Puri Gajapati King Dibyasingh Deb on Monday while participating in a spiritual discourse here urged the State Government to accept Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati’s viewpoint on devotees climbing the chariots of lord Jagannath, lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra during the annual Car festival citing that climbing the chariots and touching the trinity by everybody is a ‘great sin.’ He, however, said that the restriction was not applicable in case of him, the Shankaracharya and prescribed servitors.
The Puri seer, in his report submitted to the Jagannath Temple Administration which was later forwarded to the State Government on November 7, 2013 for its approval, had categorically suggested that devotees should not be allowed to climb the chariots as “it is not prescribed in any Hindu religious scriptures.” “The Shankarcharya had cited in the report that there are no mentions in any scriptures prescribing that the devotees should touch or climb the chariots to earn blessings. He said it is against the spirit of the scriptures to climb the chariots. It’s a great sin to climb chariots during the festival,” the Gajapati King said.
He added that Shankaracharya had consulted a number of eminent seers of the country before arriving at his final version on climbing the chariots by the devotees. The Gajapati King, while advocating for doing away with the special provisions for senior Government officials, Ministers and other VIPs, stated that the Car festival was open to people of all faiths and religions. The Shankarachayra who was present at the discourse said he has not taken the decision to hurt the sentiments of crores of devotees and servitors.
“Our scriptures do not allow anyone except the servitors, the Gajapati King and the Shankarachayra to climb the chariots and touch the trinity during the Car festival,” said the Shankarachayra. Notably, it is a common sight to find that the devotees literally fight to climb on the chariots during the Car festival. Many of them pay hefty sums to a section of priests to get the opportunity. This has led to many unpleasant situations, including stampede and conflicts with the priests, in the past. Many intellectuals, seers, academicians and retired justices including Swami Sachidananda Saraswati Maharaj of Dibya Jiban Sangha Odisha, Chief of Jhanjhapita Math, Puri, Sachidananda Das Maharaj, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth Vice Chancellor Prof Harekrushna Satpathy, former DGP Gopal Nanda, retired High Court judges Justice Debapriya Mahapatra and Justice SN Naidu speaking on the occasion too unanimously backed the views of the Shankarcharya and the Gajapati King and requested the Government to accept the proposal soon.