Ayodhya Ram temple chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das passes away

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expresses condolences; mortal remains of Das brought to his ashram, last rites to be performed at Saryu Ghat in Ayodhya

LUCKNOW/AYODHYA Chief priest of Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, Acharya Satyendra Das, 87, passed away at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow on Wednesday, said a press statement issued by the institute.

Ayodhya Ram Mandir chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das. (ANI Photo)

He was admitted to the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the neurology ward at SGPGI in a critical condition on February 3 after he suffered a stroke.

Mortal remains of Das were brought to his ashram, Satya Dham Gopal Mandir in Ayodhya, on Wednesday and his last rites will be performed at the Saryu Ghat in Ayodhya on February 13, an agency report stated.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences on his demise and called it an irreparable loss to the spiritual world. “The demise of Acharya Shri Satyendra Kumar Das Ji Maharaj, the supreme devotee of Lord Ram and the chief priest of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, Shri Ayodhya Dham, is extremely sad and an irreparable loss to the spiritual world. Heartfelt tribute! We pray to Lord Shri Ram to grant the departed soul a place at His divine feet and to give strength to his grieving disciples and followers to endure this profound loss. Om Shanti!” CM Yogi expressed in a post on X.

Acharya Satyendra Das was born and raised in a family of priests and was trained in traditional Vedic scriptures and rituals from a young age. Since the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, he had been serving as its chief priest.

Das will be remembered as an important pillar of Ayodhya’s cosmopolitan culture and a fearless sadhu who spoke his mind. Though associated with the Ram mandir, he never hesitated in sharing stage with people from different communities or those who did not subscribe to the BJP/RSS ideology.

He never supported religious frenzy and was all for social harmony. Das had even wrote a letter to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, congratulating him for his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

Professor Anil Singh, who teaches literature at Ayodhya’s Saket Degree College, said: “Pujariji’s (as people often called Acharya Satyendra Das) doors remained open for people of all faiths. He often shared stage with secularists and gave the message of harmony. Despite being a devoted Ram Bhakt, he was never a hardliner and always spoke peace.”

Das was the chief priest even on the day when the disputed structure was demolished by a mob of karsewaks in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. He had shifted the idols to the nearby Fakire Mandir before the demolition and after the demolition, he placed the idols in the makeshift temple at Ram Janmabhoomi.