The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has wisely stayed a massive two-day ‘meditation camp’ that was to be held in the precincts of Thanjavur’s historic Brihadeshwarar Temple in Tamil Nadu by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation.

The ‘Periya Kovil’, or Big Temple, as it is fondly referred to by most Tamilians, is a UNESCO World Heritage monument, and one of the largest and best-preserved temples in south India. Built between 1003-1010 AD by Raja Raja Chola I, it stands as a living memory of Tamil Nadu’s thousand-plus-year-old heritage of welfarism in governance.

It is this history which makes the happenings of the past few days so ironic. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his foundation were granted permission to erect huge tents within the prakaras – or outer precincts – of the temple. The Archeological Survey of India and the state’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department together granted permission for the event titled ‘Unveiling Infinity’. Clearly, neither the Central nor the state government exhibited discretion to protect a historic site from a private event of such a scale.

Apart from that impropriety, consider the complete lack of empathy of both the organisers and the government towards the people of Thanjavur, one of the districts worst affected by Cyclone Gaja. The town, and the entire district have been reeling in trauma, as thousands of families have been rendered homeless.

Thanjavur is in the heart of Tamil Nadu’s once rich Delta region. The Thanjavur region (comprising today’s Thanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts) along with other regions such as Trichy, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Pudukkottai, preserved for centuries their place in agrarian history as “Nerkalanchiyam” (land of paddy cultivation) or more colloquially, Tamil Nadu’s rice bowl. Producing everything from paddy to coconut, the farmers of this region flourished alongside other occupational communities such as fisherfolk, potters and skilled artisans.

Along with its place as the agrarian heartland of Tamil Nadu, this region has also been the epicentre of disasters. From floods to droughts, natural and manmade, one disaster after another has wreaked havoc through the area. The Delta farmers of Tamil Nadu have played a seminal part in the farmers’ uprising over the past few years. Wearing nothing more than a loincloth, with skulls around their necks, Delta farmers slept on the streets of Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for over a month last year.

Earlier this month, they reached the streets of the Capital again, walking with thousands of others from across India, as part of the historic Kisan Mukti March.

These farmers, along with thousands from fishing and other communities, faced yet another disaster on the night of November 16, 2018. A depression that formed in the Bay of Bengal, as part of the North Indian Ocean cyclone season, intensified and lashed across coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, and Karaikal in Puducherry.

The cyclone, aptly named Gaja, was a mammoth disaster. Winds at over 120 kmph, followed by rain, smashed homes to the ground, uprooted lakhs of trees, sank thousands of boats into knee deep slush and reduced livelihoods to nothing, all in a matter of hours.

The Tamil Nadu government, several weeks later, is still in the process of computing the damage. As on November 22, 63 people had lost their lives to Cyclone Gaja and over 4 lakh people were in relief camps. Close to 1 lakh electricity poles were destroyed, and water had reached up to two kilometres into land in some parts of the coastline. Public services came to a standstill for several days and the economy of the Delta region may have been set back by a decade.

At a time of great human suffering, is it not insensitive for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the Art of Living Foundation to have asked for the Big Temple as their venue for a private, elite gathering? This is worse because the temple, built by the great Chola king, has a history of being a “People’s Temple”. Grain was stored within for days of need, and the temple was opened up for people to take refuge in during calamities.

Stirring our memories a little, we can recall that this is not the first time the spiritual Guru and his organisation have exhibited such impropriety and abused their political clout to gain access to a protected space. In 2016, the Art of Living Foundation organised a ‘World Cultural Festival’ on the floodplains of the Yamuna river in Delhi. They caused tremendous damage to the sensitive ecosystem and were fined Rs 5 crore as environment compensation by the National Green Tribunal.

The government, both at the Centre as well as the state, have yet again demonstrated, what can only be understood as gross disregard for protected spaces that need to be preserved for posterity and not abused for such superficial display of “culture” by private, vested interests.

The Art of Living Foundation claims that the spiritual guru was meant to deliver a sermon on Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. In this grand pursuit, he seems to have forgotten the true egalitarian nature of Shaivite practice; empathy, propriety and inclusivity.

Like scores of other Tamilians, I am hurt by this unabashed display of insensitivity. However unfeasible it may be, it would have still made more sense to throw open the Brihadeshwarar Temple as a relief centre for Gaja affected families, rather than as a venue for a private programme by an elitist Guru.

The NGT fined the Art of Living Foundation Rs. 5 crore for the damage it caused to the Yamuna floodplain. Perhaps Sri Sri Ravi Shankar should donate that amount to Tamil Nadu and the people who have lost everything to Cyclone Gaja – if not out of empathy, then at least as reparations for causing us such hurt in a time of suffering.

Radhika Ganesh is an activist and the founding member of Ek Potlee Ret Ki / Kaani Nilam, a collective working on cultural identities and diversity.