Keep politics out of temple: parting guru
THE embattled president and guru of a Chatsworth temple and a group of disgruntled members and devotees have buried the hatchet after months of “power play” claims and a High Court battle. In May, a court battle had brewed after it was alleged the Siva Manram temple in Havenside had been “captured” by unknown forces and there had not been any financial meetings held for the past decade. Elvis Padayachee, a former president who is now the interim chairperson of the temple’s “crisis committee”, told POST earlier that the 50-yearold temple had come under serious threat of losing its heritage, values and religious direction after a new group of devotees, under Guru Thiagarajan Govender, were to take over the conduct of the service. The temple’s president, trustee and guru, Archie Somasundram Hirasen, had claimed the “dissident group” of “socalled” devotees were out to cause trouble and had escalated the matter to the Durban High Court. After months of mediation between the parties and various religious organisations, Havenside Civic Association chairperson Mubarak Mohamed stepped in to aid the feuding parties. In the agreement signed by Padayachee and Hirasen, it was agreed that the temple’s finances for the period of 2008 to 2018 would be audited and that a biennial general meeting would be conducted on November 3. Thereafter, Hirasen would not stand for re-election to any position and would resign as a member of the temple. In a second agreement between Padayachee, who represented the temple, and Govender and his group of Shallcross worshippers, it was agreed that he would not attend any religious services along with his group of worshippers. Govender, who requested to remove the 79 nayanmar murthies from the temple, was given until August 18 to do so and must ensure that the temple was restored to the condition it was prior to the consecration ceremony held in February. At a meeting held on Saturday to address the concerned members and devotees on the agreement, Padayachee said, “There is always light at the end of the tunnel. “Since then to now, all we have had is an attempt to destroy the peace in this place, attempt to remove current membership and an attempt to replace everything that is of worship, with something else, but we are now back as Siva Manram, in its original form.” Speaking to POST on Monday, Hirasen said he and the official Siva Manram executive council had decided that they could no longer be party to the “actions” of the “dissident group”. “Numerous long-standing Siva Manram members, local devotees, sponsors, Guru Thiagarajan Govender, religious leaders from across the country and myself wished to immediately distance and disassociate ourselves from the organisation. Through the hands of the interim committee, the organisation has lost all focus on religion and spirituality and instead became a tool to drive the political and ego focused agenda of a few misguided people. Hirasen added that over the past few months he had received an outpouring of support from people across the country as well as internationally. “We wish to thank all those who stood by the truth and had God at the centre of their actions. My advice to all temple societies is to keep politics out of the temple doors.” Govender told POST that the Siva Manram was a temple, not a “museum”, referring to his request to remove the murthies. “The interim committee did not allow devotees to enter the temple to perform prayer since April. Prayer needs to be done,” he said. “We will place the murthies in a temple that does not close its doors on devotees.”