Sivagiri: A day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that there would not have been a war had Narayana Guru's teaching reached Palestine, union minister V Muraleedharan criticised him saying even Kerala has ignored Guru. He said there were concerted efforts to instil misconceptions about saffron among Guru's disciples.
Pinrayi made the remark at the inauguration of the 91st Sivagiri pilgrimage. Attacking the chief minister, the minister for state for external affairs said the sage's teaching was forgotten in his own land. "Forget Palestine, is it possible to implement the Guru's teaching at his birthplace? In the land where the Guru taught us not to harm even an ant, a man smashing another person's head with a plant pot is described as a life-saving act. Those who claim they follow the sage's teaching, cannot condone the acts of violence against unarmed men," he said in an apparent reference to the ruckus seen during the Nava Kerala Sadas.
"Guru did not teach blasphemy. He tried to bring about positive changes when there were deviations in the Sanatana tradition to which he was born. How do those who say Ganesha was a myth, view Guru who wrote a hymn about Vighneshwar? Some have assumed that Sanatana Dharma is nothing more than pouring lead into the ear of a Shudra (lower caste)," he said.
"Some say he had thought of not using a saffron robe as it belonged to a certain religion. But Guru went to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) wearing a 'kashaya' (saffron) dress. How did that happen? Even the monks of Sivagiri, who follow in the footsteps of Guru, wear saffron." Muralidharan also said that some people are trying to instil misconceptions about saffron in the minds of Guru's disciples.
