Karunakaran had a spiritual bond with Sabarimala

Former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran offering prayers at the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala on Christmas day in 1998.

An Ayyappa devotee, the departed Congress leader K. Karunakaran had a strong spiritual bond with Sabarimala.

It was Karunakaran who had sown the seeds of development at Sabarimala three decades ago. He used to unfailingly undertake the Sabarimala pilgrimage every year till 1992. But he could not continue it for long following a major road accident.

Karunakaran's last pilgrimage to Sabarimala was on Christmas day in 1998. He had to use the dolly service between Pampa and the Sannidhanam reluctantly owing to ill health.

“I am against man carrying man on his shoulders to the holy hillock … ,” he had said.

Karunakaran's unstinting devotion to Ayyappa came to the fore when he reached the temple ‘Sopanam' with the ‘Irumudikkettu' (sacred bundle) on the head later. Cut off from the surroundings, he chanted the ‘Ayyappa Saranom' mantra when he came face to the face with the deity. The leader was in divine ecstasy.

His son, K. Muraleedharan, used to carry the leader's ‘Irumudikkettu' too to Sabarimala during every pilgrim season since 1999. But Mr. Muraleedharan could not carry the sacred bundle of his ailing father during his recent pilgrimage to Sabarimala. But he had carried a ghee-filled coconut in the name of his father this time too.

Akhila Ayyappa Seva Sanghom national vice-president D. Vijayakumar, who had been a follower of Karunakaran, said it was the leader who had initiated the Sabarimala road development project, besides allowing forest land to be used as vehicle parking lots at Pampa Hill-Top and a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation depot at Pampa.

Though Karunakaran had made arrangements for taking former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Sabarimala four decades ago and had even set up a helipad near the Sannidhanam as part of it, he had to drop the plan owing to opposition from various Hindu organisations.