Cleanliness on par with godliness at the Madurai Meenakshi Temple

While Trichy has constantly been listed among the cleanest cities in the India for the last few years, the news about Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai being selected as the cleanest iconic place in the country is something that definitely adds to the pride of the people of Tamil Nadu. According to officials in charge of the temple, the footfall at the temple on any given day is more than 20,000. And during the festival season, the numbers go up to a lakh.Considering the large number of visitors every day at this temple, how do they manage to maintain the temple and its premises spick and span? Can the same 


cleanliness system be replicated in other temples across the state?

THERE'S A FOCUSED EFFORT FROM TEMPLE ADMINISTRATION

A lot of credit for this definitely goes to the district collector and the temple officials, say visitors and heritage enthusiasts. Temple chronicler from Chennai, Padmapriya Baskaran, says, “I know K Veera Raghava Rao, the Madurai district collector, since the time he was working in Tiruvallur. And I've had an opportunity to work with him in Madurai as well.He is a very socially conscious person. So, when the admin istrative head and the temple officials make conscious efforts to keep the place clean, it percolates down to others working in and around the temple, and also visitors.“ She adds, “There is a focused effort on their part to ensure cleanliness drives on a daily basis, deputing adequate workers and volunteers for such drives and placing enough number of waste bins throughout its sprawling premises. And I guess they also have a system in place, where if someone is found littering heshe will be fined `50.“

WORKERSVOLUNTEERS WORK ROUND THE CLOCK

N Natarajan, joint commissioner of the temple, says, “Mass cleaning happens four times a day. There are 89 workers exclusively for cleaning and they work in two shifts. This apart, there are two volunteer groups, who come here regularly to clean the premises.“ S Vivekanandan from one of the volunteer groups called Thirukoil Bhaktharkal Peravai Trust, says, “Every third Sunday we go to the Meenakshi Amman temple and clean the premises. We've been doing this for the last 26 years. Each time, around 70 to 100 people from different walks of life join us as volunteers for cleaning. They come to the temple on their own. We provide them refreshments and meal. Also, every Thursday, a few of us go there in the night and clean the sannidhi from 12am to 4am when devotees are not around.“ The volunteers also help in clearing vegetation that grows on the vimanas. “Birds drop seeds into the crevices of vimanas and vegetation starts growing.

And slowly they develop cracks. So, we clear them off regularly and also clean the gopurams,“ he says.

AWARENESS ABOUT CLEANLINESS PLAYS A KEY ROLE

Without any doubt, what's adding to the efforts put in by the officials is the success of the awareness created among public. Padmapriya says, “ Apart from not littering the place, people have been following protocols -like lighting lamps at designated places and refraining from taking them too close to the idols to avoid soot spoiling the idols. Even priests have been educated on how and where to discard old flowers and clothes. In temples, everyone, from priests to worshippers, have to undergo behavioural change to keep the premises clean. Because we perform pujas in the premises and serve prasadam, there should be a conscious effort to create awareness among everyone to maintain cleanliness -be it about lighting lamps, discarding used stuff, dumping containers in which prasadam is served, not spilling oilturmerickumkumam on floor, etc. That kind of awareness is definitely happening at the Madurai Meenakshi Temple.“

Seconding her is Lakshmi Narayanan, a regular visitor to the temple, who says, “I've always been amazed to see visitors at the temple making that conscious effort to keep its premises clean. You hardly see anyone littering the place. When they see the premises that clean, it deters them from littering the place.“

WHY THIS SHOULD SET AN EXAMPLE TO OTHER TEMPLES IN THE STATE

While agreeing that this is a commendable achievement, Padmapriya adds, “Madurai Meenakshi Temple has unlimited source of income. It's a UNESCO heritage monument; it sees a large number of footfall and so, donations are also high. It's easier for a temple like that to have a proper system in place for keeping the site clean. But if this has to be duplicated in smaller temples, it can only happen with behavioural change in people, right from the head of the institution to the devotees. And for that, there should be continuous effort to create awareness.Once that happens, we can be rightfully proud that our temple has achieved this award. This achievement should set an example and motivate other temples in Tamil Nadu to start working towards it.“