Elavoor Thookkam 2004

 

by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

8.	TEMPLE FORTRESS – DEVOTEES PREVENTED FROM WORSHIP   q     Akhanda Nama Japa forestalls all else q     Government, Custodian of Hindu Dharma and Welfare q     Higher Level Meetings and disillusionment

 

q     Akhanda Nama Japa forestalls everything else

On the forefront now was the Akhanda Nama Japa.  All the rest was but to be part of this. The Temple being under siege by an unruly section, the sole fate of everything lay with the District Administration and Trivandrum.  It went beyond Elavoorians’s range.  Virtually the ‘Golden Temple like’ situation!  A dimension poor Elavoorians had not even dreamt of!

q     Government, Custodian of Hindu Dharma and Welfare

I asserted before the Press: “Mind you, we have a Devasvam Minister appointed by Chief Minister and his team. All Temples come virtually under this minister and hence under the State Cabinet and Chief Minister. But alas, neither the Devasvam Minister nor the Chief Minister has spoken a word in the matter. Their silence is dangerous, calamitous, catastrophic, driving the Temple already to ‘a virtual battleground’, ‘a fortress’ to prevent entry of devotees for worship, as it happened on 19th”.  The alarming situation continued.

Those inside the Temple began to cook and eat there in defensive protection.  How grave!  Anna-dana is done in Temples. It is very good and needed too, however this Anna-dana was not like any other.  The difference was in its exclusiveness unbecoming of true Anna-dana. The police outside were not similarly fed. Are they not devotees? Should not they be fed too? What a contrast!!!

“Disallowing entry to Sanyasins for worship”. A Press Conference was held by us on 21st, similar Press conferences held by Thookkam Obstinates under different names elsewhere. These press meets, telecast interviews and coverage by many TV channels, above all the Akhanda Nama Japa by Devotees in Elavoor Putthankavu Temple, Parakkatavu Panchayat rising up in full readiness to welcome and host the incoming devotees, all these foreboded how matters were coming to a head.  Can the ahimsa austerity, congregational Nama Samkeertana mean so much to people, more to their elected representatives?   The representatives might not have spoken a word.  But their Administrative insight and will were quite eloquent.

q     Higher Level Meetings and disillusionment

Initial administrative meetings were headed by Revenue Divisional Officer Sashikumar.  He had the idea of making people accept the non-piercing Thookkam (lifting the person not by his skin but by the cloth tied to the waste) as an alternative to the barbaric Thookkam. The Thookkam proponents considered it shameful to accept such a proposal. 

We wanted the Government action at the highest Level including Superintendent of Police and the rest.  District Collector himself should chair it.  I wrote to the Chief Minister to this effect.  A meeting was called with District Collector on the chair, with SP and all others present.  But it served the Govt. to know directly how intransigent the Thookkam obstinates were.

To energize and intensify Government action with a sense of immediacy, I wrote on 20th to the District Collector, following it up with a similar letter to the Chief Secretary of the State. I urged him:

1. to oust the unauthorized Temple Advisory Committee

2. to install Uranma Devasvam Board’s new incumbent

                                    OR

        to  take over the Temple administration himself under  special emergent powers.

Adding, at the end,

“ If Thookkam of any kind is allowed on 23rd April, then we have no alternative but to abide by our Shayana Vratam, as announced”.

“Shayana Vratam will be peaceful, non-violent. After piercing the Thookkam victim with Metal Hooks to whirl him round from 32 ft high scaffold, the scaffold carriers will have to trample over our lying bodies. This saatvik austerity is meant to instill right sense (viveka) in Thookkam proponents.

This was a crucial demand from our side.  The Press flashed it in pronounced headlines.

On 21st DC called six of the Advisory Committee, who spoke harshly, obstinately and defyingly.  He asked them to discuss among themselves and see him the next day.  Meanwhile, the Govt. sought details of the members.  Our people worked relentlessly and very shortly 14 names reached the District Administration’s desk, one member having left Elavoor.

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