LUCKNOW: Posters of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath at a rally in Kathmandu to welcome former Nepal king Gyanendra Bir Shah has created a flutter in the Himalayan country, though the ties of its erstwhile monarchy with Gorakhsh Peeth, headed by Yogi, is centuries old.
The Shah dynasty, which ruled Nepal till monarchy was abolished in May 2008, calls itself Gorakhpanthi, or the follower of Guru Gorakhnath. Yogi was even called by the pro-monarchy group in 2015 to address a rally in Kathmandu, where he had made a strong pitch for reinstatement of Nepal’s ‘Hindu nation’ status.
“Nepal has 82% Hindus, and a significant number of them revere Nath sect’s Guru Gorakhnath and his spiritual mentor, Guru Matseyndranath. For them, the Communist dispensation and China’s growing influence has not been conducive, leading to clamour for restoration of monarchy as well as Nepal’s status as a Hindu nation,” said a political analyst.
Pradeep Bikram Rana, who claimed to have waved the Yogi poster at the Sunday rally, reached Gorakhpur on Tuesday. He claimed he was being persecuted by the authorities in Kathmandu, forcing him to flee. Rana admitted to idolising Yogi as a symbol of Hindu pride. “The connection between Nepal’s former ruling dynasty and Gorakhsh Peeth is very old,” says Dwarika Tiwari, who has been looking after the mutt’s administration since 1972. King Birendra, who was assassinated along with his entire family in 2001, shared a strong bond with Mahant Avaidyanath, Yogi’s guru.
“Even today, when monarchy has ended in Nepal, an offering of Rs 10,000 during Makar Sankranti, Rs 5,000 on first king’s birthday and Rs 5,000 on Dussehra is sent by the royal family to Goraksh Peeth. The temple sends ‘prasad’ to the family through a representative every year,” Tiwari told TOI. “There is a legend that Guru Gorakhnath had blessed Prithvi Shah — considered the first king of modern Nepal — when he was a boy that his empire would flourish and expand wherever he would go. It is after this that Nepal, which was divided into several provinces, was unified.”
