Lankan leaders love indian gods

BY Ananth Palakidnar - From Ceylon Today

"I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me."
- Jawaharlal Nehru

The first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru once speaking to his countrymen who were so steeped in religious beliefs and clashing over religions said, factories were the temples he worshipped.
In the late fifties when Nehru initiated the Bhakra canal project in Himachal Pradesh, which is one of the biggest canal networks in the world, he even described the project in his own words as the "new temple of resurgent India".
During the Indian independence struggle, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had to tackle the Hindu-Muslim riots and create instead the secular identity of the subcontinent.

Mahatma Gandhi during the independence struggle of India said, when he was imprisoned several times by the British and whenever he came across turbulent situations in his personal life as well as during his non violent struggle for freedom, the Hindu scripture Bhagawat Gita remained a source of strength to him.

The religious beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, despite being Hindus, were very private and they hardly visited temples or made offerings in the nature of sandalwood or gold at the places of worship in India which remain the biggest money spinners on the earth from time immemorial.

Married to Kamala Nehru, a very orthodox Indian woman, Jawaharlal Nehru, when he was in prison during the Indian independence struggle never wrote to his only child Indira asking to pray for him at temples or to perform rituals for his release.

Cambridge scholar
But the Cambridge scholar, thinking of his daughter's future,who was at that time ten years old, wrote several letters from the prison cell to her on when and how the earth was made, how animal and human life came into existence and how societies and civilizations evolved throughout the world.

Therefore, the life and times of the great Indian leaders of the calibre of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and B.R. Ambedkar – the author of the Indian Constitution, could be seen as centred around the preaching of Lord Buddha who denounced rituals and proved that human beings could enlighten themselves by wisdom and adhering to noble qualities.

Jawaharlal Nehru visited several places of worship throughout India during his tenure as Prime Minister and he concentrated more on the historical aspects and the architectural marvels of those spiritual institutions instead of making offerings or taking part in religious observances.
According to Nehru biographers, the late Indian Prime Minister was only seen taking part in a brief Hindu ceremony when he gave his daughter Indira Gandhi in marriage to Feroze Gandhi. He was hardly seen making pilgrimages or attending religious observances.

'God's own country'
It was only at the funeral of Jawaharlal Nehru that his pyre was built with tons of sandalwood for cremation. The intellectually sound Indian leader preferred to listen to one of the best brains V.K. Krishna Menon who hailed from the State of Kerala on Indian foreign relations, instead of making a pilgrimage to the Guruvayuppan shrine in the State to make the offering of sandalwood equivalent to his body weight which is an age old ritual at the shrine.
Kerala, which is known as 'God's own country' for its natural beauty has produced some of the best diplomats and intellectuals in India.

The story of late Indian President K.R.Narayanan who hailed from Kerala was somewhat similar to the life of late US President Abraham Lincoln who was known as going from 'log cabin to the White House'.
As the caste system is still practised to a great extent in Kerala, President Narayanan, born into a so called lower caste 'untouchable' family, struggled hard to come up in life. However, his brilliance in education saw him win scholarships and he even gained the opportunity of entering the London School of Economics.

A professor in political science in London Harold Laski realizing the potential of K.R.Narayanan gave him a letter on his return to India to be handed over to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
When Narayanan handed over Laski's letter to Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister had immediately employed him in the Indian Foreign Service and allowed him to be under the tutelage of veteran diplomat V.K. Krishna Menon.
Narayanan, later, in the Indian Foreign Service, served as ambassador to several countries and in 1997 he ended up as Indian President.

K.R.Narayanan, hailing from an underprivileged background from the State of Kerala didn't expect miracles to happen due to temples such as the Guruvayurappan Shrine in Kerala. Being from a lower caste Narayanan was not even permitted inside the temples. But through his own efforts he created history by becoming the President of India.

Shrines in South India
Three historic shrines for Lord Krishna remain in the South Indian States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Tirupati in the State of Andhra Pradesh remains foremost among the three South Indian temples and the shrine is popular for generating income in the form of donations in millions annually.
The second most popular abode of Lord Krishna in South India is Guruvayurappan Temple in Kerala which Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, his wife Maithree Wickremesinghe who is an academic along with Minister of Resettlement and Hindu Affairs D.M. Swaminathan visited and paid homage to the deity.

The third famous shrine for Lord Krishna in South India is Sri Rangam which is situated in the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. Known as Trichy, the temple city also remains within the constituency of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram who is currently entangled in a legal battle over corruption charges running into several millions.
The supporters of Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu perform all sorts of rituals in various temples in the State for her release from all allegations filed against her.

As far as the famous South Indian temples are concerned they are more popular with Lankan leaders, especially amongst the Sinhala Buddhist leaders who make frequent pilgrimages to those shrines.
Indian leaders of the calibre of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even other Indian politicos hardly visited Tirupati or Guruvayurappan in South India arriving all the way from North India even when they launched their election campaigns or after their victories. It is also interesting to note that Lankan Tamil political leaders, most of them being Hindus and burdened with various problems, hardly went on pilgrimages to the famous shrines in South India offering kilos of sandalwood or pouring urns of milk and honey seeking the blessings of the deities. So the recent pilgrimage by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to Guruvayurappan Shrine in the State of Kerala and Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's pilgrimage to the same shrine when he was in power along with his frequent pilgrimage to Tirupati highlights the devotion that Lankan leaders have towards the Indian Gods. Even President Maithripala Sirisena made it a point to make a pilgrimage to the Tirupati Shrine in Andhra Pradesh during his first State visit to India recently. Following the grand reception accorded to him at the Rashtrapathi Bawan in New Delhi, President Maithripala Sirisena visited Tirupati and worshipped the deity Sri Venkatesha Perumal.

President Sirisena
in Tirupati
However, when President Sirisena arrived at Tirupati Temple a month ago, the custodians of the shrine unfortunately had to break open the main door following a defect in its padlock.
The incident made one wonder whether the God of Tirupati, clueless about Lankan politics, had tried to keep away from seeing more Lankan politicians.

So when compared to the relationship the Indian and Lankan leaders of the calibre of late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was an Oxford product maintaining good rapport with his Cambridge counterpart Jawaharlal Nehru in the post independence era of both countries, or even after the strained ties that remained between the governments of Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the attitude of present day Lankan political leaders towards India seems to be more closer to the Indian Gods than to the Indian political leaders.