The likely successor to the Shankaracharya of northern and western India is very angry at popular web portal YouTube showing video clips of two fake Shankaracharyas, one of who exhorts viewers to embrace Islam and the other explains why he converted to Islam.
He is so enraged that he has decided to seek the intervention of President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this burning issue.
Were also seeking the opinion of experts to proceed legally against the web portal for featuring these video clips which are bound to hurt Hindu sentiments across the world, Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of the Jyotishpeeth and Shardapeeth told HT here on Wednesday.
The clips show one of the men dressed in a red robe and the other clad in white pyjamas and sleeveless half-coat, sporting a skull cap and thin beard.
One clip (of 9.20 minutes) shows an old man holding the signature stick of the first Shankaracharya going by the name and title of Devanand Saraswati, Jagatguru Shankaracharya.
He tells a gathering in Hindi that Islam is the greatest religion in the world and that the first verse of the Quran should motivate Hindus to convert to Islam. The man calls upon the whole world to adopt Islam, adding that those against Islam are devils. I dont love those who dont love Muslims, he says in the clip.
The second clip of over four minutes shows a young man going by the name of Acharya Sanjay Prasad Dwivedi-turned-Ahmed Pandit and bearing the title of the Varanasi Shankar Acharya (sic).
This man says in Hindi that he was a Hindu priest in Varanasi who delved deep into the study of the Quran for three years and converted to Islam. Strangely, he is shown speaking at a gathering with a banner reading Health Ministry behind him.
Swami Avimukteshwaranand said the two men are frauds as Hindus all over the world recognise only three Shankaracharyas who head the four peeths or religious centres established by the first or Adi Shankaracharya in 500 BC.
The four peeths were set up by him at Joshi Mutt in Uttarakhand, Puri in Orissa, Sringeri in Karnataka and Dwarka in Gujarat. The first Shankaracharya propounded the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Sanatan Dharma, one of the main streams of Hinduism.
Swami Avimukteshwaranand is to likely to succeed Swami Swarupanand Saraswati as the the Shankaracharya of the religious centres called the Jyotishpeeth and Shardapeeth, which are located in Uttarakhand and Gujarat.
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