Temples going green and ISO certification of temples.

Learnt  from a news daily [toi] that Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department of Tamil nadu Government ,which controls temples across this state has hit upon a novel idea of  ways and methods to keep temples clean and tidy .
No , No, they are not hiring a battery of workers to keep the supposedly dirty premises of temples' clean  and tidy' for disposal of Huge solid and liquid waste generated in temples but will utilise the 'gallons' of liquids  used in abhishekam of the deities, and the gallons of water  going waste in the  kitchens of temples preparing prasadams offered every day to the deity and the tonnes of sewage generated in the handful of toilets abutting the temple compounds  will all be mixed together ,to extract  clean  and environment friendly water  by modern technologies which will be reused in the temples.
In what manner will such water be used?May be to wash the temple and its prakarams and also to water the temple gardens  and wash  the roads abutting the temple when Utsavar is taken in a procession during temple festivals!
Last time when i visited Srirangam i saw the roads just outside the ramparts of the temple being watered by small water tankers ,with hose pipe and sprinklers an hour before Num perumal the petite processional deity of Sri Ranganathar  was to be borne upon a palanquin around the temple and away to a distant garden,
I appreciated this gesture on the part of the authorities [HR and CE?] to maintain age old traditions.where in residents sprinkled water at front of their houses and drew artistic kolams [rangoli] with rice flour  when ever processions of deities are taken outside the temple.The officials  were doing it in a larger scale and it felt good .--[did i cast eyes?]
But here after will i feel thus?May be the treated sewage water will be used for this purpose and poor Ranganathar and Num perumal would have to bear this disrespect , humiliation  to them and desecration  of their premises in patience and in silence.Who will defend Sriman Narayana in His mute archa form  ? Who cares?Except for  a few like me who are not politically so important as to be cause of worry   about the fall out.

I also read that the prasad prepared in the kitchens of SriRanganathar temple  at Sri Rangam , Kapalishwar temple at Mylapore and Meenakshi temple at Madurai are made by using Bio gas!
This yet another blow to tradition and sense of self worth of  temples .Even if it may be argued that Bio gas is made only out of cow dung ,to my knowledge  temple kitchens in Perumal[Vishnu along with Lakshmi] koils, in usual course , use only fire wood to cook prasadam and use  only few cow dung cakes , that  to ,only to  ignite the logs .Big and small courses in temple kitchens are not cooked over dung fire.

I am unable to understand this yen to go green to the extent of recycling solid and liquid wastes ,sewage etc only in temples and its surroundings when traditions, customs and ordinary prudence are strictly against using such filth even if re- packaged  , in the daily rituals performed in temples or in using flowers grown in gardens watered by such filthy  filtered water or in keeping its premises and immediate surroundings clean by spraying such water .
In Sri Rangam temple ,only the flowers and tulsi  grown in the gardens maintained by the temple are allowed to decorate moolavars  and utsavars.Flowers bought from outside are not used to adorn the Lord or His consort .They are strictly banned .In such a situation when so much premium is attached to the purity of origin of flowers adorning the deities will this new fangled idea of watering the gardens of temples with treated sewage water go down  well with priests and devotees?Is there  dearth of water in Srirangam?Doesn't river kaveri flow just a half a km away?

Peria aazhwar [8-9th cent AD] has sung the following hymn on Sri Rangam temple that is not only fragrant but also leaves behind one , the memory of that fragrance .

Kozhuppudaiya sezhungkurudhi kozhithizhindhu kumizhtheria
pizhakkudaiya asurragalai pinnam padutha perumanoor,
thazuparia santhanangal thadavaraivai yeerthu kondu
thezhuppu udaiya kaverivanthadi thozhumseer Arangame.-------------Periaazhwar Thirumozhi 408

The scented waters of Kaveri that drag sandal trees from the hills wash and worship the sacred feet of my Lord at Sri Rangam who annihilated asuras  of wicked deeds . 

Hereafter will Sri Rangam be identified as the place of residence of Sri Ranganathar whose sacred feet is washed by treated  sewage water?It is Abhorrent and repulsive.to think in this manner but it could very well be the reality if the plan of the Commissioner in his quest to save the environment and the desire to secure ISO certification of this hoary  ancient temple from a NGO from far off  Geneva  is implemented .

A sentence in that news report trumpeted  the Commissioner of HRCE 's pride in securing ISO certification of several temples in Tamilnadu and that he was following their guidelines in order to retain that certification.I am unable to believe this!Do temples and its deities need ISO certification ?I thought that this certificate which stands for International Organisation for Standardisation  was sought after only by companies , hotels hospitals to ensure standards and to attract customers  .Is a temple popular because of the power of its deity and devotion of its devotees or is it popular because a group of experts sitting in Geneva  have decided that it is popular  or has the potentiality of popularity  and needs to be environmental friendly and lay down rules such as these--recycling waste solid and liquids and ask them to be implemented and very coolly desecrate the place of worship and put down the standards  of the temple in the eyes of its devotees of the very  temples they may certify with a ISO tag ?

Why can't the department of HRCE implement this plan of going green in its own premises?Why not in Secretariat, govt offices and hotels?  Don't these places generate more solid and liquid waste than a temple?Why not use the treated sewage  water to water the numerous  parks  that dot cities , road side hedges and the trees and plants lining Marina beach?Why not use Bio gas in the canteens of govt offices?

Why are temples targeted thus? The places where sacredness has to be preserved by following normal traditions, unpalatable  ideas defiling temples in name of modernity and economy  such as this is sought to be implemented and in places where such green trends can be experimented like offices, colleges etc  without any desecration to the institutions ,it is not being done !

All the temples i have visited in Tamilnadu whether in heart of a city or in remote village are all clean and tidy.It is in cities or towns that the streets leading to the temples are congested with shops and vendors who litter the  roads ,they have encroached for their trade.

I guess the temple premises are kept clean because of the Hindu belief that   sweeping and washing temples is a good karma .So there is a hardly any need for NGO to take up this work .The truly sincere NGOS who really want to contribute for the upkeep of the temples can be used to clean temple pond s/pushkarnis and clear the temple gardens of encroachments and donate towards their maintenance.

I request the HRCE to drop this plan to recycle waste of temples  with  the sole purpose to reuse it in the temples and also stop the bizarre move to seek ISO certification of temples , a certification  from off shores that comes with .conditions that goes  against Hindu beliefs and sensitivities.