Kashi Vishwanath, Jagannath Puri and more – How Hindu temples are at the forefront of helping Covid patients

Since ancient times, Hindu temples have been at the forefront of community service. From running community schools to hospitals, the temples were a place for the public good. Keeping the spirit alive, the Hindu temples are donating generously in the fight against the Coronavirus.

Jagannath Puri temple donated 1.51 crore rupees to Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) to help the state government in the fight against the virus. “As per the decision of the Managing Committee of Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, an amount of Rs.1,51.00.000/- (One crore fifty-one lakh) is contributed towards Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for COVID-19 from Temple Administration,” a letter from the temple registration read.

Prior to this, 62 other smaller temples have donated 1.37 crore rupees to CMRF.

This generosity is not limited to Odisha. In Varanasi, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple is feeding the patients suffering from Coronavirus disease. In the Botad district of Gujarat, Sarangpur Hanuman Mandir Dharamshala has been converted into a 100-bed hospital, while in Vodadara BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir has started a 300 bed Covid hospital.

“We are providing all the non-medical facilities for patients. We have arranged for oxygen and ventilators including the ICU rooms apart from fans and air-coolers. Currently, 300 beds are operational and 200 will be added soon,” said Gyan Vatsal Swami of Shri Swaminarayan Temple.

While the temples have voluntarily come forward for the public cause – as they have done for centuries – the liberals are beating their chest as to why the donation for Ram Mandir is not being used in the fight against the Coronavirus.

Liberals have begun demanding on social media that the funds collected by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust be utilised for ramping up the healthcare infrastructure around the country to take on the Covid-19 surge being faced. Of course, that would leave no funds for the construction of the Mandir, but liberals are rather averse to culture, religion and civilisation anyway.

In case liberals have forgotten, the Ram Mandir construction and its subsequent administrative control have been handed over by an act of Parliament to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The trust is private in nature, and not controlled by the government. As such, its funds are not subject to any sort of government interference or direction. As a matter of fact, even the donors for the Ram Mandir are private citizens, who contributed all that they could for the singular purpose of their donations being used for the making of a grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

As such, the diversion of such funds, or rather the very thought of doing so, would be a grave betrayal of the trust of all those devotees who donated their hard-earned money towards the construction of Ram Mandir. The funds which have been given by devotees to see their contributions being used in reclaiming the Ram Janmabhoomi must not be used for any other purpose but towards increasing the grandeur of the upcoming Mandir.

The temples are donating generously for the fight against the Coronavirus and have helped the patients irrespective of caste, class and community. The left-liberal establishment, which does not understand the ideas like autonomy, voluntary need not be taken seriously, and the people should not be carried away by their anti-Hindu propaganda.