Lord Krishna Temple at Guruvayur, a shrine dating back to thousands of years is enmeshed in controversies and the State’s leading Vedic scholars have called for convening a colloquium of Vedic, astronomic and astrology scholars.
Inauspicious developments that took place in the temple during the last few years, including the untimely demises of Chennas Narayanan Namboodiripad, the revered chief priest (Thanthri) of the temple and Kaimukku Raman Akkithirippadu, Vedic and Yaga scholar of repute have upset the Vedic community and devotees, according to Kakkassery Raveendranatha Panicker, lead astronomer and astrologer.
Akkithirippadu is the first scholar in India to forecast about the Covid-19 pandemic way back in 2017 itself. It was during an Ashtamangala Prasnam (a field of Vedic astrology) at Guruvayur Temple in 2017 that Akkithirippadu prophesized the outbreak of the global pandemic anytime in 2019 and the death of millions of people.
Though it was decided in the 2017 colloquium to hold another Ashtamangala Prasnam, Akkithirippadu had told the gathering that he was unlikely to attend the event for reasons which were beyond his control. The scholar breathed his last on June 1, 2021 due to pneumonia.
“Many inauspicious incidents have taken place causing apprehension among the vedic scholars associated with the temple. There was a fire mishap in the prayer room of the chief priest, a fire at the temple premises (Thidappalli), two junior priests suffering burns by falling into the offerings meant for the presiding deity, the sacred dome atop the temple arch falling down without any reason are some of the events haunting the devotees as well as the acharya sabha,” Panickar told The Pioneer.
Vedic scholars including M P Vijeesh Panickar ( chairman, Kerala State Jyothisha Sabha), Moolayil Manoj Panickar (secretary), and other scholars too have come out in support of the demand by Ravindranathan Panickar, popularly known as Kakkasery Panickar.
They pointed out that 26 out of the 70 temple elephants in the Guruvayur Temple elephant estate died under mysterious conditions during the last 16 years.
“One of the temple elephants, described as the lead elephant, was electrocuted and the tree to which it was tied was completely charred,” said Ravindranathan Panickar.
Other scholars like Mithun and Chandran said that the junior priests of the temple fell down from top of the elephants while they were taking part in the daily sacred procession. “These are omens or harbingers of untoward events that are likely to hit the State. Kerala is witnessing the worst ever phase in its history,” said Mithun Panickar.
The Vedic scholars are of the view that an Ashtamangala Prasnam under the leadership of Parappanangadi Unnikrishnan Panickar should be held immediately to find out the root cause of the inauspicious developments happening in and around the temple.
Ashtamangalam is the collection of eight auspicious materials, that include flowers, grains, gold coin, fruits, betel leaves, mirror, cloth, lamp and saffron. The chief of the Prashnam elucidates the observations to explain what was in the mind of the Lord. “It is an integration of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, nature, and behavior patterns that give out the results,” said Raveendran Panickar. More than 50,000 people from all over India visit the temple on a daily basis to pay their obeisance to Lord Krishna, the presiding deity. Though the temple management remained tight lipped about the demand by the scholars, many of them agreed in private that all was not well with the temple affairs.