Swami Lakshmanananda

 

Swami Lakshmanananda exemplifies‘Manav sewa is madhav sewa’ (Service to humanity is service to God)

On August 23 — the day on which Janmashtami fell in 2008 — the assailants pumped several bullets into the frail body of the 84-year-old Hindu monk Vedanta Keshari Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati Swamiji and four of his followers.There is enough evidence to suggest that Maoist did this at the behest of Christian Evangelicals.The murder was committed during a spiritual discourse.

It is pertinent to mention that six months after the brutal killing of the Swami and four of his followers, Sabyasachi Panda owned up responsibility for the gruesome murder in an interaction with three Left-leaning journalists Sampad Mahapatra, Prafulla Das and Apurba Mohanty in a deep forest hinterland. All the three journalists were deposed before the Naidu Commission. Panda is also on record having said that most Maoist cadre in Odisha are Christians. This points to a deeper Missionary-Maoist nexus in Swami Lakshmanananda murder.

The Maoists might have pulled the trigger on the frail body of the 84-year-old Sanyasi, but several intelligence inputs suggest that the heinous act was committed at the behest of unnamed Christian Missionaries. Intelligence sources further suggest that a US-based Pentecostal Church funded Maoists to execute the attack on the revered Hindu monk. At this time there is no independent verification of these Intelligence inputs and no Christian Missionary has been charged with conspiring to murder the Hindu monk.

Before the murderous attack, there were nine such attacks on Lakshmanananda. It was common knowledge that every attack had a Missionary hand behind it. In December 2007, Lakshmanananda sustained serious injuries in a violent attack at Daringbadi, the centre of missionary activities in Kandhamal. Following the attack, several complaints were registered to enhance the Swami’s security, but they all fell on deaf ears of Naveen Patnaik Government.

On August 13, 2008, a threatening letter targeting Swami Lakshmanananda was circulated among the Kandhamal district administration and State authorities. A copy of this letter was also sent to Lakshmanananda. On August 22, 2008, Swamiji appealed to the District Magistrate of Kandhamal to enhance his personal security. But surprisingly, police protection was thinned down at his Jaleshpata Ashram. The next morning, local media flashed the news that the life of the Swami was under threat. In the evening, Lakshmanananda was killed along with four of followers during a spiritual discourse.Death of Swami led to serious communal clashes between Hindu and Christian tribals, what is now called as Kandhamal Riots - where christians pretend to be oppressed.

This points to an abysmal administrative failure by the Naveen Patnaik Government to protect a social reformer from the tentacles of terrorism. Till date the Odisha Government has not given any explanation to the serious lapses.But the masterminds of the heinous act are still at large, bringing into doubt the very sincerity of the BJD Government in cracking the case.

It seems the Odisha unit of the RSS and the VHP Odisha together have failed to put pressure on the State Government to bring the perpetrators of the Swami’s murder into justice. The Odisha BJP, which has given the issue a miss, is not even interested.

Swami Lakshmanananda combated fraudulent conversion by Christian missionaries. He was spearheading the Goraksha Andolan. He was working for the socio-economic well-being of the marginalised and indigent in Kandhamal and thereby earned the ire of the missionaries who use charity as a façade for converting people away from their native faith.

Lakshmanananda exemplifies‘Manav sewa is madhav sewa’ (Service to humanity is service to God). “Never have fear of death when you are working for the cause of the motherland.” These were his last words.Swami Lakshmanananda was relentless in his struggle for the cause of tribal welfare for four decades. He crafted a new template for selfless social service. His work will inspire the lives and times for generations to come.