The temple, the trust, and the test of faith

MR Lalu

A magnificent temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram was a cherished dream of devotees across the world. They waited for centuries, enduring numerous legal hurdles before that dream was finally realized.  Hindus in India could have attempted to pursue their long-cherished aspiration through extra-legal means, which might have led to greater conflict and instability. Instead, they chose to place their faith in the judicial process. Although it took much longer, the legal route ultimately paved the way for the construction of the temple. Except for the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya, all issues connected with the Ram Temple were settled through India’s robust judicial intervention.

For the BJP, under the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the temple’s construction and its inauguration came as the fulfillment of a well-settled promise. The party, from the very beginning of its growth, understood the significance that the Ayodhya dispute continued to hold, for that was the subject it believed would catapult its prospects, giving it a space in India’s political spectrum, which was largely dominated by the Congress and its allies. As the first party to enter the political arena supporting the Hindu cause, the BJP grabbed global attention, and the destruction of the disputed structure in 1992 became a subject of serious admonishment and disapproval. It was almost from there that the BJP began to make inroads as a national party, winning election after election, and its prospects never dwindled in terms of its political representation in Parliament.

The rise of Modi changed everything, from the electoral dynamics to the coalition calculations. Above all, the spiritual renaissance of the Hindus through an unprecedented political upswing was a rare phenomenon. The history of Hindus is the history of spiritual incarnations that come and pull them out of cultural distortions and civilizational decline. Such was the impact of Swami Vivekananda on Hindu society in the last century. For the first time, India witnessed a similar churn. This time, it was Modi. His intervention was unique, a political one that appeared to have been awaited by the majority.

The settlement of the Ayodhya dispute through a judicial process and the magnificent temple built at the Lord’s birthplace were not only a historic turning point but were also assumed to be the strongest foundation for the political revival of the Hindu majority in India, which is expected to continue for many more years. The world witnessed Narendra Modi inaugurating the Ram Temple amid criticisms flung from different corners. The hasty manner in which the event was conducted was viewed as a hurried and exaggerated effort by the government to ensure that its most important spiritual promise was fulfilled well before the general elections in May 2024. But, when viewed through an electoral lens, the most staggering reality was that neither the temple nor the spiritual churn its inauguration triggered put the BJP in an advantageous position.

The Modi government, in its third consecutive term, fell short of a clear majority. Much had been speculated before the elections arrived: a massive victory with an even more humongous margin that would clearly surpass its previous records. The results were essentially a political catastrophe that dismantled the previous Modi mandate.

Today, as the temple theft within two years of the grand inauguration has surfaced, devotees are forced to fall into gloom, and a steady swish of discontent is taking hold across the political horizon. For Modi’s political opposition, this has been a magic wand that they could swing vigorously with the grand expectation of dismantling all that they have been afraid of – his popularity. At least a fraction of it, they expect, would suffer damage because of this new tumult.

A sudden surge of Ram Bhakti among the leaders of the opposition is an opportunistic move. Especially among the rank and file of the Congress, the party that questioned the existence of Lord Ram through an affidavit in September 2007, which stated, “No historical or scientific evidence exists for Lord Ram as a historical person.” The party that had distanced itself from the grand temple inauguration, citing multiple reasons, has now turned out to become a devotee.

The most aggressive and inexcusable part of the allegations has been leveled against some of the RSS functionaries in the temple trust. It was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad that launched a nationwide agitation for the temple’s construction in 1984. The BJP, with L.K. Advani entering the fray, was a passenger hurriedly rushing into a moving train.

Now, the scenario is more radical in terms of the criticisms that have been aired by the political opposition, especially with the most important Uttar Pradesh elections in the offing. Undoubtedly, the Ram Temple’s facing this disconsolate situation within a short period of its inauguration points to administrative lacunae in the temple’s management.

A similar crisis emerged in the world-famous Sabarimala Temple in Kerala. The temple theft and the alleged embezzlement brought unease to millions of devotees, and the state government, then under Pinarayi Vijayan, was questioned over the involvement of party functionaries in the misappropriation of temple gold and forgery. The investigation, now under the Congress led UDF government, is still accused of progressing at a slow pace.

Both the temple theft cases in Ayodhya and Sabarimala fall within a political ambit. In Kerala, the BJP vociferously criticised the state government over its alleged conspiracy to shake the people’s faith, while the BJP in Ayodhya, with its firebrand leader Yogi Adityanath bulldozing the corrupt, is now facing a stark reality that is truly bitter.

The saffron party, having been instrumental in the temple’s manifestation into its present landmark spiritual momentum, now finds that the theft and the subsequent allegations involving members from the Sangh Parivar carry underlying political consequences. This could have been avoided if the temple trust had understood the immensity of the faith and the momentum that the Ram Temple had generated.

A devotee makes generous donations to temples as part of his spiritual standing. A daan made out of his earnest faith in the deity belongs to the Lord. This has been the custom, though it contradicts what Lord Krishna told Arjuna on the battlefield. What makes a true devotee? A true devotee, the Lord says, ‘qualifies for my blessings even if he offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or a little water with complete shraddha’. It is not the size or value of the offering that gets registered with the Lord; what matters is the devotion. That makes even the most menial things the Lord’s most favorite. This is the basic ethos on which the institution called devotion stands in Hinduism and to shake it is literally the most appalling move.

(Author is freelance journalist and social worker based in Kerala. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author.)