Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand refrains from visiting ‘incomplete’ Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Lucknow: Swami Avimukteshwaranand Maharaj, the Shankaracharya of Badrikashram Jyotirmath, Uttarakhand, on Sunday visited Ayodhya but did not visit the Ram Temple saying that it was ‘incomplete’.

Speaking to reporters in Ayodhya, the Shankaracharya said that the ‘dhwaj’ (topmost part of the Temple) was the most important part of any temple and a temple was not considered to be complete without a ‘dhwaj’.

‘’The darshan of dhwaj is mandatory ... .what will I do there (Ram Temple) if I can not have darshan of the dhwaj,’’ he added.

The Shankaracharya said that he would be paying obeisance at the Ram Temple once it was complete.

Interestingly he offered waters at the Khereshwar Mahadev (Lord Shiva) Temple, situated very close to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Swami Avimukteshwaranand had also skipped the Ram Lala consecration ceremony in January this year saying that it was against the tenets of Hinduism to install the deity of Ram Lala in an ''incomplete Temple''.

''It is not proper to install the deity in a Temple which is not yet fully complete...it is against Sanatan Dharma,'' he had said.

Several seers, especially those associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had then criticised the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath for skipping the consecration ceremony and contested his claim that Ram Lala idol should not be installed in an incomplete Temple.

He had also then asked the officials of the Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Trust, which was overseeing the construction of the Ram Temple, to resign and hand over the Temple to the 'Ramanandi Sect', as only it had the right to hold the consecration ceremony.

''If the Ram Temple belongs to the Ramanandi sect what Champat Rai (Trust secretary) and others are doing there?'' he had added in a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter).