Hyderabad: Chief Priest of Chilkur Balaji Temple CS Rangarajan appreciates and thanks to the Apex Court on behalf of Crores of Devotees for allowing the Puri Jagannath Rath Yatra with the necessary COVID 19 precautions. The efforts of Indic Collective need special mention here.
This decision reiterates the Rights of the Temple Deities which are enshrined in Article 26 of our Constitution. This is the reason why we have been asking for Citizenship rights to our Deities.
The COVID 19 epidemic had the Courts intervening during the Migrant worker’s crisis, specific rights of patients during the treatments in the Hospitals. The first time the Apex Court has retracted its order in a short span of time acceding to the disappointment and huge outcry against the Courts intervening in such traditions.
The Public Interest Litigation route has been used against Sabarimala and other ancient temple festivals and the Courts should be wary of such attempts.
Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra has been a constant traditional practice at Puri and was conducted even during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised hurdles, following the ‘stay’ order for the Rath Yatra in Puri. Following this, the chief hereditary servitor of the Lord Shri Jagannath temple, Pattajoshi Mohapatra moved the Supreme Court in a fresh application for recall of its order dated June 18.
Notably, para 4 of the affidavit filed by Principal Resident Commissioner of the Odisha government states that if the Rath Yatra is confined to Puri alone without public attendance as proposed by Gajapati Maharaj of Puri and the chairman of the Puri Jagannath temple administration, the state government will make all necessary arrangements to conduct the Rath Yatra accordingly.
A fresh application on Friday night was moved by The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee and the servitors of the 12th-century shrine, a news agency.
The application urged the Odisha government to file a fresh application before the apex court and seek a modification of its order which stayed the temple’s much-revered annual chariot festival in Puri in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Rath Yatra is an essential, mandatory and integral religious practice with scriptural sanction dating back to the Skanda Purana and is protected by the Constitution of India as per Articles 25, 26, 27.
Unlike the Rath Yatras of other deities of other temples elsewhere, where only the Utsava Murtis are taken outside the temple, in the case of Shri Jagannath Temple, the main deities being Lord Jagannatha, Balabhadra and Subhadra themselves move out of the mandir. This temple practice establishes the very essence of this Rath Yatra and how it is linked to an unbroken temple tradition that is deemed as mandatory, unique, and integral as part of the shrine’s essential practice.
Scriptural evidence of Jagannath Rath Yatra being mandatory.
The application moved before the Supreme Court also points out that the practice has been recorded in the Skanda Purana and the Niladri Mahodaya. These references indicate the significance of the Rath Yatra and points out that any interruption in its observance affects the temple’s sanctity as well as that of its future rituals.
We request early delivery of the Judgement of Shri Padmanabha Swamy Temple case which is pending for more than one year. (NSS)
