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LONDON, ENGLAND, April 29 2004: Mina Parmar of the Hindu Council UK is concerned that, despite the requirement of tradition and religious practice, the Lord Rama icon damaged by miscreants at the Ealing Road temple has still not been replaced. “I went dutifully to offer my prayers to Lord Rama on His birthday, Ramnavami, enthused with thoughts of His glorious pastimes of valor and bravery as described in the Ramayana,” wrote Parmar. Yet she felt a tinge of sadness. Everything appeared the same – the temple, the devotees, the priest – and yet something had maligned the spiritual atmosphere. As she bowed her head to the marble, silken clad image of the Supreme Lord, she realized that her feelings of distress stemmed from the flouting of acceptable spiritual practices by the temple authorities, who have steadfastly failed to replace the icon. Instead they have merely bandaged the arm which was broken last October by vandals. According to the strict rules of Pancharatriki, a broken deity should immediately be floated in the sea or buried in the ground, and a new one consecrated and installed. Mina wonders how the deity’s birthday can be properly celebrated, when His deity is still desecrated. Why build a large temple, when the Supreme Lord becomes sidelined? Four months ago she had heard pujya Ram Bapa declaring to Harish Rughani, the Chairman of the Vallabh Nidhi Trust, that he would quickly install a new deity. But nothing has been done. “Surely,” she says “the Trustees have a task to safeguard the temple and its value system.”



HPI adds: In attacks on Hindu temples in Fiji in recent years, any damaged icons were immediately consigned to the ocean and the temple reopened only when a newly made icon was installed.

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