Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Statue of Equality on the occasion of Basant Panchami at Muchintal near Hyderabad in Telangana. In his address after the inauguration, he has asserted that “Progressiveness does not mean detaching from one’s roots. Rather it is necessary that we connect with our real roots and become aware of our real power.”
The 216-feet tall Statue of Equality commemorates the 11th-century Bhakti Saint Sri Ramanujacharya, who promoted the idea of equality in all aspects of living including faith, caste, and creed.
After the inauguration program, he attended the light and sound show depicting the life and works of Ramanujacharya. Chinna Jeeyar who has conceived the idea of this statue of equality thanked the Prime Minister and urged him to propagate the message of equality given by Ramanujacharya in the world.
After the light and sound show, PM Modi participated in Maha Yagya organized for consecrating Ramanujacharya’s idol in the temple on the upper floor of the temple complex. The treasurer of Ayodhya’s Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Trust, Shri Govind Dev Giri was also present on this occasion.
A total of 144 Yagya Shala are created to accommodate 1035 Yagya Kunda and 2 lakh kg of pure desi ghee collected from various parts of the nation is used for the auspicious Ahuti. The Maha Yagya has started on 2nd February 2022 and it will conclude on 14th February 2022.
Ramanujacharya
Born in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur in 1017, Ramanujacharya is a revered Vedic philosopher and social reformer. Travelling across India, he advocated social justice and equality.
Ramanujacharya revived the Bhakti movement, inspiring other Bhakti schools of thought. He is considered to have inspired poets such as Bhakt Ramdas, Annamacharya, Kabir, Thyagaraja, and Meerabai.
From his time as a young philosopher, Ramanujacharya appealed for the protection of nature and resources such as water, soil, and air. He wrote nine scriptures — the Navaratnas — and composed several commentaries on Vedic scriptures.
Ramanujacharya also established the correct procedures for temple rituals in India, the most famous being Srirangam and Tirumala.
Statue of Equality
An advocate of social equality centuries ago, Ramanujacharya encouraged temples to be open to everyone, irrespective of caste, when people of many castes were forbidden from entering them.
He educated those who were deprived of it. But his greatest contribution remains the propagation of the ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ — all the universe is one family — concept.
Travelling across India for decades, Ramanujacharya propagated social equality and universal brotherhood from temple podiums. He embraced the marginalised and condemned and asked royal courts for equal treatment for them. Ramanujacharya spoke of universal salvation through devotion, humility, compassion, equality, and mutual respect, now known as Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya.
Chinna Jeeyar Swami, the Vaishnava seer behind the statue, said Ramanujacharya’s social philosophy was designed to break down barriers of the caste system and embrace humanity as a whole.
He said that Ramanujacharya liberated millions from cultural, social, gender, economic, and educational discrimination with the conviction that every human was equal. His 1,000th birth anniversary is being celebrated as the Festival of Equality, Chinna Jeeyar said.
The 216-foot statue, first proposed in 2018, is located at the 45-acre Jeeyar Integrated Vedic Academy at Muchintal on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The statue was designed by Chinna Jeeyar. The rituals for the dedication of the statue began on Wednesday with 5,000 Vedic scholars performing a maha yajna, said to be the largest of its kind in modern times.