Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati had recently raised questions over the ‘muhurat’ for Ram temple bhumi pujan in Ayodhya which is scheduled to be held on Wednesday. The religious leader had said that August 5 was not an auspicious date for the groundbreaking ceremony. However, Mahant Narendra Giri, chief of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, has now downplayed the issued.

Giri told Opoyi that a long-cherised dream of the people and seers across the country is going to be fulfilled with the bhumi pujan ceremony and added that any work related to Lord Ram is itself auspicious and it doesn’t require any special date, time or ‘muhurat’.

Commenting on Maharashtra leader Raj Thackeray’s statement that the bhumi pujan ceremony should be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Giri said a few people don’t want Ram temple to be constructed for their political gains. He said that all necessary precautions have been taken in view of disease. “Limited number of people have been invited for the ceremony. Also, we don’t know when will corona end and it will be not right to keep waiting for the temple construction to begin only because of this issue,” he said.

Giri said it was apt that the foundation stone for the temple is being laid by PM Modi who himself is a ‘karmayogi’.