With the objective to show that Sanatana Dharma treated everyone as equal before God, Sri Nrusimha Vahini, a social service organisation, and the Temples Protection Movement (TPM) are planning to conduct ‘Munivahana Utsavam’ in Bhadrachalam on February 11.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, Chilkur Balaji temple chief priest C.S. Rangarajan from Hyderabad and Krishna Chaitanya of Sri Nrusimha Vahini highlighted the significance of the ‘Munivahana Utsavam’.
Mr Rangarajan arrived in the temple town to participate in the five-day Bhakta Ramadasu jayanti celebrations beginning on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, he attended a ceremony held in connection with offering of a book titled ‘Bhadrachala Panchashat’ containing 50 slokas in Sanskrit, written by Srinidhi Swamy, at the feet of the presiding deity of the historic Sri Sitaramachandra Swamy temple.
Addressing mediapersons, Mr Rangarajan explained the history of the Munivahana Utsavam. It was nearly 2,700 years ago that Tiruppanalwar, born into a ‘lower caste’, was carried from the banks of the river Cauvery into the Srirangam Ranganatha Swamy temple by a priest, which was hailed then as Munivahana Utsavam, he noted.
In the present circumstances when discrimination in the name of caste and class is rampant, the same scene was enacted recently in Hyderabad, he said. Narrating his own experience of carrying a Dalit devotee into the Ranganatha Swamy temple in Jiyaguda, he said he considered the devotee as the holy Tiruppanalwar himself. It coincided with the millennial celebrations of appearance of Sri Bhagawad Ramanuja, who had fought for a casteless and egalitarian society, he said.
