Swami Saranam!
That could roughly translate as 'the Lord is our sanctuary'. It is the loud invocation that traditionally reverberates on the trails to Sabarimala, the famous hill temple of Kerala, that ended up inthe news last week for the wrong reasons. It could also be our cry when we witness the decades-long apathy of the Devaswom Board, the body vested with the responsibility of admininstering the Hindu temples of Kerala, (and surely administration includes the 'administration' of the considerable inflow of funds too) and the Government --only the Lord can save us from them both.
The Police and the Forests departments are engaged in a blame game now, targeting each other. And the God's own Board will put the blame squrely on the others in all likelihood. I gather there is a Vigilance department enquiry afoot, and later there could be perhaps one by a judge, sitting or otherwise. It does not take a degree in rocket science to predict what the outcome of the probes would be about what caused the tragedy--huge, unruly crowds, panic, stampede, maybe a wee bit of a laxity on the part of the police or forests departments etc etc.
On second thoughts, to many it looks like a classic case of greedy, fraudulent oversell.
The common factor in last week's needless tragedy (in which more than 100 pilgrims lost their lives and hundreds were injured) and the one in 1999 (when the death tally was about 50 plus, and the injured topped a hundred plus) is what is called the 'Makara Jyothi'. Pilgrims, mostly from the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Karnataka, are eager to witness the 'jyothi' at any cost, as for them that is as good as a personal encounter with their favourite Lord Ayyappa. Their Keralite brethren are not very much behind them, though there could be a fair number of sceptics. "Bhakti' is a strange and a heady thing, but we all agree that faith is best left to individual preferences.
Being one of the old school, I chose to consult some old timers, some of them long enough in their teeth to 'hit a century'. (Googling for Makara Jyothi and related topics would be an eye-opener!) What I learned was that in the early decades of the 20th C, when Sabarimala was not as heavily "pilgrimmed" as it is now, was closely connected with tribal observances. One of them was the lighting of three fires to represent the triumvirate of Gods -- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Siva). And this was done by the tribals of the Kantamala hills (Ponnambalamedu, the seat of the Jyothi, is on these hills) on the Makara Sankranthi day. Sankranthi is an occasion marked by festivals all over the Indian sub-continent. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti ) It is perhaps the most important day for pilgrims to Sabarimala too. In those olden days, if you were lucky and if you had good eyesight (the forests were thick and heavy mist would envelope the hills by sundown), you could catch a glimpse of the 'aarathi' done by the tribals in the far off hills from the Ayyappa temple courtyard. Another auspicious sight was the 'Makara nakshatram', which could be spied above the same high hills to the East. This is the star Sirius that is visible over the eastern sky clearly during this period. But by no stretch of imagination this could be mistaken for the 'divine fire' that flickers three times from the hillside.
In the post-Independence era, particularly after the implementation of the Sabarigiri hydel project, these hills came under the jurisdiction of the Kerala State Electricity Board. The Board and Forests officials on many occasions used to be present during these annual tribal ceremonies too, as is recalled by many old officials. But as the years flew by, in the 1960's and '70's and later, the Sabarimala temple was fast becoming a 'pilgrim magnet' , with crowds in their lakhs visiting the hill shrine. The pilgrim rush brought with it sizeable incomes and, in its wake, another rush to enter the Devaswom Board, even by the agnostic 'Lefties', after declaring that they were bona fide 'faithfuls' ! It probably was some 'bright spark' in the temple board who saw the infinite possibilities in the eagerly anticipated 'Makara Jyothi'. Today, as many KSEB, Forests and DB officials would assure you, but strictly off the record, the Jyothi is a "well-organized divine phenomenon". A huge cauldron of camphor is lit and a huge wet sack cloth is waved above it to present to the devotees dotting the hillsides and the temple courtyards, already at fever pitch, three flashes of 'divine light'.
It was in the post-jyothi moments that both the tragedies struck. A glance at crowd statistics would point to the fact that the crowds were peaking around the Sankranthi day, and what was uppermost in the minds of the pilgrims was catching a glimpse of the jyothi. Faith and 'bhakti' do not proceed along the rails of rhyme or reason, or common sense. It is at best a grey area of personal beliefs. But the basic question is one of ethics and honesty and truth.
The jyothi may be a fiction, but then 'marketing' a fiction is no crime if you do it openly and if you do it well, giving the customer 'value for money'. Look at the film industry. They sell unreal dreams, and charge you through the nose in some of the better movie theatres of the metro cities. The booksellers are minting money selling you highly overpriced fiction, and the readers are happier than ever! By all means sell the jyothi too to a willing public as a ritual of the hill temple; but give the devotees at least standing room and some comfort, if not ringside seats. Please.
I think it was in 2008 the rationalists approached the authorities for permission to visit the hills and debunk the myth of the jyothi. Though they call themselves rationalists, I guess they lack common sense. Would a government and God's own board want to kill the proverbial goose that was on a laying spree of golden eggs? But it is high time we thought if it was ethical on the part of an elected government, and that too in the 21st C. to be a party to what is in effect a fraud foisted upon the unsuspecting, innocent pilgrims -- with deadly results.
So what is your verdict? Who, basically, is guilty of the carnage? Think again.
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SABARIMALA - a corollary
Makara Jyothi, Makara Vilakku...
Lost in a sea of contradictions and confusion regarding the Makara Jyothi, Makara Vilakku etc, I again decided to speak to an octogenarian, an ardent Ayyappa devotee and a person with ample sense.
His take--"...As we all know the Makara Nakshatram (the star Sirius) is clearly visible during the Makara Sankranthi season on the eastern horizon. In the olden days, with the thick forests, the dense fog and overall darkness after sundown (these days there is heavy 'light pollution' in the atmosphere on account of larger amounts of pollutants, dust and lights from the cities etc), it was often not easy to distinguish between the sky and the outline of the hills where the tribals lit the 'aarati'. The 'aarati' was not a huge fireball as it is now, and often even those who had good eyesight found it difficult to see the flickering light, fainter sometimes in comparison to the bright star. The Jyothi is the light of the Makara star, but soon it got confused with that of the 'arathy' in the minds of the devotees, as both the star, low in the easten horizon just above the hills, and the tribal 'arathy' appeared very close to each other to observers in the Ayyappa temple precincts. The Makara Vilakku, on the other hand, is the festival of lights in the temple itself that is got up in connection with the Makara Sankranthi day. It may be recalled that such "vilakku" festivals are quite popular in Kerala and quite a few such names are well known in connection with many temple festivals even today."
As controversy rages and one gets dragged in all directions and loses sight of all logic and rational thinking, it would be interesting, for the curious at least, to seek out some information, a comparatively easy thing in the Web era.
Here is a sampling; your search is likely to unearth other gems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_Jyothi <--- About the Makara Jyothi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i58IaLnICrs&feature=related <--- A docu style expose'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urn4gOiPbCk&feature=related <--- The Kerala Minister's clarification and more details about the ritual
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCOTF8-7nM <--- Rahul Easwar, a scion of the SabarimalaTantri (chief priest) family, explaining things
http://www.tattamangalam.com/images/makara-jyothi.JPG <---TN Gopakumar in Kala Kaumudi (Malayalam)
http://www.srai.org/tragedy-at-sabarimala-the-miracle-of-makara-jyothi/ <--- NDTV footage
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=9.4367003&lon=77.1073723&z=13&l=0&m=b <--- Wikimapia satellite map of Sabarimala and the terrain around, including the site of the recent tragedy
It is interesting to note that in one video the Devaswom Minister himself admits that the Makara Jyothi is lit by officials. The point I wish to stress is that such things gets swept under the carpet and the average devotee is tacitly encouraged to ascribe some kind of a divinity to the flickering light that appears on the hill side on the Sankranthi evening. The tempo is built up to fever pitch, and once something unpredictable or freaky happens and the crowds go ballistic, then it is a surefire formula for tragedy.
Again, who is to be blamed?
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Just a test.
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