Hindu Seer turned the tables on Jihadi mischief in Tamilnadu

How the visit by a Hindu seer turned the tables on Jihadi mischief in a Tamilnadu hamlet

Nagapattinam, August 3--

The tiny sleepy, sylvan hamlet of Pazhangallikkadu, nudged between Thituththuraipoondi and Vedaranyam in the Nagappattinam District, has, for the last few days, gained prominence in the news for wrong reasons.

Yes, there is a trumpeted importance given to devious and divisive forces trapping the unassuming inhabitants into artificially generated caste conflicts for the especial purpose of creating religious unrest and inducing the hapless villagers to convert to Islam on the specious reason of social injustice in Hindu society. Fortunately, better sense has dawned on the people and they have realized how they had allowed their unpretentious to be exploited by vested interests who are now repulsed and licking their woulds thanks to a good Samaritan.

There is a Kaliyamman Temple in the village. It comes under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Board of Tamil Nadu government. The village comprises people of many communities prominent among them being the Pillai . The festival in the Tamil month of Adi (July-August) is very famous there as it is elsewhere in the State. The people of the Pillai community have, for years, been conducting one of the three mandakappadis , a part of the the festival at Pazhangallikkadu in their age old traditional customary way; the other two are the prerogative of the HR & CE Board. The other communities like Mukkulathor , Vanniyar , Adi Dravidar (dalit) etc participate wholeheartedly in the other regular temple rituals like pal kudam etc . There has never been any objection whatsoever of all involving in the temple rituals or worship. If and when the government decides to offer its right to perform the mandakappadi to the Adidravidar community, whatever simmering demonstration that would arise occasionally , would be quelled by amicable means and temple festivities continued to everyone’s content.


But this year witnessed an unsavoury development. Aided and abetted by VCK (a dalit political party) , the Tamil Nadu Tavheed Jamaat (an Islamist outfit notorious for its virulent anti idol worship propoganda) created a rift among the communities citing non-existent religious intolerance and have managed to hoodwink the gullible villagers to go to the extent of converting to Islam . The activists of Hindu organisations have, for the last one month , been meeting people on both sides and striving their every nerve in order to unearth the root cause of all these troubles.

There is a good Samaritan in the nearby Mannarkudi. He is the head of a vaishnavite mutt. He is Sri Sendalankara Sampathkumara Ramanuja Jeeyar . Even after assuming the sanyasa ashram, He is in the habit of regularly visiting the most backward , and undeveloped interiors of villages of TamilNadu, visting the Adi Dravidar houses, meeting them, interacting with them etc. Every year He distributes school books and notebooks to students of the government schools including Adi Dravidar children and advise and encourage the parents to educate their children.


Two days back, the Jeer expressed his desire to visit any government school in the Pazhangallikkadu village. But there is a police order not to allow any person belonging to any religious organization or political party to visit the village. There is a valid reason for the promulgation of the ban since six persons belonging to the VCK with the support of Towheed Jamaat , were creating and maintaining a tense situation there, causing roadblocks to development of any constructive and conducive atmosphere. Finally there was an invitation to the Jeeyar from the village Panchayat elementary school for distribution of books and notebooks to the children of the school.

After the event at the Panchayat school, Hindu activists accompanied the Jeeyar on a casual stroll towards the problem streets. The police tried to stop the Jeeyar. The Jeeyar just told them He was going to the Mariyamman temple at the end of the street to worship the Goddess there. The DSP looked at the people quizzically. The residents in unison said they had no objection to the Swami worshipping.

Jeeyar went to the temple, promptly spread the things He had brought for performing a Mahalakshmi Homam in the temple premises. He graciously called one Senthil who was spearheading the revolt and goading the people to convert, and gently explained the purpose of the Homam as for universal peace and particularly in the village , honoured him to be the Head for the Homam and made him take the oath to be responsible for the smooth conduct.

After the successful conduct of the Homam, the Jeeyar distributed the Prasad to all as the benign grace of the Goddess . The Tavheed Jamaat volunteers were standing aside as mute spectators to the unfolding of events much to their chagrin and disbelief. It appeared that they did not have any clout at all in those streets where they thought they had created trouble.

The Jeeyar had brought with Him sufficient food. He not only distributed the variety of food items to the villagers but partook it along with them much to the surprised joy of the people. The Jeeyar quite freely mingled with the villagers, talked with them on all worldly matters , stayed with them till that evening. A woman politely enquired if Swami would have coffee or tea to which, much to her happiness, the Jeeyar asked for a cup of tea. Tea was served to one and all. It was a sight to see everyone waiting for his turn to receive blessings from the Jeeyar.

Some of the villagers came to the Jeeyar and wondered if they could also wear the poonool (sacred thread) like the Jeeyar. The Jeeyar unhesitatingly assured them that they could but advised them about following a code of practice and applauding them for their interest He even affirmed them that if they were very keen he would perform the ritual for them. An entirely different hue of conversion that!





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34 Comments

  1. Wonderful! This is how real change can be brought in the society!!! Koti namaskarams to Jeer Swami!

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  2. Wonderful. This is the way thar caste Hindus must strive to keep our flock together - inclusiveness and true brotherhood.

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  3. Wonderful. This is the way thar caste Hindus must strive to keep our flock together - inclusiveness and true brotherhood.

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  4. Wonderful. This is the way thar caste Hindus must strive to keep our flock together - inclusiveness and true brotherhood.

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  5. Wonderful!!! anatha Kodi Namaskaramas

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  6. Excellent work..i could feel the work and inspired by swamiji...more such tribe increase

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  7. Equality of "atma" or soul in the matter of spiritual journey towards God, by setting an example by conduct, as in this case is the need of the hour for Hindus. Thanks to Jiyar ji. Please make it a social movement in TN (and other parts of India).

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  8. Excellent initiative by Swamiji in uniting the society. This movement be expanded to all parts of India.

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  9. VCK and Thavheet Jamaat should be banned as they instigate social disharmony. The matter to be escalated to the GOI and State Govt.
    for trying to spoil the tranquil state and immediate action to be initiated.

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  10. What about the last photo...what does it tell?

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  11. What about the last photo...what does it tell?

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  12. Jeeyar Swamigal is the true disciple of our great Acharya, Sriman Ramanuja. I only wish other Hindu Acharyas such as Sankara Mutt, Sringeri, Ahobila Mutt, Vanamamalai Mutt go out, get together with the Dalits in the backward areas, help them and teach them about Hinduism.

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  13. Wonderful to read. I want to share my own humble experience here. Nearly ten years back, there was rampant conversions to Christianity in Selaiyur township in Tamilnadu. Christians were concentrating on the town and nearly 40% of the population were converted. The Hindu temple was suffering and they wrote to Kanchi Periyava and also Jeeyar swamy. At that time i was visiting Kanchi mutt. There were many dignitaries waiting for an audience of the Kanchi Pudhu periyawa. He raised this issue with all. When i gave some emotional response, he said : No point worrying about it, can you go and do something about it?". I was pulled in, so also many well known people from chennai. I then talked with a good Iyengar friend of mine from mylapore and he said that we should talk with Jeeyar swmiagal too. Jeeyar swamigal was visiting Tirupati and off we drove to Thirumala. When he heard from us the happenings in Selaiyur, hHe was sad and immediately gave his full support. On top of it, thanks to him, we got amazing dharshan - not once but many times followed with half a dozen laddus and huge amount of Pongal. After a week we set the stage for both Kanchi periyawal and Jeeyar to visit selaiyur. Many industrialists and film people were also there. They talked to so many people in large gatherings as well as in small groups. After long discussions, We found out the reason for the conversion was the carrot - some job, free medicine, free education -given by the christian mission to these poor and needy people. The various company heads who had come at the request of both the great Swamigals, agreed to help these people. So to cut the story short we managed to reconvert 90% of the people who were earlier converted. The christian mission tried some goondism and then legal stuff. but we had people to manage all that.

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    Replies
    1. Great ! Appreciate your efforts Sir !

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    2. Wonderful ! Thank you for your enormous efforts sir!

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  14. Please Accept Our Gratitude Swamiji

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  15. Sir, Sandhya:vandanam was practiced by all castes in the good old days. It has to be revived with all seriousness among all the sections without fail with immediate effect. That is the need of the hour to fight back the false claims of other religions. Awake! Arise! stop not till the goal is reached! Move on... move on...

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  16. What type of character these people have - convert, again reconvert and tomorrow again convert, and then again reconvert, so on. Perhaps that was and is the or one of the main reasons this community faced all ostracism and oppression in the past also. Proselytization of any sort should be banned and any conversion should be strictly individual, voluntary and on an affidavit before a judicial officer and certified by a judicial magistrate. Conversion of a person should not mean automatic conversion of his or her spouse. Also children should be protected and barred from being converted to parents' converted religion until they come to maturity (attain 18 years age). Up to then they should be brought up and nurtured in the religion into which they are born and for this purpose, if necessary, they have to be taken away from the parents and placed under court custody and state care.

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  17. Good work swami others must also follow you

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  18. We were fortunate to have a glimpse of mannargudi swamgal two days back in srirangam when he came in connection with Sri ramanuja 1000th year celebrations.
    He is the same swamgal who helped affected in chennai floods last year in person in hip deep and brest deep flood waters.
    A social reformer like Sri Ramanavami.

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  19. If only there were many like HH Sri Jeeyar Swamigal then we can hope for a quick revival of Sanatana Dharma - the Dharma for all at all times

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  20. terrific work by Jeeyar swamigal.

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  21. It's time all Hindu religious heads visit backward and poor community and give the message of peace and equality as Shri Ramanujacharya did centuries back. That is how down trodden Hindus can be convinced and make to keep their faith in their religion intact.

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  22. What a great work by Jeeyar Swamigal. When we follow properly our gurus sure there will be a great unity within Hindus. Mostly wrong projection is the reason for such caste fight and conversion. divide and rule policy everyone is doing against Hindus.Our sananthana dharma has to be projected in proper way to our younger generations. What Jeeyar swamiji did is a great and wonderful one. Swami Dayananda Sraraswathi, Annaikatti said conversion is a criminal offence. We all should join our hands to fight against such things.

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  23. hindu religion is like milk once itz goes to bad state itz never comeback to the original state.This is eyewash In this country there is no SC caste people they are already convert to christianity and islam.But they are certicated as a SC. If we need to abolish the caste we should wanna abolish the quota system and caste certificate.

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  24. Great initiative. Should be careful of planted moles to trap such genuine saints.We have many examples.

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  25. Great initiative. Should be careful of planted moles to trap such genuine saints.We have many examples.

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  26. There is one important point to note in this whole episode - it is primarily due to the lack of interaction from the side of Hindu temples-the people officiating and managing, that the communities have been drifting away and poached by others. People will joyfully come to temples, partake in activities and contribute if there was active interaction and engagement with the society.

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  27. Need more people like the Jeeyar Kudos to him.

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  28. Excellent work. The same jeer visited a troubled hamlet near Theni sometime back and offered his support to the affected people.

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