Karnataka: Government circular for performing rituals in Hindu temples

The Hindu
27 January 2009


Eclipse: Minister orders special poojas

Bageshree S.

Bangalore: Temples in Karnataka were ordered in a circular to “ward off severe ill-effects” of the solar eclipse — the event coincided with Republic Day — by no less an authority than the State government. In a first-of-its-kind circular issued by the government last week, all temples were directed to perform special poojas or religious rituals immediately after the solar eclipse.

In accordance with Hindu traditions, temples usually do perform special rituals on an eclipse day. However, now the government issued an official circular “as per the suggestions of Aagama pandits” to perform Mrityunjaya Japa, Mrityunjaya Havana, Udaka Shanti Padhatana and Nakshatra Havana. It stated that the ritual would ensure the “safety of the people of State and the general good of the State.”

Muzrai and Housing Minister B.N. Krishnaiah Shetty, who signed this circular, defended it as an effort to “create awareness” of the eclipse in all temples, including those in small villages “because the position of stars is not auspicious” for the State. “Big temples in towns perform poojas. The circular will ensure that it is done in smaller villages also,” he told The Hindu.

Asked if a circular of this kind from the government would send the wrong signals — perpetuating superstition as against cultivating the scientific temper — he said: “I am acting as a Muzrai Minister whose responsibility are the temples and affairs related to them. You could have found fault with me if I were a Science and Technology Minister.” He added that the money for the poojas came from the money donated by the devotees to the hundi and no special allocation was made by the government.

Reacting to the circular, Narendra Naik, president, Federation of Indian Rationalists Associations, said it was “not right” on the part of the government to worry about celestial occurrences such as the solar eclipse. It should concern itself with “things for which it is elected to power” such as providing corruption-free governance. He said people should to “go about their life in a manner that is good to themselves and those around them, with or without eclipse.”