Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
With the help of caste-supremacists in administration, Sankaracharya and his troop stepped on the bath podium of SriJagannatha on Snana Yatra. But except posing for the TV cameras, he had no business to perform in the podium.
When the State is run by a chief minister who does not know the history of her social evolution and of how and why Buddha became Jagannatha, administration is bound to bow down to religious chauvinism; and that happened.
Adi Sankara had established Gobardhana Matha with the sole villainous purpose to train the Brahmins how to vitiate the Bouddha-Vajrayanic worship of Jagannatha with Brahminic worship system. For this, the Brahmins were being trained in the Gobarddhana Matha by Sankaracharya.
Through impudence the Brahmins were trying to impose the Vedic system of worship in Sri Jagannatha temple. To confuse the people scriptures were created to say that SriJagannatha’s worship should be performed not only in the method of Bouddha Tantra, but also by using Vedic Mantras. Verses, such as “Amnayagamavedaya Shuddha Buddhaye Te Namah” were used to justify transgression of Vedic system into the Buddhist system of Jagannatha.
As Adi Sankara was stressing upon Govinda, with the help of the patron kings of Brhminism like Purusottama Dev, attempts were made to transform Jagannatha to Gopal Krushna and, to people of Orissa to whom Jagannatha was Kali (Nilardrou SriJagannatha Sakshat Dekshina Kalika), Sanskrit verses were created to convince the people that Dakshina Kalika is non but Krushna; such as Kalou Kali Kalou Krushna Kalou Gopala Kalika (In Kaliyuga, the redeemer is Kali who is also Krushna and Gopal who is Krushna is none but Kali) and against such shrewdly created confusion, VijaMantra (preamble of worship) with which Jagannatha was to be invoked was made pregnant with Brahminic mischief such as “Om Gopijana Ballavaya Namah” and when people sternly protested, it was amended to “Om Klim Krushnaya Govindaya Gopijana Ballavaya Namah” thereby showing the people that “Klim” representing Kali is also Krushna, Govinda, Gopijana ballava” whom worship was being offered.
Such acts of impudence and tricks were being taught to the Brahmins in the Gobarddhana Matha of Sankaracharya.
People had revolted against this and partially succeeded as a result of which the Sankaracharya’s role as trainer of the Brahmins had been done away with.
Under consistent protest of the people of Orissa, Sankaracharya had been divested of whatever role he was having in worship of Jagannatha.
We gather it Prof. K. C. Mishra, who in his famous book Cult Of Jagannatha has noted,
“The priests of Jaganntha temple learn the art of ritualistic worship from this Matha (Sankaracharya Matha). That is, this Matha is responsible for the education and training of the priests in respect of worship to the deities. After obtaining sufficient training at this Matha certificates are issued to the priests. They are then, by an order of the king, entitled to enter into the priesthood. The system is no longer in vogue in the temple” (Cult of Jagannatha, Firma: K. L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta, 1971, p. 125)
Thus, Sankaracharya has no role in Jagannatha temple. Nowhere in the Satwalipi (The Deed of Right), has he been allotted with any service in the Jagannatha temple. The High Court verdict he has been citing to transgress into Jagannatha system has no relevance to his self-proclaimed authority on Jagannatha.
The judgment has not gone into social history of Orissa that has brilliantly recorded the deracination of the statues of Adi Sankara and his first chela Sankara from the Ratnasinghasana of Jagannatha by the people of Orissa in the regime of Divya Singha Dev in late 1700s. The judges have not reflected in their verdict any view on whether or not SriJagannatha is Buddha and whether or not Buddhism and Hinduism are different. The said Judgement is an instance of non-application of mind to the real issue of whether or not Sankaracharya has a specific role in affairs of Jagannatha that would entitle him to the privilege he has been claiming. The said Judgment is a judicial intervention in religious matters that supported Vedic religion oblivious of how would it affect the Bouddha Tantric / Savara Tantric heritage of Jagannatha.
However, it is seen by all, that, despite invitation generated by the caste supremacists, the Jagannatha system has not allowed Sankaracharya to perform any service on the Snana Mandap yesterday except he and his troop posing for the TV cameras to show how impudence become a religious achievement by the standard of Sankaracharya.
In allowing him to step on to the Snana Mandap with religious egoistic fanfare, the temple administration has cooperated with his impudence, to the detriment of the uniqueness of Buddha, the son of the soil of Orissa, being worshiped as Jagannatha.