The circular issued by the Endowments Department to all the major temples in Andhra Pradesh to celebrate the birthday of Visakha Sarada Peetham seer Swaroopanandendra Swamy in a big way has triggered a major controversy in the state.
With the media and the opposition parties questioning the government for extending unusual honours to Visakhapatnam seer at the cost of public money, Swamiji’s mutt gave an explanation on Tuesday.
In a statement, the mutt spokesman said the objective of Visakha Sarada Peetham is to safeguard the traditional Hindu dharma and Swaroopanandendra Saraswati has been making relentless efforts to spread Hindu Dharma across the world.
“For the last few days, there has been needless negative campaign against the birthday celebrations of Swamiji. The objective of seeking honours from various temples to Swamiji was only for obtaining diving blessings from various gods and goddesses in the spirit of Hindu dharma,” the statement said.
It said the ritual had been happening since 2004 and the same was being provided this year too. “If there are any objections in this regard, we shall take them in a positive way,” the spokesman said.
However, there was no explanation as to why all the temples should send him gifts and extend other formalities to Sarada Peetham Swamy on his birthday. There is no reason to defend as to whether spiritual gurus need to celebrate their birthdays in such a grand manner.
Since his proximity to chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is an open secret, seeking such favours from temples will only cause an embarrassment to the chief minister!