Bhubaneswar, | 18 June, 2015
The inordinate delay in completion of the ‘brahma parivartan’ (transfer of soul from the old idols to the newly made ones) at Puri Jagannath Temple on Wednesday has snowballed in to a major controversy with sections of servitors blaming each other and political parties hurling accusations against the government and the temple administration.
Facing a volley of accusations, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration chief, Suresh Mohapatra, IAS, said he will hold a review meeting and verify facts to ascertain the cause of the inordinate delay in ‘brahma parivartan’. The ritual, the most important one during Nabakalebara, was scheduled to be completed on Monday, but it continued till late on Tuesday afternoon allegedly due a tussle between two groups of servitors, delay in making of the new idols again because of conflicting directions given to thethe new idols again because of conflicting directions given to the carpenters by servitors etc.
With allegations of the tradition and other aspects being violated doing the rounds on Wednesday, the entire issue gathered steam as the mismanagement of the temple administration and servitors spilled over to the streets. Many devotees and old timers felt that the age old tradition of completing the ritual at night had been violated. Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Narasingha Mishra blamed the government and recalled that the last time Nabakalebara was held, the then chief minister J B Patnaik used to visit Puri regularly and discuss with all sections of the servitors and the Nabakalebara of the deities went off without a hitch.
How many times has Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik interacted with the servitors and others involved in the entire festival, he asked while chiding that the CM was entirely dependent on bureaucratic briefing and review meetings. The Sankaracharya of Puri, Swami Nischilananda Saraswati has also expressed his dismay over the delay.
The Puri seer had lambasted the ‘encroachment of the bureaucracy in matters relating to the temple and rituals’. He had implicitly attacked the Sri Jagannath Temple Administrator, Suresh Mahapatra, IAS, without naming him and had said that no bureaucrat would ever dare to do what was being done without the blessings of his political masters. State BJP legislature party leader Mr Basant Panda demanded action against those responsible for having delayed the ritual and hurt sentiments of lakhs of devotees.
It is unpardonable, the first thing that the bureaucratic administration had done was to incur the wrath of the Puri Sankaracharya by trying to undermine him, charged Panda. Ruling BJD spokespersons said the government had nothing to do with the rituals, saying the delay has to be looked into by temple administration
Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/odisha/soul-transfer-delay-turns-controversial/69996.html#BAjigFg39sp1aPWK.99
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