Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jan 14: "The way the government has been eyeing temple funds continuously, forces one to believe in the notion that its greed exceeds that of the famed invader, Mahmud Ghazni," retired judge of Karnataka high court, Justice N Kumar, stated.

Speaking after inaugurating a symposium on 'Kukke Subrahmanya - history and culture' organized here by The Mythic Society on Sunday, Justice Kumar commented that the riches of Hindu temples are making the government greedy to acquire them. Ghazi robbed riches of Somnath temple 17 times but he did not return for the 18th time. But the way our government is moving ahead, it looks like it will outdo Ghazni in plundering temple wealth," he stated.

He noted that there has been a steady rise in the number of people believing in god, although the form of god differs for different people as per their imagination and experience. "But there is a planned attack on this belief system. Those who do not have faith in the existence of god should not try to impose themselves on others. It is wrong for the people not having knowledge about righteousness to analyze religious things as per their own concepts," he felt.

Justice Kumar felt that it is the duty of experts to remove doubts in the minds of the people about religious beliefs. He said that huge books written for the purpose would be of no use for commoners. Therefore he suggested to the scholars to consider writing separate books for the common people and for those who are knowledgeable.

Historians who took part in the symposium threw light on the history and legends about Subrhamanya temple, and its past based on stone edicts, literary works relating to the temple etc.

Former MLA, K Narahari, Dr M Kotresh of Tumakuru university history department, historian, Vasudeva Badigar, and others were present.