Tirupati Laddu Controversy 3 Calls For Action

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna! The entire country of India is in a state of uproar since the discovery that in the laddus offered to Tirupati Balaji, there were formidable elements, even remnants of meat and other such things which would be unconscionable and utterly unacceptable for offering to the deities. How can we make sense of this from the perspective of the Bhagavad Gita? In the Bhagavad Gita in 1830, Krishna says, intelligence in the mode of goodness is that which understands what is to be done and what is not to be done. प्रवृत्तिम्च निवृत्तिम्च कार्याकार्ये भयावये बन्धं मोक्षम्च यावेत्ति बद्धी सापार्थ सात्रिकी। I’ll talk about three things.
An acronym ARC. A-R-C. Autonomy, Responsibility, Culpability.
The most widespread demand that is coming up right now and that which will actually address the issue like this at the root is the need for autonomy. The temples need to be managed by themselves or by communities of people who are Hindus. It is a perverse anomaly of the situation in India where in the name of secularism there is systematic discrimination against the majority religion and because of that while other religions which are minorities are given full autonomy to manage their own institutions but the majority religion and especially the most influential temples within the majority religion are not given civil autonomy.
At first glance this seems not just discriminatory but outrageously discriminatory and the way this was rationalized is from the history of India where at the time of the independence and at the time of the formation of the constitution the idea was imported so secularism emerged in Europe as a way of minimizing inter-religious conflicts primarily within different groups within Christianity primarily the Catholics and the Protestants. So the idea was the non-interference of the state in an individual’s right to believe and practice what they believe. Now this kind of idea was actually redundant and unnecessary in India because within the Hindu tradition which is actually what is originally known as the Sanatan Dharma there was already a deep level of inclusivity which is in radical contrast to the exclusivity that characterized the Abrahamic religions.
So in the Mahabharata itself there were on both sides people who were of different religious affiliations on the Pandava side the Drupada was the Shaivite on the Kaurava side Bhishma and Gurushrava were Vaishnavas and they had formed their own groups based on strategic alliances so religion was not the main basis for dividing people and that’s why secularism when it is imported into India it was from the perspective of political agenda and secularism became mixed with the communist idea of protecting the powerless from the powerful and it was presumed that the minority religion is weak and the majority is powerful and this is not reflected in the history of India because the colonialists were always in minority yet they were powerful the Brahmins who are supposed to have caused so much caste discrimination in India they were always in the minority so unfortunately a structure that neither religiously nor geopolitically applies to India was imposed on India and because of that the Hindu temples especially the more influential ones were brought under the control of the government so now it was said that there was mismanagement happening and that’s a possibility but then mismanagement is a possibility anywhere and everywhere often the departments that are under the government are what are most mismanaged at times so corruption is everywhere it is there also in the government so bringing temples under the control of the government is no guarantee that they will be completely free from any kind of mismanagement or corruption so eventually autonomy is what is required and followers of Sanatan Dharma are quite capable of managing temples now as the Indian diaspora has spread all over the world in America, in Australia in UK temples have come up and they are being managed by Hindus over there so eventually this needs to lead to an awakening and there has to be muscle that comes to the demand for autonomy till now this demand has been seen as a concern that does not concern the majority of the worshippers as long as they see the temple worship is going on they can visit the temples now to give credit where credit is due so Tirupati temple is overall well managed and the tourist experience for those who go on religious tourism there is smooth but this indicates that this particular incident is a jarring reminder that without autonomy there are aspects especially about the worship that may be overlooked and that’s why the next part comes up is responsibility people who have responsibility for maintaining the place not just as a tourist centre but as a religious centre as a devotional centre need to have a particular religious sensitivity which alone will enable them to take responsibility for the actions that happen in the temple premises just like if somebody is an artist and the person who is taking responsibility for an art exhibition where say the artist works are being displayed if that person has no artistic sensibility at all then they cannot take responsibility properly for the entire art exhibition they might be able to take care of some logistics but there is undoubtedly a division between those who are followers and those who are non followers and those who are followers understand the sensitivity and the sensibility so this responsibility has to be given and taken by those who have that sensitivity so it is not that anyone and everyone can take this up and generally those who are directly involved in the worship of the deities may not always be the best person to take responsibility for a large organisational setup they may be expert in the rituals for the worship of the deity but those who understand the sensitivities behind the worship and those who also have the capacity to manage need to be given the responsibility and the last point which is most immediate is culpability now currently those who have done this ghastly deed of contaminating the food that is offered to the deities and the food that was reverentially accepted by the worshippers need to be held accountable heads need to roll over here otherwise this will just become a splash in the pond just a sound like whistling amid a storm and it will be a social media storm that will pass away there has to be a concerted effort to make sure that such actions have consequences