Sadhguru Initiates 'Free Tamil Nadu Temples' Movement on Twitter, Appeals to Citizens to Join via 100 Tweets

Spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on Wednesday launched a 100 tweets Twitter campaign with an aim to bring people’s attention to the poor condition of temples in Tamil Nadu. He has been demanding since long to ‘Free Tamil Nadu’s Temples’ from government control.

Sadhguru has announced that he will be appealing to the political parties via a series of 100 tweets to draw their attention towards the campaign.

Taking to Twitter, Sadhguru said in his tweet, “#FreeTNTemples – a Movement born of deep Anguish. Today I am putting 100 tweets, not to browbeat anybody, but just out of deep pain. Anguished cry of the community must be heard.” In his tweets, the founder of Isha Foundation used the hashtag ‘Free TN temples’.

In a statement. he said, “Due to the unfortunate legacy that the predatory East India Company left us with, the Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu continue to be in the control of the government. This has led to the deterioration and suffocation of glorious Tamil traditions. The HR&CE (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department) which holds 44,121 of temples in the state, told the Madras High Court that 11,999 temples have no revenue to perform even one daily puja.”

The spiritual leader has also shared pictures and videos sent in by devotees on Twitter from all over Tamil Nadu about the dilapidated condition of the temples.

“It is heartrending to see these great works of art, the very Soul of Tamil Culture, the very Heart of the Tamil People, the very source of the Devotion which has nurtured this land, nurtured this language, nurtured our arts and crafts…everything! Everything that is Tamil is rooted in devotion, and the fulcrum of this devotion is Temple. Today, seeing them in such a pathetic state, where thousands of them are in ruins, unattended to, and others moving in that direction – it is time these temples are freed,” Sadhguru said in a video tweeted from his official Twitter handle.

He further said that the pictures he received from devotees show the “damaged walls of temples with vegetation growing out of them, caved-in roofs, forlorn empty sanctums, broken idols and pillars lying discarded to one side”.

Another Twitter user named Indu Jagan shared a video showing the damage at the Vaacheswarar Temple, Tirupachur. “Damaged 100-pillar Kubera Sannidhi, dead cats at the outer circle and the temple tank being used as a toilet: will I want to go again?”

The #FreeTNTemples movement has been geared towards tangible electoral action. With elections in Tamil Nadu around the corner, Sadhguru has repeatedly urged all political parties to hear the voice of the people and include this vital issue in their election manifestos. The tweet storm has revealed the groundswell of anguish among the community, and received support and attention from a range of notable personalities.

Joining the campaign, several prominent personalities such as Kangana Ranaut, Raveena Tandon, Mouni Roy, Sri Divya, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Mohan Das Pai, Virendra Sehwag and many others tweeted using hashtag #FreeTNTemples and #100TweetsForTemples to trend it through the day.

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