Udupi: In a rather bold statement, Kemaru Sandeepani Math seer Sri Esha Vittaldas Swamiji has called upon all the seers across the country to ensure that no child is initiated into religious orders.
“Initiating a child as a sanyasi is as big a crime as child marriage and child labour. This must stop and the Maths must take this issue seriously,” he said warning of a legal battle against any Math that initiates little children into religious orders.
Talking about this bold movement that he is very determined to start, Kemaru seer, speaking to NewsKarnataka.com said that he has already discussed the matter with the Kodachadri Trust and he will initiate a legal battle against any Math that goes ahead and initiates ‘bala sanyasis’, starting with the coastal belt.
“I find it inhuman to separate children as young as four and five years of age from their parents and induct them into the religious order. For me, spiritualism is an inclination and not an imposition. A person must walk on the path of spiritualism out of their own will,” said the seer quoting a High Court order on Vyasaraja Math, Kundapura dated 22-09-2005 pertaining to the induction of a 12-year-old boy into the order, where the court had in very clear words said, “nothing should be done which would adversely affect the interest of the child or affect it physically or mentally in any manner. The court concluded in this case that it would be in the interest and welfare of the minor child that he should be permitted to be in the custody of the parents.”
Clarifying that his stand and decision comes not just in the backdrop of the life of the deceased Shiroor seer, who himself was initiated into the religious order at the tender age of eight, the Kemaru seer stressed that many of the ‘bala sanyasis’ who want to break out of the order fail to do so because of the uncertainty of the future.
“We do have to understand that these children are not trained in any life skills. Hence, if they make the brave decision of following their heart and walking out of the religious order, they would be rendered helplessly wandering to make both ends meet,” says the Seer who adds that a beginning must be made somewhere.
“Let this not be treated categorically. I raise my objection to any religious order that follows this inhuman practice of bringing in innocent, gullible children to ‘serve the God’”, he says.
The Kemaru seer has been an activist in the saffron robe. He has always taken a very stern stand and led several movements- May it be ‘Save Kodachadri’ or the struggle against Mangalore Special Economic Zone where the lives of scores of farmers were in jeopardy or in the sensational Saujanya rape case. The seer, even this time, evidently remains to be one of the very few people who has been very vocal in seeking justice for the Shiroor seer after suspicions were raised about the cause of the latter’s death.
Born in a Bunt family, the Kemaru seer was an engineer, who voluntary chose the path of spiritualism- a decision that was path-breaking in ways more than one and this time, he has decided to stir the hornet’s nest.
