Vajragiri Hill and Pasupathinathar Temple under siege by Christian Missionaries

Vajragiri hill range is located 95 kms from Chennai, next to Acharapakkam. You can see a dilapitaded building atop the hillock and flashy new church near it. The dilapidated building is actually 1500 old siva temple. The Lord is known as Sri Pashupathinathar and His consort Maragadhambigai.

The temple is located 700 steps high on the hillock. There are two ways to reach the temple. One is these steps and another is vehicular route behind the hills.

Since 1969 Christian missionaries have been rampantly ransacking this hillock constructing a church of grandeur called ‘Mazhaimalai Matha Arulthalam’. There has been crosses implanted everywhere on the hills and biblical scenes engraved on almost all rocks till the top of the hill.

The entrance to the temple has also been blocked and an arch has been constructed by the church. Hence temple goers are forced to enter church campus to visit the temple which is also now blocked by the church by dumping thorns. A few well-wishers have constructed a temporary path which is also destroyed by the Christian missionaries by dumping debris.

The ulterior ultimate sinister motive of these Christian missionaries is to somehow block passage to the temple on top so that the full hill can be brought into their control. A few years back some good Samaritan youth of the village joined together to revive this temple and did the following services.

• Got donations and put lights near the temple.
• Put a flash board with letters ‘Siva Siva’.
• Constructed water tanks with the intent of sinking new borewells.

However the forest officials stopped them from doing the same citing that the land belongs to forest department. When asked why they were quite when Christians were erecting church they were given reply that the Christian missionaries have leased the hill for 99 years. Also the flash lights and tanks have been surreptitiously destroyed by antisocials.

The temple priest Sri R Balaji and few others have escalated these issues to a lot of government departments but to no avail.

In parallel, the Christians are trying to make a new custom like Tiruvannamalai Girivalam for their church and also the customs of tying cradles and yellow strings to their church. There used to be a Ganesh temple at the foot hills which needs to be worshipped first and then siva temple needs to be visited. Now the church is constructing a Prayer Tower at a whopping investment of 3 crores And for this the hill is being blasted and the rocks are being used for the same.

The humble appeal of the villages is to save the temple and ecosystem from the beastly gestures of Christian maniacs and missionaries.