By
Rohit Mehta
24th December, 2004
An exclusive interview with
his Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya,
Swami
Amritanand Dev Teerth Sarvaghyapeethadishwar
Maharaj. |
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His Holiness, Jagadguru Shankaracharya,
Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth
Sarvaghyapeethadishwar Maharaj,
of Kashyap Meru, Kashmir Peeth,
Srinagar, visited Delhi recently.
Nominated by the Varanasiya
Vidvat Parishad, Kashi Governing
body of the 'Shankaracharyas'
who assumed his ‘Aasan’ at
Shankaracharya Temple, Srinagar
on 13th September 2003.
He was very kind to pay a visit
to Kashmiri Samiti, Delhi, and
interact and bless the congregation.
Later in the evening, Rohit Mehta,
Editor in Chief (I.T), of Him Vikas
was honoured to get an exclusive
interview. Here are a few excerpts:
In his message, his Holiness,
stressed upon the lack of warmth,
trust and brotherhood among people
today. The main problem facing
the country, according to him,
is the lack of devotion among people.
Devotion, not only towards tradition
but also towards their situation.
This is the biggest tragedy to
hit the country and with this wave,
the character of people is slowly
and steadily declining. According
to his Holiness, wherever there
is Power, not only political power,
the top people are losing face
and trust in society and people
in general. Whatever devotion,
respect and love that people had
towards leaders has reduced. What
is the main reason for this?
The main reason is that, people
today are aware and have started
agitating. When a need arises,
using your own funds in finding
a solution, is a separate issue,
however, unnecessarily hoarding
money for future use is not good.
This causes one man to meddle with
the rights of another human being.
What funds could be spent on the
betterment of ten others, gets
stopped. This notion of money hoarding
and greed in man's nature has destroyed
his character. This is one of the
fundamental reasons that has caused
society to break up into fragments
and splinters. Newspapers on the
other hand, paint a rosy picture
contradictory to the truth.
On
being questioned about
the situation in Kashmir,
his
Holiness expressed his
views that as far as Kashmir
is
concerned, the State
has been facing many severe
problems
for the past five thousand
years. We
bore these atrocities till the
time we were under foreign rule.
In our mind, we knew that our
rulers were foreigners. |
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As
a result, we had no choice but
to comply. After independence
however, it was our firm belief
that our long cherished dreams
would finally get fulfilled.
Now, it’s our own people at the
top, our own government. India
has become free and independent.
However, sadly, the current situation
is much worse than the expectations
we had from our supposedly just
and lawful government.
He drew a similarity between the
Kashmir issue and Draupadi's never
ending assault by the Kaurvas.
Kashmir seems like a never ending
issue, he cited. It is becoming
more complicated and confusing
day by day. There are many reasons
for this confusion. Take Article
370 for example. One can see the
ill effects nationwide and in Assam,
Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura. If
Kashmir has Article 370, the people
demand that they too should get
Article 370. This is one of the
reasons for the rise in terrorism.
Whatever problems Kashmir is facing
are complicated. However, this
new scenario has further aggravated
the matter. There is open uprising
and revolt nationwide, under the
guise of Article 370.
He
was greatly disturbed by
the state of affairs in India,
especially in Kashmir where
innocent people are being
massacred in fake encounters.
He gave an example of an
innocent lady, who was hacked
to pieces in the middle of
the town. Her killers insisted
that she was a ‘spy’. |
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On
being asked if he had any other
message, his Holiness again emphasized
on the lack of warmth, trust
and brotherhood among people
“the biggest tragedy of the country.”
He went on to state that, the
most important contribution made
by the 1st Shankaracharya, was
to unite and combine the different
forms and rituals of ‘puja’ under
one form of worship, ‘Panchayatan
Puja’. (worship of the 5 deities
as one). He was instrumental
in uniting society, through worship
and wisdom.
When questioned about the political
scenario in India, he was saddened
by issues like Article 370, Ram
Mandir, Ayodhya and Himdutva in
India. He laid emphasis on the
sad fact that politicians today
only see India as a vote bank and
they do not work towards the prosperity
and betterment of India and it’s
people.
He also said that, Kashmir has
other holy places besides Mata
Vaishno Devi, which should be visited
and put on the world map.
His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya,
Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth Sarvaghyapeethadishwar
Maharaj, is the founder and sole
trustee of Vedic Vishav Kalyan
Trust, which was set up on 26th
September, 2003, for the purposes
of education, research, healthcare,
poverty alleviation, rural development,
rehabilation and social integration.
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