Dehradun: The Shankaracharya of Shardapeeth, Jagatguru Swami Rajrajeswarashram addressing Rotarians at Meerut on Thursday said that the yatras to the religious shrines had diverted from what they were originally meant to be and the religious places had been converted to picnic spots.
Not holding anyone particularly responsible for diluting the very importance of the important religious shrines and reducing them to the stature of picnic spots. “First pilgrimage to these shrines were undertaken for peace of the soul and to pay obeisance to the deities, now they had become status symbols and the shrines reduced to picnic spots”, he observed.
Refering to the char dham yatra, he said that during the earlier years, it was only undertaken after fulfilling all worldly duties and pray for solace and peace in the twilight years, but now it had been reduced to a staus symbol. “The Uttarakhand tragedy was because of the fact that man is playing with the environment of the religious shrines”, he claimed.
A journalist with over 40 years of experience, Jagdish Bhatt was Editor, Hill Post (Uttarakhand).
Jagdish had worked with India’s leading English dailies, which include Times of India, Indian Express, Pioneer and several other reputed publications. A highly acclaimed journalist, he was a recipient of many awards
Jagdish Bhatt, aged 72, breathed his last on 28th August 2021 at his Dehradun residence.
