Can the Axis Mundi Be Televised?

There's a debate about televising darshan at the most prestigious and sacred of all Varanasi's Hindu temples, which is one of the most important temples in India. Kashi Vishwanatha, or Vishveshara, as it also written, refers to the ancient name of Varanasi followed by the name of Shiva that means"Lord of All.' It is the site of one of 12 jyotirlingas in India, where Shiva rent the earth with a fiery beam of light to connect heaven and earth (A website that tries to explain the symbolism of the jyortirlingas is here.) The materialized lingam with its hundreds of thousands of artifactual expressions was given by Shiva to his followers to remember these events. In Diana Eck's retelling, Shiva, the mountain ascetic, left his solitary life of devotion to marry Parvati, daughter of the Himalayas. He became a city dweller when the chose the beautiful city of Varanasi for their home. Eck:

By the time of the Kashi Khanda this city was said to have been the "original ground" created by Shiva and Parvati, upon which they stood at the beginning of time when no other "place" existed; the place from which the whole creation came forth in the beginning and to which it will return in the fire of time's end, the place where Shiva's linga, as the unfathomable symbol of the Supreme Lord, first pierced the earth.

Little surprise that Kashi Vishvanatha has been a focus of political and religious struggles across the centuries, razed and rebuilt by Hndus and Muslims, associated with figures like Akbar, the great and tolerant Muslim empire builder and Araungzeb, the Muslim Sherman so far as the destruction of Varanasi was concerned. It was built in its present form and location by Rani (queen) Ahalyabai Holkar of Indore in the 18th century. The application of new media (millennially considered!) to religious tradition might seem to be a Benjaminian threat to the aura, or what Rudolf Otto called the numinous. But the consequence projected in the news article below seems to be laziness by devotees rather than a dilution of the sacred or even an assault on it. (The introduction of church service by telephone in the late 19th century in the United States provoked like predictions of devotional laziness among Christian congregants.) And an official Shaiva site about worship, itself a new media platform, that includes videos of worshipers doing puja before lingas is witness to the complexity of the technology/presence dialogue. The contemporary political is clearly involved since the BJP is the source of this particular complaint. Here's the article about the controversy:

From evaranasi.com:

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi has objected to the “live darshan” of the ‘jyotirlinga’ in Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi recently started on television.

“This technology will promote sedentary religious habits among the devotees. There is no alternative to visiting the temple physically,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“We are not against technology, but physical ‘darshan’ is an integral part of Hinduism. Live telecast from the ‘garbhagriha’ of the renowned temple will enable devotees to have a ‘darshan’ sitting conveniently in their bedrooms,” Joshi said, adding, “I support those who are against the live telecast.”

The Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust, which has been managing the affairs at the 18th century temple since 1983, has recently tied up with Tata VSNL and Tata Sky for live telecast from the shrine.

Talking to mediapersons at Varanasi, Joshi also reiterated the BJP’s stand on the Ganga Expressway project. He said it would not only destroy fertile land, but also pollute the sacred river. The former HRD minister, however, evaded a direct reply when questioned about the fertile land destroyed because of the Golden Quadrilateral Project during the NDA regime.

“Whatever has happened in the past should be forgotten and not be repeated,” he said. The BJP leader criticised the attacks on north Indians by Raj Thackarey and his party. “It happened in Assam earlier and now it’s happening in Mumbai. I appeal to all political parties to refrain from stirring up hatred.”

Much more to be unpacked religiously and politically. Stay tuned. A promising start may be provided by Philip Lutgendorf, writing in Lawrence A. Babb and Susan Wadley's Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia on the culture phenomenon that was the televising of the Ramayana in 1987 and 1988.