The Shankaracharya of Dwaraka-Sharda Peeth, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, on Monday made yet another controversial comment, saying that worshipping the 'unworthy' Sai Baba is the reason for the present drought-like situation in Maharashtra.
"Sai is not worthy of worshipping. According to the Dwaraka seer, worshipping Sai Baba, a ‘fakir’, as if he were a god was ‘inauspicious’. People are putting the idols of Hanuman and Ganesh on the legs of Sai. And this is happening extensively in Maharashtra. Wherever these kinds of things take place, such calamities take place," Swaroopanand Saraswati told media.
"The result of this has caused this havoc in Maharashtra. Sai Baba is revered in Maharashtra especially Shirdi. That's why drought has occurred. Worshipping Sai would not give relief to situations like this. Sai worshipping should be stopped and instead Ganesh should be worshipped," he added.
The 94-year-old seer also expressed his opinion on the Shani temple row and said that women should not have entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Shani Shingnapur temple as “it will bring bad luck to them”.
“Shani is a planet of sins. Worshipping him will lead to a rise in crime against women,” he added.
Women entered Shani temple inner sanctum, due to this, incidents of rapes will increase further, Shankaracharya Swaroopanand said.
Shankaracharya had earlier in 2014 disapproved Sai Baba's worship and asked the Hindus to removes his photographs and idols from temples.
