Sanyasini Uma Bharati runs into Trouble at Puri Jagannath Temple

BY: DEBABRATA MOHAPATRA

May 14, JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — Sanyasini's conflict highlights the need for devotees to understand the rules at Puri temple before entering.

The self-declared Sanyasini, a devout and famous firebrand political leader, Uma Bharati created a flutter at Puri Jagannath Temple today by taking a pillow with her into the world famous 12th century shrine. Priests were fumed as to how a character like Uma, who is a staunch believer of God, could flout a shrine norm.

According to sources, cops deployed at the entrance point resisted Uma’s private security officers, preventing t hem from taking the pillow and weapons (guns) into the shrine, as it is prohibited here. That led to a fleeting scuffle between Uma’s security guards and temple police, with the former finally agreeing to keep their weapons outside. But they took the pillow inside the temple saying “iska didiko bahut jarurat hai, kyun ke woh bimar hai” ("Didi wants the pillow because she is having back pain").

“How can someone take bed-pillows into a temple? It is disgusting. Despite being requested not to take it, the security guards of Uma Bharati took the pillow for her into the temple. She has not only violated the temple norm, but also hurt the religious sentiments of priests,” said Bhatruhari Pujapanda, a temple priest.

Uma, the National President of the Bharatiya Jana Shakti party, admitted her ‘religious’ blunder and begged apology to the priests as soon as she came out of the temple. “I sincerely and heartily begged pardon to the priests inside the temple, who objected seeing the pillow with me. Since I have pain on my waist, I took the pillow to lean on it while offering puja. But I did not sit on the pillow. I sat on the floor and offered puja,” Uma clarified when asked by this correspondent outside the temple. Uma spent nearly 30 minutes chanting hymns inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Jagannath Temple. She also visited the other sub-shrines inside the Jagannath Temple precinct and paid her humble obeisances.

However, much before she found herself in the unprecedented situation at the temple, she had enjoyed the sand and surf at the Puri beach after arriving at the beach town again after a lapse of three months. She had come to the city in January this year. Uma alongside her party workers, including women activists and security men, took bath in the Bay for nearly half an hour. “Sea bath was not in her itinerary. She showed her zeal to go for a bath when she saw the sprawling sea from the balcony of the hotel she was staying in,” said a party worker. After the sea bath, Uma confined herself in her room and was busy worshipping (for nearly 20 minutes) a miniature Lord Krishna idol she was carrying in her hand all along.

“Uma Bharati performs puja to Lord Krishna everyday. She is very religious by nature. She came to Orissa specially to make strategies for her political party’s growth in the state. But she preferred to visit Puri as it is a very hallowed land,” said a source.