YAD YADACHARIT SHRESHTHSTYWDEVETARO JAN;
S YATPRMANAMN KURUTE LOKSTDNUAIWARTATE.
*****SRIMAD BHAGWAT GITA(CHAPER THREE TEXT 21}
(Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow.And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues)
This text of Gita aptly describes the discovery of treasures in Shree Padmanabhaswamy temple (important Vishnu shrines) in Kerala. It is not surprising but a reality how these hidden wealth in hundreds crores of rupees were safe even after a lot of moral degeneration among people in India-(Where money and wealth minting have become order of the day among people of all sections).We must congratulate and praise the successive rulers of Trabancore Cochin and temple management committee as well as people of Kerala for keeping such huge wealth for hundreds of years in safe custody. One must not dispute over the actual ownership of such huge wealth! But think and feel about the presence of Almighty in this critical hour where we Indians have gone decadent for enlightened self-interest! In this connection I must praise the present Kerala government, which has declared that huge wealth belongs to temple and the government would and is providing all securities to keep the huge wealth in proper condition in the temple complex itself.Padmanabhaswamy temple of Almighty Vishnu, the supreme God, is a symbol of Indian culture and has great religious,archaeological and historical importance, according to the CM of Kerala Oomen Chandy.
Interestingly, when we compare the temples of different gods and Goddesses in different parts of the country specially in north, east and central India, we seldom finds such huge treasures notwithstanding lakhs of devouts visit then regularly and make huge offerings! In many cases, temple property is gobbled up grabbed and siphoned off by priests and management trustees of these temples. Mismanagement galore are there in almost all the temples. Loard Venketesh temple in Andhara and Shirdi Baba temple in Maharashtra are well managed. Such is not the case in even Vaishno Devi temple in Kashmir wheres crores of devout pray every years ! There are many miserable tales of temple management in central, east and north India where the so called service of Almighty has no meanings for priests and management committees of famous temples and shrines of religious importance. You will fuind there that priests are more active in fleecing devouts instead of accumulating the wealth offerings to the respective God and Goddesses. Some bitter experiences, you will, find in Baidyanath Dham temple, in Deoghar under Jharkhand state. Huge offerings are made but something tangible is yet to made to renovate temple and show on records the huge wealth donated by devouts. Even Ram Krishna Asharam managed temple of Goddess Dakshnishwar Kali has similar tales. In all these places devout are discouragee devout to offer donations or offerings in sealed cover kept in the respective temple premises.These eyewitness account some time hurt and disappoint men like me how we have been morally degenerated.Even the governments under the respective religious deities have failed to curb such menace and temples of God and Godesses remain fund crunched although crores of people visit yearly and made offerings to the temple deities!
The story of Padmanabhaswamy is different where honesty and pure love for Almighty exists. The entire huge Sree Padamanabhaswamy temple has beautiful scenic surroundings and huge complex, located in the main hub of city-the capital of Kerala. the temple has huge granite walls.Temple is hub of activities for devouts right from morning to evening.Records of temples showed huge offerings by devouts and successive rulers of Travancore in the last hundreds of years.It has also huge track of lands, farm lands etc right from AD117. Gold, silver, vessels, pooja utensils are many many and much and much! It has huge statue of Almighty Vishnu of solid shape in Gold. According to a Madras based fortnightly-Frontline; there are records of kings of Tranvancore had borrowed funds from temple during crisis. But of course the kings repaid the loans promptly.
There are many mysteries when the underground vaults were constructed inside the temple. Vaults have not been unlocked for more than century. The first renovation of the temple was done in by Bhasshkara Ravi Varma, a Chera king of in AD1050! There are many such examples of renovation and percolating of huge wealth in the temples in hundreds of years. So far it is said that under the directives of the Supreme Court five vaults have been opened and after inventory sealed. Ant it is said that wealth in the shape of gold, diamonds, other valuable stones, gold coins and other invaluable precious metals, worth over Rs 100 crores have been discovered-one vault , said to be oldest and having many more huge wealth is yet to be opened. Interestingly, the present successor of erstwhile Travancore rulers have not claimed the wealth but has said that it all belongs to Almighty Vishnu.Systematically, the Vishnu shrine in Kerala is being managed. There are records that compound wall of the temple was perhaps built in AD 1425. There is urgent need in the temple to decipher temple's achieves for more light on Padmanabhaswamy temple so that it could throw light on antique value of all treasures found in the temple vaults.
Apart from that the temple management committee must be backed up with full research teams to study more and more about temple treasures in such huge amount not heard and seen India. There may be one things many temples, specially in north , east and central India have been looted and plundered by successive invaders in over thousands of years. At the same time invaders might not have reached the southern parts of the country because of presence of strong rulers and peoples' resistance and they could not succeed in robbing and plundering these deities in south India. Pages of history three enough light on this aspects! It also point out that Dravidian, and aboriginals were real inhabitants of Hindustan or Bharatvarsh instead of so called Aryan in north, central, eastern India.
Last but not the least Padmanabhaswamy temple of Lord Vishnu and its thousands of crores of huge wealth must be declared as a legacy of our society. Nobody even government must not succumb to the pressure of people for using it for public purposes. I agree with the contention of eminent historian K N Panikkar. He had rightly said that all that the kings of Travancore received belonged to the deity, to Sree Padamnabha because the kings used to consider themselves das (servant) of the deity. All these huge wealth must be kept in the museum-these are public property as these precious things must had been purchased by Travancore kings for deity from the revenue collected by citizens of the kingdom! Pannikar has given a very good suggestion-as it happened in many other countries in the globe, the entire huge wealth must be preserved as legacy of our society. These must be lodged in a museum as the treasures of many empires are of the world are kept like that. Technically and legally the huge wealth of temple unearthed and over 100 years old, the treasure will go to the government and through government to the Archaeological Survey of India . There must be a trust of experts in museology, preservation, valuation and so on such museum of such huge wealth of Padmanbhaswamy deity should be kept in a newly created museum, mainly for preserving our culture and glorious history.
My respectful sharnagat to Loard Vishnu deity in the form of Padmanabhaswamy.
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