The state-sponsored Ekatma Yatra to collect metal from towns of Madhya Pradesh to erect 108ft-tall statue of Adi Shankaracharya at the holy town of Omkareshwar has come under fire after a former attorney general and the sitting Shankaracharya of Dwaraka Mutt raised objections to it.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off the one-month-long Ekatma Yatra on December 19 from the temple town of Ujjain with religious fervour by sending a multimillion-rupee air-conditioned rath (motorized chariot), carrying an urn filled with soil from the Ujjain Mahakal Shiva Temple. The yatra, sponsored and planned by the culture department of the state government, will terminate on January 20.
However, the yatra has invited criticism from none other than the sitting Shankaracharya of Dwaraka Mutt, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, who said, “The chief minister is preaching incorrect ideology of Adi Shankaracharya. The yatra should have been nationwide, beginning from the birthplace of Shankaracharya to Kedarnath.”
Speaking in a function at Gwalior, he said, “This is a government yatra, which has nothing to do with the teaching of Adi Shankaracharya. At least, we Shankaracharyas should have been consulted before starting such a yatra.”
Apart from Swaroopanand Saraswati, former attorney general and senior-most lawyer of Madhya Pradesh, Anand Mohan Mathur, served a legal notice to the chief minister, with copies to the chief secretary and principal secretary, school education. Mathur challenged the decision of the state government to erect a statue at a cost to the state exchequer.
In a two-page legal notice issued through his advocate, he said, “Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy was against Article 14 of the Constitution, which says that the state cannot deny any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the law on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.”
In the notice, he said, “Adi Shankaracharya was born in AD 788 and revived the ‘Manu philosophy’ and caste system propounded by him. He also opposed Buddhism, which was the religion which introduced equality in the society.”
The chief minister has replied to the notice through his advocate Shireesh Shrivastava, saying, “Shankaracharya contested many tenets of Buddhism and Jainism, but, at the same time, he also contested those of Mimansa, Yoga and Panchantra. In an environment of intellectual freedom, it was very natural to contest a particular philosophy. Exercise of the intellectual judgement is not enmity.”
The controversy over the yatra has its roots in the BJP’s ideology of Hindutva. “The yatra in the election year (polls are due in November 2018) has raised many eyebrows as the hidden objective is to consolidate the Hindu vote bank,” said Praveen Dubey, a senior journalist and political analyst. The yatra will criss-cross the length and breadth of the state, with several sadhus and political leaders aboard the ‘ekatma rath’.
At the start of the yatra from Ujjain, Chouhan said, “All the answers to the problems faced by (the) world and humanity lie in the philosophy of Shankaracharya. The purpose of the yatra is to collect metal for statue of Adi Shankaracharya and create public awareness about the contribution of (the) ancient saint to our society.”
He said after the yatra culminates at Omkareshwar, a huge statue of the seer will be erected from the metal collected from the various parts of Madhya Pradesh. He said the holy town of Omkareshwar will be established as the novel centre of Vedanta Darshan. He said the philosophy of ‘Advaitavad’ of Adi Shankaracharya will be publicised and special chapters will be added in the school curriculum.
Legend goes that after obtaining education and knowledge from his guru at Omkareshwar, Adi Shankaracharya left for a journey of the country. He travelled all over, holding religious discussions and discourses to later establish four mutts.
Adi Shankaracharya is considered to be one of the medieval saints who revived Hinduism and the present form of Hindu religion owes much to his teachings.
