Declare Moon ‘Hindu Rashtra’, Shiv Shakti Point its capital: Godman

Even as controversy engulfed the naming of the spot where the Chandrayaan-3 lander module touched down in a nail-biting countdown on August 23, a self-styled leader of the All India Hindu Mahasabha has called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the Moon as a Hindu Rashtra and the landing spot Shiv Shakti Point its capital.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, Swami Chakrapani Maharaj has asked the prime minister to declare the Moon a Hindu Sanatan Rashtra “before Islamic jihadists take it over”. In a 1.45-minute video posted on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Chakrapani Maharaj can be seen first congratulating Prime Minister Modi for the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and naming its landing spot Shiv Shakti Point.

“But before countries of other ideologies land there and declare it Gazva-e-Hind, before they spread Islamic fanaticism and terrorism, the Moon should be declared a Hindu Sanatan Rashtra and the Shiv Shakti Point its capital,” Chakrapani Maharaj says in vernacular Hindi in his video, in an obvious reference to Islamic jihadists.

In a similar vein, he spells out why the Moon should be declared a Hindu Rashtra, invoking Lord Shiva and His eternal relationship with the Moon. “The Moon has its abode on Lord Shiva’s head and Hindu sanatanis have been relating to the Moon since time immemorial, with Hindu Shastras replete with glorious tales on the Moon. I, therefore, wish the sanctity and purity of the Moon is not violated and it is declared a Hindu Sanatan Rashtra,” he reiterates in the video.

He goes on to suggest a resolution be passed in Parliament to this effect and the same pressed with the United Nations to officially declare the Moon a Hindu Sanatan Rashtra. “A resolution should be passed in Parliament and the United Nations should declare the Moon a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu Sanatan Rashtra,” Chakrapani Maharaj further says.

The remarks Chakrapani Maharaj has made on social media will only add fuel to the controversy that erupted barely within days of the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 mission spacecraft on the Moon after the Centre named the spot Shiv Shakti Point. There are rumblings in public domain that are being heard across the country against giving the landing spot a name derived from Hindu mythology.

Chairman S Somanath, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on Sunday (August 27) defended the naming of the landing spot as Shiv Shakti Point. “It was the prerogative of the prime minister to christen the landing point,” he said.