Shankaracharyas have been like Rip Van Winkle

The four Shankaracharyas not attending the pran prathistha (consecration) ceremony of the idol of Lord Ram in Ayodhya on January 22 has triggered a controversy. The Opposition found an opportunity in it to slam the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Puri Shankaracharya, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati, told a news agency, “Lord Ram’s consecration must be done in a dignified way. Prime Minister will be in the sanctum sanctorum and will touch the idol… This is being given a political angle. I will neither oppose nor attend.”

He went on to say that the consecration itself “should be done according to scriptural guidelines… otherwise deity’s radiance diminishes and demonic entities (can) enter.”

Violation of “scriptural guidelines” and traditions riling pontiffs is understandable, but I wonder why have they been silent for so long? As an agnostic, I have little personal interest in the Ram Temple, but what I find the high priests’ Rip Van Winkle attitude amusing.

For decades, India has seen saffron-clad sanyasis become politicians, even Members of Parliament and chief ministers. This was a clear breach of the Hindu tradition, for a sanyasi supposedly deliberately and formally detaches themselves from worldly affairs. And it has always been a one-way route: a sanyasi cannot come back to indulge in worldly matters. There are so many myths and fables of kings and princes becoming sanyasis, but none showing the opposite.

So, why have the Shankaracharyas suddenly become so concerned about scriptural guidelines and religiously sanctioned traditions?

It is time we asked a few other questions too. What have the Shankaracharyas so far for Hindu society and the nation in general?

Pope Urban II launched the first crusade against Muslims in 1095. Did any Shankaracharya do anything similar to organize Hindu society and end Muslim rule? That Muslim rule in India brought unprecedented violence and destruction is a well-known fact, but no Shankaracharya did anything to fight sultans and Mughal kings.

As Hindu society decayed in the medieval period, becoming beset with a zillion superstitions and rituals, did the Shankaracharyas carry out any campaign to revive society? The answer is a big ‘no.’ The revival began with the onset of British and Western education.

Did the Shankaracharyas do anything to fight against the injustices of British rule? The answer is again no.

Did the Shankaracharyas do anything to force the powers that be respect the human rights and civil liberties? No. None of them can be compared with Pope John Paul II who played a critical role in the fall of global communism, the evil ideology responsible for the death of over 100 million people all over the world.

The BJP can be accused of politicizing religion, but the Shankaracharyas have been mute spectators to that all along.