It might be time to get rid of the Met department. The Shankaracharya of Dwaraka, says he knows why some parts of Maharashtra have drought: it’s apparently because people worship Sai Baba.
Known for his criticism of Sai Baba, Sharda Peeth Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati said on Sunday "Calamity strikes where those unworthy of worship are worshipped." Claiming to quote the scriptures, he added that such places “suffer drought, flood, death or fear. Maharashtra is facing all of these."
Calling Sai Baba "unworthy" and a "fakir", Shankaracharya said that worshiping him as a god was "inauspicious", The Times of India reported. The 94-year-old seer is on a two-week visit to Haridwar.
This however is not the first time that Shankaracharya has attacked Sai Baba and his worshippers.
In 2014, he had said that Shirdi Sai Baba should not be worshiped as God and asked his devotees to remove his idols and photographs from temples.
It hurt the sentiments of Sai Baba followers and controversy broke out soon. Shankaracharya's effigies were burnt and clashes breaking out between the followers of the two leaders.
Explaining his stance, Shankaracharya in a 2014 interview to Outlook, said that "Sanatan dharma allows prayer to gods or incarnations. Sai is neither a god nor an incarnation."
When asked if Sanatan Darma was the only way, he said, “For a Hindu, yes. Dharma is about what is good (punya) and what is bad or sin (paap). Vedas and shastras are the only way to know the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. Like having a child with your wife is dharma, but with another other woman is adharma, though it involves same action.”
Last year, Shankaracharya released a poster depicting a scene where Lord Hanuman is shown "driving out" Sai Baba with a tree trunk reportedly based on the dream of a disciple.
“Sai Baba’s real name was Chand Miya who is dead and we treat him as a ghost and not God,” Shankaracharya told Hindustan Times.
He further claimed that there were actually no followers of Sai Baba in India and that people went to Shirdi to "as they are mean, selfish and only want their wishes to come true", the HT report said.