Author: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Publication: Afternoon Despatch
& Courier
Date: January 18, 2005
URL: http://www.cybernoon.com/Displayarticle.asp?child=srisriravishankar§ion=features&subsection=guestcolumn&xfile=january2005_srisriravishankar_standard37
Was tsunami scared of temples or
did it love them? You cannot brush this aside as a mere coincidence because
of the following phenomenon throughout the coastal line of India and Sri
Lanka.
Let us take the cases of the big
ancient temples of south India. Kanyakumari temple which is right at the
edge of the ocean has remained untouched by tsunami. The famous Tirhchandur
temple saw the ocean receding, leaving the temple intact. Rameswara temple
also remained unaffected.
Did this strange phenomenon happen
only in India? No. If you travel through the coastal line of Sri Lanka,
you will be amazed to see that all the Buddhist statues, monasteries and
Hindu temples have also remained untouched. The media have reported a famous
Murugan temple at Ampara district is perfectly intact while all the buildings
surrounding the temple have fallen apart. While the whole locality went
to shambles, not a single tile was broken in this Kerala style temple.
When the whole village in Hampenthode district was ruined, nothing happened
to the Buddhist statues there.
In Jaffna, the very famous Karainagar
temple (also known as the Chidambaram of Sri Lanka), where tens of thousands
of people had assembled for the annual five chariot procession on December
26 was unaffected. The 40 feet tsunami waves did not affect the people
in the temple premises, and in fact kept them safe from the devastation.
Amongst the temples and monasteries
that were strangely untouched, was also Art of Living retreat centre on
the beach road, Chennai. This AOL centre, which hosts many, many satsangs
and meditations, experienced an incredible phenomenon. While the water
rushed through all the streets around the centre and in fact all of the
centre's adjacent streets, it left the centre itself completely untouched.
So far only one case of a temple
being washed away by tsunami has been reported from Kerala. This is reported
to be a small 100-year-old Lord Subramania temple.
Other than this, all Hindu temples
and monasteries in Sri Lanka and India have withstood the deadly tsunami.
This seems to defy all logic. We should not forget that when Puri (Orissa)
was flooded by cyclones a few years back, the ancient Jagannath temple
stood completely intact.
Is it the architecture or energy
or some intelligence in creation which causes these monuments to stand
these killer furies of nature? This remains a mystery to be unlocked...
it may be worthwhile for a team of architects and scientists to go around
and study this phenomenon.
Isn't it amazing that tsunami could
lift big heavy boats over large buildings and deposit them many hundreds
of metres beyond the streets, and yet not affect a small temple in Velankanni.
Is this to strengthen the faith of the believer, remains to be answered.
One thing is for sure; Either tsunami loves the temples or it is too scared
to go close to them.
