The Travancore Devaswom Board announced on Friday that Ayyappa devotees will soon be able to witness the Lord at Sabarimala through the internet.

However, non-Hindu devotees of Sree Guruvayoorappan were not so lucky. Key observations made at the ongoing ashtamangala devaprashnam have found that the presiding deity is not in favour of allowing them into the temple. It may be recalled that temple tantri (supreme priest) Chenas Raman Namboodiripad had earlier opposed the move to dilute the existing rituals and customs. 

It was TDB president C K Gupthan who announced the new facility being planned at Sabarimala. “We are planning to start e-darshan at Sabarimala very soon,” he said at a meet-the-press here without elaborating. Mr Gupthan also said that plastic water bottles will not be sold in Sabarimala from the upcoming pilgrimage season.

The primary observations and debates at the Guruvayoor devaprashnam, an astrological ritual held to ascertain the will of the Lord, found that only those devotees who believed in idol worship and the temple rituals should be allowed inside. “Preliminary findings clearly show that the time is not ripe for allowing non-Hindus into the temple. The Lord also seems to be really upset with some of the constructions that have taken place in the temple,” Sharma said.

Devaprashnam
The five-day prashnam being led by chief astrologer Irinjalakuda Padmanabha Sharma is being conducted after a gap of 17 years. The findings of the ashtamangala devaprashnam are traditionally binding on all and are unlikely to be overruled. Nevertheless, the observation would be debated and discussed by religious leaders or acharyas before arriving at a conclusion. With this, the Achuthanandan government’s efforts to open up the temple doors to all believers have suffered a serious setback.

The devaprashnam at the Guruvayoor temple, the second richest in the country after Tirupati, was necessitated by certain controversies which erupted a couple of months ago.

 The temple had performed a purification rite after Union Minister Vayalar Ravi’s son Ravi Krishna entered the temple for the choroonu (first rice feeding) of his son. Since Vayalar Ravi’s wife Merci is a Christian,