September 19, 2010
Seer's Padyatra to Dalit colony to prevent religious conversions
By R Guru Prasad, Bengaluru
SHRI Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji, the seer of Pejavara Adhokshaja
Mutha, Udupi, has set an example by choosing a divine route to
preserve Hindu culture and nurture spirituality and harmony among all
the sections of the society. He was in Mysore observing a 72nd
chaturmasya vrata and visited Devaraj Urs Colony slum predominated by
pourakarmikas (Sweepers) on August 27.
His visit brought a festive mood in the entire locality and dalits
extended a warm reception to him by cleaning the roads, adorning with
rangolis and flower decorations. This is the first time a religious
leader has visited their houses and women in traditional saree, men in
dhoti and children in the colony showered rose petals on him. The
seer's visit aimed at ensuring social harmony and protecting Hindu
Dharma is considered to be a magic weapon to stop religious
conversions and encourage dalit communities to join the mainstream.
Before addressing a meeting at the Pattaaladamma temple premises and
worshipping Godess in the locality, he went inside the dalit's houses
belonging to Kuppuswamy, Subramani, Mara and others to lit an oil lamp
in the small pooja altar in a corner of their tiny houses and offered
them prasadam.
He later said he is ready to offer Vaishnava Deeksha (initiation into
Vaishnawa way of life) to dalits in order to shun dangerous practice
of untouchability which is the root cause for the exploitation in
Hinduism. He told them to continue worship Hindu Gods, follow the
rituals, mass pooja prayers and all sections of the Hindu society will
not refer to them as dalits any more. He assured them that he will go
on a hunger strike as a token of protest and come to their rescue
whenever they face any hurdle from the rest of the society. Dalit
leaders expressed gratitude for the Swami's padayatra and said they
are extremely happy to hear from him that a Hindu should not
discriminate against another Hindu.
Swamiji while addressing a media on September 5, said he will keep a
week's time every month in future to visit dalit colonies across
Karnataka to create a favourable atmosphere for them to stay back in
the Hindu culture and not to get converted to other religions. He said
soon after his Chaturmasya vrata he will go on a 'Spiritual
Padayathra' in all taluks, villages and towns in the State and try to
ensure that dalits can enter any temples of their chice by removing
the existing restrictions for them at few temple. His future
padayatra's is aimed at becoming a platform for canvassing Hindu
Dharma by teaching basic principles of Hinduism, educating them about
religious practices (Dharma Sanskaras), organising camps of all
sections of the society, distributing books , arranging bhajans and
cultural programmes and creating brotherlyhood. It can be recalled
that few Hindu temples had banned dalits entering into their premises
and this provoked them to leave the Hindu religion and other religions
took this opportunity to get them converted into their religions by
offering monetary benefits and social status.
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