The Supreme Court on Wednesday (December 11, 2024) agreed to consider the petition filed against the High Court order in favor of the administration of Kerala’s Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple. The temple administration had decided to stop the ancient ritual of Udayasthaman puja performed on Ekadashi.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Rajesh Bindal issued notice to Guruvayoor Devaswom Management Committee, Kerala government and others on the petition filed against the December 7 order. However, the Supreme Court said that the daily worship schedule displayed on the website of the temple administration should not be changed.
The Supreme Court asked, ‘How was the puja stopped citing public inconvenience? Worship is for God. To increase the divinity of the deity, it cannot be stopped for the public. Management should find other solutions to control the crowd. To what extent is this reason justified, we will have to investigate it. The court has also directed that there should be no change in the daily worship of the temple. The court said that the puja should be done as per the schedule of puja available on the website of the temple. There should be no change in the schedule nor should anything be removed from it.
The bench said, ‘We cannot interfere now. We will issue a notice to the other party. Prima facie we are satisfied. Udayasthaman Puja refers to the various prayers performed in the temple throughout the day from sunrise (Udaya) to sunset (Asthaman). The temple administration had recently decided not to perform rituals on Ekadashi citing difficulties in crowd management and the desire of devotees to extend the darshan time.
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by the members who had the authority of priest in the temple. It is said that ‘Ekadashi’ It is the most important festival of the temple. The petition said that the accepted fact is that the Udayasthaman ritual has been performed on the day of Ekadashi since 1972, whereas in reality it has been happening even before that."text-align: justify;">The petitioners said that the rituals were well organized by Adi Shankaracharya and it is believed that it would not be right to stop it.