Furnishing details to clear the air on the allegations made by former Chief Priest of Tirumala temple Ramana Deekshitulu, Tirumala JEO K S Sreenivasa Raju appealed for an end to the chaos.
Addressing a press conference at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Friday, the JEO said, the renovation of Prasada Potu (temple kitchen) was carried out only after taking consent from Agama Advisor Sri Sunderavaradan and Tirumala Pedda Jiyangar Swamy.
"This was done keeping in view the safety of the temple structure and the potu workers. After consulting the agama stalwarts only we had shifted prasadam potu to Padi Potu. During the period, 9 December 2017 to 5 January 2018, when the repairs were underway in Prasadam potu, the Annaprasadams were prepared in Padi Potu and Naivedyam was offered to the lord as was done in 2001 and 2008 when the similar renovation was carried out.
“The repairs were left incomplete as Ramana Deekshitulu inspected and objected to them. No deviation has taken place in offering Naivedyam to the lord as alleged by Deekshitulu. Even the kainkaryams (offerings) like Thomala and other sevas are being performed as per the tenets of Vaikhanasa Agama, without any deviance," he asserted.
"The temple administration has nothing to do with rituals. While taking up any development or renovation work related to the temple, we approach Agama Advisors. We have five of them, including NAK Sunderavaradan, Mohanarangacharyulu, Desikacharyulu, and Jagannadhacharyulu apart from Ramana Deekshitulu".
Baseless
On the remarks of Deekshitulu regarding the safety of jewellery of the Lord, JEO said that every year verification of jewels was done for 20 days in vaikuntha dwaram. The verified jewels are entered in the Tiruvabharanam register and the process in Agama jargon is called Jetti. “When the temple remains open for nearly 22 and a half hours a day, with not less than 65,000 pilgrims having darshan of the Lord, the allegations about the safety of the jewels are totally baseless,” he pointed out.
Appealing to Deekshitulu, the JEO asked him to put an end to the ruckus. “Please avoid mudslinging and enjoy your retired life with peace and prosperity,” he said.
