The Sanathan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha is ex­pect­ed to rec­om­mend its for­mer spir­i­tu­al leader (Dhar­ma­charya) Pun­dit Kr­ish­na Ma­haraj for this coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T.

Ma­ha Sab­ha sources in­di­cat­ed this in a brief in­ter­view yes­ter­day. Pun­dit Ma­haraj, who died in 2003, was first award­ed the then-high­est na­tion­al award–the Trin­i­ty Cross–in 1996 but he re­fused to ac­cept it be­cause of its Chris­t­ian sym­bol.

He be­gan a cam­paign to have the name of the award changed and years lat­er in 2009, it was re­named the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T.

Many non-Chris­t­ian re­li­gions ob­ject­ed to the Trin­i­ty Cross as the coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award. Ma­ha Sab­ha sources said the award should be pre­sent­ed posthu­mous­ly as a fit­ting trib­ute to the con­tri­bu­tion Pun­dit Ma­haraj made to this coun­try in the sphere of re­li­gion and al­so as a trib­ute to his stance in ini­ti­at­ing a name change for the award. Na­tion­al Awards are to be pre­sent­ed to de­serv­ing cit­i­zens on In­de­pen­dence Day, Au­gust 31. It is ex­pect­ed that the cer­e­mo­ny will take place at the Knosw­ley Build­ing in Port-of-Spain.