Opening B vault could cause calamities

The devaprashnam being held at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple here has ‘‘concluded’’ that opening of the B cellar for any more treausure could invite unprecedented divine retribution in the form of deaths and calamities. The B cellar is the seat of the temple’s divinity, priests said, interpreting the findings of the ritual held to discern the will of the deity. If opened, it would lead to disasters that would not confine themselves to the temple, they claimed. The ill-effects would haunt not just who are party to the opening, but even their bloodlines, they observed. The divinity of the temple was closely associated with the ‘B’ vault and disturbing certain rooted traditions would invite God's wrath. The process also “found” many bad omens and disturbing signals inside the temple and gave a firm “no” to moving or alienating the vast riches preserved in the shrine’s vaults. The ritual headed by temple ‘tantri’ (head priest) Tharanallur Parameswaran Namboodhiri and a team of five astrologers concluded on Thursday. There are a total of six underground vaults in the temple of which a Supreme Court-appointed committee had opened five. They had thrown up wealth worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore, catapulting the shrine to the world’s richest. The sixth and final vault, identified as B vault, had not been opened following objections from various quarters. A serpent head inscribed on the cellar gate was interpreted as a bad omen. On Wednesday, the devaprashnam “detected” serious lapses in the conduct of the daily rituals in the shrine, besides financial irregularities. It also revealed cracks in the idol of the Lord used in the procession as well as the idol of the principal deity and called for their urgent rectification. The predictions claimed that inauspicious signs related to the temple would adversely affect the Travancore Royal family and recommended another extensive devaprashnam in the palace of the erstwhile Travancore kings within a year to know what had gone wrong and find remedies. Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy visited the temple on Thursday evening to assess security arrangements and held extensive discussions with the top police officers.