Debate for God: Saibaba denied deification
Saibaba devotees heckled at the religious meet
Update: 2014-08-26 04:55 GMT
Raipur: The two-day ‘Dharma Sansad’ (religious parliament), a Hindu meet convened by Dwarka peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati at Kawardha in Chhattisgarh, on Monday passed seven resolutions including the one in which it rejected deification of Saibaba, amid protests by devotees of presiding deity of the Shiridi temple.
A resolution passed by the conclave declared that the religious parliament “cannot accept Saibaba as God, Guru (teacher), or santh (saint).”
The religious meet, which concluded on Monday, witnessed high drama when followers of the Dwarka Seer heckled two devotees of Saibaba, who wanted to put forth their views at the meet.
The atmosphere in the conclave was surcharged when the two Saibaba devotees, defending deification of their deity, contended that Hindu religion allows its followers to worship whichever God they wished and pleaded the religious leaders to restrain from attacking the lord of Shiridi temple.
The devotees said that Hindu religion would lose its distinct identity if the followers would be deprived of choosing their Gods.
“I am a devotee of Saibaba and would continue to worship him whatever be the decision emerged at the meet,” one of the Shiridi devotees said. This provoked a section of followers of the seer to manhandle the two devotees. However, the situation was brought under control following intervention by the seer himself as well the police.
The other resolutions passed by the 19 th ‘Dharma Sansad’ opposes construction of dams on river Ganga, protection of cows, construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, and inclusion of Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in school curriculum.