Whenever he walks out of prison, life for Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati - seen as a spiritual mentor by millions of Hindus - will never be the same again.
Having already spent a fortnight in the Vellore prison in Tamil Nadu, there is little doubt that the reputation of the 70-year-old pontiff has been besmirched, some say, beyond repair.
His own followers are divided on their assessment of the near impossible that has happened - the arrest and jailing of a man who was widely seen as the most recognised face of a polytheistic religion that has a pantheon of gods and gurus to choose from.
The fact that he has been linked to the murder of a follower of the Kancheepuram 'Mutt', one of the religion's most well known orders, because that man had accused the Shankaracharya of wrongdoing is still proving to be unbelievable to many.
The development has caused echoes in distant New Delhi where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Government is facing the heat from the main Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allied Hindu organisations.
It has also caused political convulsions in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK did the unexpected by coming out openly in support of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa when the seer was arrested in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Nov 11.
{{/usCountry}}It has also caused political convulsions in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK did the unexpected by coming out openly in support of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa when the seer was arrested in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Nov 11.
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