in the body without its head or eyes. This goes against our scriptures. Hence, I will not be going there because if I go there people will say scriptures have been violated in front of me. Hence, we have raised the issue with responsible people, especially with the members of the Ayodhya Trust — that the celebration should be done once the temple is fully constructed. Discussion has been going on,” the Uttarakhand Shankaracharya said amid a major controversy going on around the four Shankaracharyas not attending the January 22 ceremony.

Who are four Shankaracharyas and why are they not going to Ram Temple inauguration?

Shankaracharyas are the supreme authority of the Hindu scriptures and there are four Shankaracharyas — in Uttarakhand, Odisha, Karnataka and Gujarat. All four of them said they would be skipping the consecration ceremony of Ram Temple. This triggered a huge controversy as the Congress based their excuse to decline the invitation around the Shankaracharya’s explanation that the temple was not complete.

Shankaracharya of Puri Gowardhanpeeth, Swami Nishchalanand Saraswati, refused the invitation saying that the event already got a political colour as PM Modi will be performing the ceremony.

Shankaracharya Bharati Teerth of Karnataka and Shankaracharya Sadanand Saraswati of Gujarat will also stay away from the event.

The VHP said two of the four Shankarachareyas have openly welcomed the consecration ceremony but they would not be able to attend the grand event — they wull visit later at their convenience.

Shankaracharya Karnataka said he never expressed displeasure over the pran-pratishtha. “…A social media post, which carries a photo of Dakshinamnaya Sringeri Sharada Peethadheeshwara, His Holiness Paramapujya Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji, conveys that the Sringeri Shankaracharya, in a message, has expressed displeasure over the Prana-pratishtha. However, the Sringeri Shankaracharya has not given any such message,” a statement from his mutt said.

Gujarat’s Dwarka Sharada Peetham has also said that the reports published in some newspapers regarding the mutt’s stand on Ram Temple has been published without the permission of Jagadguru Shankaracharya and are misleading.

“The news published in some newspapers has been published without the permission of Jagadguru Shankaracharya Ji Maharaj which is misleading. Our Gurudev Bhagwan had made many efforts for the Ramjanmabhoomi through Ramalaya Trust and Ramjanmabhoomi Revival Committee. The dispute of about 500 years has ended, this is an occasion of happiness for the followers of Sanatan Dharma. We want that all the programs of the Pran Pratishta ceremony of Lord Shri Ram, which is going to be held in Ayodhya, should be conducted duly as per the Vedas and following the,” the statement from the Dwarka Peeth said.