At the feet of His Holiness, the Kanchi Sankaracharya

The head of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Jayendra Saraswathi passed away on Wednesday (Express Archive)

In the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage in 2002 and the communal polarization that ensued, I published a few articles demonstrating similarities in the messages of the Bhagvad Geeta and the Koran. I showed that Islam sanctifies Sanatan scriptures and acknowledges their contribution in the evolution of Islam.

The articles attracted the attention of the Vishwa Hindu Parished (VHP). Their then Vice President, Mr Vedantam, who was looking after Tamil Nadu from his Chennai office, came to Puducherry for a long discussion with me. He then suggested that I should meet His Holiness the Sankaracharya of Kanchipuram.

The suggestion was hugely surprising as well as flattering. The Sankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswathi, was one of the prominent national figures then, having tried to negotiate a settlement of the Babri Masjid structure dispute with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). Cabinet ministers belonging to the BJP in the then NDA government used to visit him for advice and blessings. President APJ Abdul Kalam had publicly declared that Saraswathi was one of the most wise and inspiring persons known to him. READ | Who was Sri Jayendra Saraswathi?

Devotees used to line up in the hot sun for hours just to get a glimpse. The high and mighty waited for days and weeks to get a minute’s worth of his hearing. In contrast I was less than nobody, unknown even to AIMPLB! But somehow Vedantam thought there was meaning in taking me to the Sankaracharya. He went a step further to ensure that for a full two hours during the scheduled meeting, no one or nothing else, not even a phone call, should disturb His Holiness.

On a balmy Kanchipuram afternoon I found myself walking barefoot, along with Vedantam and an aide of his, to the Sankaracharya’a peetham. Vedantam’s presence opened all the otherwise formidably closed doors and soon I was being ushered into the Sanctum Sanctorum, the living room of the Sankaracharya.

The room turned out to be as spartan as the sage’s dress, with only a modest cot on which he was sitting, wearing little except a single-piece wrap. While Vedantam and his aide greeted the sage by lying prostrate, only touched his feet, sheepishly explaining that being a Muslim I can prostrate myself only before the unseen God.

As the three visitors squatted on the floor for the meeting,Vedantam told Saraswathi, “Professor says that if it is proved that the Babri Masjid was constructed after demolishing a functioning temple, Muslims should immediately forfeit all claims”. I elaborated saying, “In Islam it is a sin to damage any place of worship, be it a temple, a church or any other. No mosque can have sanctity if it has been constructed by destroying another functioning place of worship”.

A long and potentially acrimonious discussion then ensued. The VHP side presented their version of history as per which hundreds of temples have been destroyed in the past to build mosques. I presented my – and a vastly different – version of history. I mentioned the case of Mahmud of Ghazni which had been narrated in a gathering by none other than the RSS ideologue K. R. Malkani. When Mahmud of Ghazni offered some of his loot to the Chief Qazi of Samarkand for building a mosque there, the Qazi contemptuously spurned the offer saying, “how can a mosque be built with money tainted by sin”.

The VHP side insisted, “But there are stones and pillars bearing carvings of Sanatan gods and goddesses in many mosques which proves that those mosques were built by destroying temples”. I said, “on the other hand it shows the inclusiveness of quintessential Islam. If, while building a mosque, the Muslims of those times had found remnants of any old and fallen temple,they would have honored those remnants by including them in the building of their mosques”.

I also pointed out that had the builders of those mosques been inimical to other religions, they would have avoided “polluting” their mosques with signs of other religions.

With both sides trying to prove their point, the debate went on and on.

On more than one occasion Saraswathi, with an unconcealable tinge of irritation, intervened. “You may believe this, but this is not how it is”, he said. Mostly, though, the debate was peaceful. It was a far cry from the expletives and innuendos that fly thick and fast on TV.

“So”, said His Holiness, “if it is proved that the mosque was constructed after destroying a temple, the Muslims will give up their claims on it… what if it does not get proved and the court judgement is in favor of Muslims?”

“Then”, I said, “all true Muslims should immediately gift the site to our Hindu brotheren because true Islam, like the true Sanatan dharma by which it has been inspired, is a ‘giving’ religion”. By way of some sort of conclusion I said, “in either case a grand Ram temple should come at that site”.

“If this is how Muslims feel”, asked Saraswathi, “why don’t they give up their claim to that site now itself?” I replied that giving up the claim now will have no honor.

Saraswathi spoke about the intransigence of some Muslims on the issue and the necessity that persons like me educate such Muslims. Then he added, “all Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims.” I replied with, “Sir, in the 1970s the world spoke of Irish terrorism. Then it was Khalistan terrorism. It is only from the 1990s that we have begun hearing about the so-called Islamic terrorism….it has as little to do with Islam as Khalistan terrorism had to do with Sikhism or the Irish terrorism had to do with Christianity”. On this note the meeting came to an end.

Do come again, said the Sage.

I, too, very much wished to keep in touch with him. But soon the storm of the Sankaraman case was to break upon his life. He was eventually exonerated, but the years of his national prominence were abruptly cut short. They were not destined to return.

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