Elavoor Thookkam 2004

 

by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

10.	KURUKSHETRA WAR OF JUSTICE IN 2004   q Lawless Devotees make Temple battleground q     Symptom of good governance q     Kurukshetra-Elavoor link

 

q     Lawless Devotees make Temple a Warfield

Hundreds of Thookkam mongers rushed to the Temple, but found themselves without leadership. MLA of the place M.A. Chandrasekharan went there at last, breaking his silence and indifference.  He had pleaded ignorance on the subject to me when I spoke to him earlier.  Devotees wrathfully kept him captive for hours, till dusk. The sacred Temple used to keep the Constituency’s MLA a captive! This is the bane of democracy and religious perversion!

This aggravated the situation. Shiv Sena local Chief with another sneaked through to the Temple, hoodwinking the Police.  He wanted a substitute Thookkam performed and suggested that a person go round the temple holding a Trishool (3 pronged weapon). This was only jeered at by the pro-Thookkam enthusiasts.

Agonizingly passed, seconds, minutes, hours… The deadline 3.30 p.m. arrived and passed uneventfully. Sunset fast approached and visibility began to dim and with that dimmed the wish and will of the Temple occupiers too. Reluctantly, avowing to redress the denial and re-hoist their perverted ambition with vengeance next year, Elavoor Thookkam fanatics left the scene.

Meanwhile one of the arrested Advisory Committee members declared that Elavoorians would trek to Trivandrum to defeat the BJP candidate there, because the Hindu Fronts opposed Thookkam revival move.

 

q     Mark of good governance

The State Government and District Administration, however, were awakened to the administrative and religious anarchy that was unleashed in Elavoor.  They have come out unscathed, demonstrating good governance by their timely prudence and will to act to vindicate Administrative Propriety. 

The manner in which, especially in the last few days (on and after our Vivekodaya Yatra and arrest) the Police behaved wisely and deftly, avoiding undue use of force between people and preventing aggression. This was exemplary.  They have left the sanctity of the Temple untarnished.   To that extent the people are also to be complimented. 

Without any political overtone and giving no room for any communal note to blaze, the District Administration itself has banned the Thookkam in a well-thought out three page Order of the District Collector, with a 20 page annexure.  Of these 5 are Press reports and photographs.  One is the report of the District Medical Officer.  Three are the letters, which HNP wrote to the District Collector on 11th March, 6th April and 13th April.   

Gyanesh Kumar’s order is a very basic document, which can and should set the tone of Administration in the matter.  A similar Order can be pronounced by the Administrative Functionary in any District in India.  Coming from an IAS it also has a representative, national character and orbit.  He has analysed the instance, bringing to focus how deadly, dangerous and prone to fatal outcome the offering called Thookkam by itself is.  Medical Profession guides and confirms the hazards.  Law and Order has been cited as the last in his order. 

After the episode the Thookkam proponents have, by their silent moves, shed their mask revealing their real nature and political domination.

 

q     Kurukshetra-Elavoor link

This was but a part of the Kurukshetra War of this millenium.  The first war was fought in the holy land, sanctified, by the ancestor Kuru with his prolonged austerity.  This war was enacted on the land sanctified by Parashurama, in the Temple premises of Elavoor Putthankavu Devi, holified by Scriptural Ceremonies and austerities by devotees. 

Mahabharata War was just one.  It became a huge spirituo-philosophical epic, carving the morale and values of our huge society.  Let Elavoor Kurukshetra also likewise be the singular epic to govern our moral, spiritual, devotional and religious life of discipline, austerity, truthfulness and peace.  It is then worth its time, place and history.

 

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