NEW DELHI: Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the pontiff of the Jyotir Mutt in Uttarakhand, said that he will not participate in the consecration ceremony to be held in Sri Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22. He said that none of the country’s four prominent shankarcharyas will attend the event.

Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati said that he decided to skip the event as the ceremony was being held against the Shastras since the construction of the temple was incomplete.

In a video shared on X, Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati said that the decision taken by the four Shankaracharyas should not be considered anti-Modi. He added that they took the decision as they did not want to be “anti-shastras”.

“What is the reason for not going? Not because of any aversion or hatred, but because it’s shankaracharyas’ duty to follow shastra-vidhi (rituals of the shastras) and ensure that they are followed. And here, shastra-vidhi is being ignored. The biggest problem is that the pran pratishtha (consecration) is being done when the temple is still incomplete,” he said.

Earlier, the Shankaracharya of Govardhan Mutt in Puri had said that he was not going to Ayodhya to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi performing the idol worship. He also asked what was the need of the priests if the Prime Minister was performing everything at the temple.

The Congress had also announced that it will not participate in the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration ceremony.