Dispute At Yuba City Hindu Temple Centers Around Sacred Statue

YUBA CITY (CBS13) - A sacred statue is at the center of a feud in the Yuba City Hindu community.

A caretaker says she was just trying to help when she moved the statue. But it's where she left it that has some worshippers saying it's been desecrated.

The Shivling is one of the holiest items in a Hindu temple, and it had been in the Yuba City Sri Narayan Hindu Temple since it opened in 1996. It's not there anymore though.

Ranbir Pandit has this holy relic, but only because he took it. And he's not giving it back.

"This Shivling does not get touched or removed from its original place," he said. "She had it taken out, placed outside by the garbage dump."

The Shivling is a black marble statue, representing the Hindu god Shiva, and Pandit says the temple's caretaker desecrated it.

"The god that we worship was thrown out of the temple in garbage," he said.

But that's not the caretaker's side of the story.

"People don't clean up so all smells come," Sushil Bhopla said.

She says worshippers weren't respecting the temple, allowing the traditional yogurt, honey, and milk offerings to collect on the statue - attracting bugs and worms.

"You have to clean it after, but nobody listens," she said.

So she got some help moving the 350-pound icon out of the temple and placed it next to a dumpster, covering it with a garbage bag. She says she was not throwing it out, just protecting it until it was cleaned.

But Pandit says the statue was headed to the dump, so his brother asked for permission and then took the statue, where it now sits in his back yard.

"This is the limit, this is the straw that broke the camel's back," he said.

Pandit says worshippers are having a lot of problems with the way things are done at the temple. They're asking for changes.

As far as the Shivling, Pandit says it will be holy once again but will never return to the temple.