Sto­ries by SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Thou­sands of mourn­ers, com­pris­ing fol­low­ers of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SD­MA), prin­ci­pals, teach­ers, stu­dents and dig­ni­taries are ex­pect­ed to pay their last re­spects to its fall­en gen­er­al sec­re­tary Sat Ma­haraj, to­day.

Ma­haraj, 88, died on Sat­ur­day, eight days af­ter he suf­fered a stroke.

Since then, con­do­lences came in from Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and a host of oth­er re­li­gious and sec­u­lar bod­ies.

SDMS’ le­gal ad­vis­er Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, in out­lin­ing de­tails of the fu­ner­al ser­vice and cre­ma­tion of Ma­haraj, said the body is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive at the house of mourn­ing, Champ Fleurs, at 7.30 am, where re­li­gious rit­u­als will be per­formed for an hour.

By 8.30 am, Ram­bal­ly said Ma­haraj’s body will be tak­en to the SDMS’s head­quar­ters in St Au­gus­tine for his fu­ner­al ser­vice which be­gins at 9 am and ends at 10.30 am.

Al­though five peo­ple, who Ram­bal­ly re­fused to iden­ti­fy, are ros­tered to de­liv­er re­marks, one fam­i­ly mem­ber is ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er the eu­lo­gy.

From 10.30 am, the pub­lic will be al­lowed for one hour to view Ma­haraj’s body in the SDMS’s court­yard to of­fer their last re­spects.

Flow­ers will be ac­cept­ed.

By noon, Ma­haraj’s body will be tak­en to the Ca­roni Cre­ma­tion Site un­der po­lice es­cort.

Ma­haraj’s fu­ner­al pyre must be lit be­fore 1 pm, Ram­bal­ly said.

Giv­en Ma­haraj’s con­tri­bu­tion to the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, Ram­bal­ly said they ex­pect a turnout of thou­sands for both the ser­vice and cre­ma­tion.

Yes­ter­day the SDMS an­nounced a change of heart about al­low­ing the me­dia to cov­er the fu­ner­al ser­vice less than twen­ty-four hours af­ter it is­sued a press re­lease in­sti­tut­ing the ban on the me­dia hous­es.

“The me­dia is there­fore wel­come to cov­er this event,” a press re­lease to­day stat­ed.

It blamed the de­ci­sion to in­sti­tute the ban on the ac­tions of an un­named re­porter who it said dis­re­spect­ed re­li­gious pro­ceed­ings at the wake on Sun­day night. It said the re­porter went “against our ex­pressed wish­es.”

The SDMS has been crit­i­cised for the move, with one pun­dit say­ing the de­ci­sion was in­sult­ing to Mr Ma­haraj.

Sev­er­al me­dia hous­es reached out to the SDMS, the re­lease stat­ed, and hav­ing con­sult­ed on the mat­ter it has “re­con­sid­ered its po­si­tion.”

“We there­fore have a du­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure that the na­tion is giv­en a prop­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to bid farewell to this na­tion­al icon and ti­tan of a man. We have there­fore de­cid­ed to al­low full ac­cess to the fu­ner­al at the Lak­sh­mi Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege and the cre­ma­tion at the Ca­roni Cre­ma­tion Site.”