Indian Gods and Lankan Leaders – Upul Joseph Fernando

25/04/2015

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who made a sudden visit to Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple in India last week made an offering of 77 kilos of sandalwood.

Mahinda also visited this Temple after his 2005 presidential victory and got onto a weighing machine. That photograph went viral on the electronic media.

Ranil visited the historic Temple at a time the 19th Amendment was to be passed in Parliament. It was not clear whether he went to make an offering to obtain the blessings of Lord Sri Krishna to get the 19th Amendment passed without problems. Mahinda Rajapaksa also visited Kovils and Temples in India during the previous regime. He even sought security from the Indian Government to visit Kovils and Temples in Tamil Nadu amidst stiff opposition to him in that State. Having submitted nominations for the January presidential election, Mahinda visited temples there to seek the blessings to win the election. But he lost.

Ranil too, visited India to worship temples after the last presidential election was announced. Whenever, he met resistance within his own party, Ranil always went to India to seek blessings. Hence, Ranil may believe that the Gods helped him to protect his party leadership and also become Prime Minister after Maithri won the presidential election.

Those who are opposed to Mahinda, Ranil and other prominent politicians who visited India for blessings say the Gods never favoured these Sri Lankan politicians. These segments in Tamil Nadu protested in public stating that these Sri Lankan leaders ignored the Tamils during the war period. They continued to display their dissatisfaction over these Sri Lankan leaders who visited Tamil Nadu and India to obtain blessings of the Gods.

Slain LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran’s biography noted that he too, was a devotee of Meenakshi God’s temple. He had also embraced Lord Murugan with much faith. The biography states that, while Prabhakaran hid in India to evade arrest here, he had regularly visited the Temple of Lord Murugan. The media reported that whenever Mahinda went to India to seek blessings of Gods, he too visited Lord Murugan’s Temple to obtain blessings. Though Mahinda and Prabhakaran sought the help of Lord Murugan to win the war, it appeared that Lord Murugan gave an ear to the plea of Mahinda. LTTE literature states that during the war period, the LTTE offered animals to Mother Kaali as sacrifices. That had been performed as a ritual before every LTTE operation against the armed forces. It is not clear whether Mahinda banned sacrifice of animals in Kaali Kovils in the South as a response to Prabhakaran’s actions.

Yaaga Pooja
Former Minister Mervyn Silva took the lead in the direction to halt animal sacrifices at Kaali Kovils. It is learnt that astrologers have told Mahinda that his defeat at the presidential election was caused by the decision to halt animal sacrifices at Kovils of Mother Kaali. It is revealed that Mahinda had visited the Mother Kaali’s kovil at Munneswaran in the wee hours recently to perform a Yaaga Pooja. Mahinda who never stepped into a Kovil of Mother Kaali as President has suddenly thought of Mother Kaali after the defeat. Usually the people in the North and East have faith in Hindu Gods. Hinduism is their religion. During the protracted war period they would have prayed to those Gods about their sad plight because they had faith to obtain relief. If the Sri Lankan leaders could offer solutions to the grievances of these Tamils, they need not go to India for blessings from Indian temples.

If they resolve those grievances, those Gods would naturally bless these leaders in addition to assistance from Indian leaders in New Delhi.

When Ranil halted the war in 2002 through the ceasefire agreement, Indian astrologers claimed that Ranil collected much merit through that act. But within a brief period, Ranil lost his premiership. After twelve long years he has assumed office as Prime Minister again. It would have been better if the weight of the Tamil problems was heavier to Ranil than the 77 kilos of sandalwood he offered at the Guruvayur Temple.

(photo: The Hindu)

- Ceylon Today