Hundreds cheer on as Chilkur Balaji priest carries a Dalit devotee on his shoulders into the Ranganatha Swamy Temple

Fervid chants of “Brahmam Okkate, Parabrahmam Okkate” and Vedic hymns resonated across the 400-year-old Sri Ranganatha Swamy

Temple

in Jiyaguda as hundreds gathered to witness the ‘

Muni Vahana Seva

’ on Monday. In a reneactment of a 2700-year-old incident believed to have taken place in Tamil Nadu,

Chilkur Balaji Temple

head priest,

CS Rangarajan

carried Aditya Parasri, a young man from the

Dalit

community, on his shoulders and entered the temple complex adorned with floral decorations.

“Being a Dalit, my family faced a lot of hardships and discrimination. The worst feeling was when my family was denied entry to the Lord Hanuman temple in Mahbubnagar, my native place. This sort of discrimination is not endorsed by any religion or Vedic scriptures or Upanishads. It is only there in the minds of the society and this mindset needs to change,” said an emotional Aditya.
Stressing upon the need for unity among those in the Hindu community, Aditya said, “From centuries, people have been dividing the Hindus without proper knowledge of the Vedas. In the early days, there was this perception that Dalit people were not clean and hence, were not allowed inside temples. If you are not clean, even a teacher in school won’t allow you inside the classroom. So the Dalits stayed away. But today things have changed and there are smartphones everywhere, so why this disharmony?”

Aditya expressed that Dalits themselves were equally guilty of causing disharmony within the community. “Instead of telling people to educate themselves and come up in life, our activists are constantly protesting. This will only disrupt unity and will not help anybody,” he added.
CS Rangarajan, who performed the Muni Vahana Seva, said that he performed the ritual in an attempt to fight the discrimination against Dalits in the society.

“You have seen how knowledgeable Aditya is. He probably has more knowledge about the Vedic scriptures than members of your own family. Such a person was denied entry into the Lord Hanuman Temple! So when somebody approached me and asked if I would do something for him, I readily agreed,” Rangarajan shared.
“The primary objective of this ritual, however, is to promote equality between all human beings. This ritual is also coinciding with the 1000th birth anniversary of Vaishavaite saint Ramanucharya, who
always preached equality among everyone. So, we performed this activity like a festival,” the Chilkur Balaji priest added.