New Delhi: Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar on Wednesday reacted to Jyotishmath Shankaracharya Avimukteshwarananda Saraswati’s criticism of the Ram Temple event, saying Lord Ram himself established a Shivling without a temple.

Shankaracharya had said he wouldn’t attend the January 22 event as Lord Ram’s idol will be installed in an under-construction temple.

“There are other provisions where you can keep building the temple after the prana pratishta. At Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Lord Rama himself did prana pratishta of a Shivalinga. That time there was no temple. He didn’t have time to build a temple. He did prana pratishta and later the temple was built,” he explained.

Shankaracharya’s remark sparked a new row with the Opposition questioning the government on why it was inaugurating the temple in haste.

The Art of Living founder said the Madurai and Tirupati Balaji temples were small. They were built later by the kings.

He said the wrong that happened 500 years ago is being corrected.

“It’s a dream coming true. For five centuries people have waited for this. It’s correcting the wrong that had happened 500 years back. So there’s a great sense of celebration and a lot of enthusiasm in the whole country,” the Art of Living founder said.

Meanwhile, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) MLA Jitendra Awhad said the government was carrying out the ceremony in an incomplete temple.

“Is January 22 a Ramnavmi? No. The temple in Ayodhya is incomplete but still pran pratishtha of the idol is being done. Real issues like inflation, unemployment etc are not talked about ahead of elections. The invitations sent out (for the consecration ceremony) smacks of caste bias,” he alleged.

On January 14, Shankaracharya explained why he wouldn’t attend the ceremony.

“It is not right to instill life (pran-pratishtha) in the body without its head or eyes. This goes against our scriptures. Hence, I will not be going there because if I go there people will say scriptures have been violated in front of me. Hence, we have raised the issue with responsible people, especially with the members of the Ayodhya Trust — that the celebration should be done once the temple is fully constructed. Discussion has been going on,” he said.

With inputs from PTI