Pran Pratishtha of Ram Darbar performed at Ayodhya temple
The second Pran Pratishtha at Ayodha's Ram Temple, in which a statue of Lord Ram in the form of a king at Ram Darbar was consecrated, concluded on Thursday in a simple ceremony. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was present on the occasion.
Nearly a year and a half ago, the Pran Pratishtha of the Ram Lalla idol was done in a grand ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hundreds of VIPs.
The 15-minute final consecration rituals started at 11:25 am on Thursday with the chanting of mantras by acharyas from different parts of the country, including Kashi, Ayodhya, Basti, Delhi, Kolkata, Devprayag, Haridwar, Jammu among others. The main acharya leading the rituals was Jai Prakash Tripathi from Kashi, and next to him was Acharya Chandra Bhanu Sharma from Delhi. Ram Temple Trust member Anil Mishra and his wife were the main 'yajman' at the event.
Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra president Nritya Gopal Das, Swami Awadheshanand Giri as well as Trust secretary Champat Rai were also present.
The rituals were held on the first floor of the Ram Temple where the Ram Darbar has been established as darshan of the Balak Ram continued as regular on the ground floor.
While the consecration of idols of Ram, Sita, Bharat, Laxman, Shatrughan and Hanuman at the Ram Darbar along with that of idols of Surya, Hanuman, Maa Annapurna, Shiva, Goddess Durga at six other temples on the temple premise has been completed, the pilgrims will have to wait for some more time before these temples and the Ram Darbar is open for public.
Officials of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust said the decision to delay the darshan was taken because of space constraints.
'The Ram Darbar and the new temples will be opened to the public only after a set mechanism for entry, exit, timing, and number of pilgrims is properly worked out. A meeting of the Trust is likely to take place in the next few days to discuss these plans with the experts. Till then, pilgrims will be allowed entry only on the ground floor of the main temple,' said an official of the Trust.
Officials said that at present, about 60,000 to 70,000 pilgrims are visiting the Ram Temple on average daily, with some increase on weekends or some special auspicious days. However, unlike the Garbha Griha on the ground floor, there is a space constraint on the first floor. Just in front of the entrance of the Garbha Griha Mandapam, there are staircases on either side going to the first floor. Officials said that while all the pilgrims cannot be allowed entry to the first floor, a mechanism is being worked out, where an online pass system is made available for the public.
Unlike last year, the town was rather quiet this time around, with the focus mainly on the religious rituals. Activities in the rest of the town progressed as usual, except for a few traffic restrictions in place. Since there was no major influx of VIPs, unlike the previous year, traffic restrictions were also kept to a minimum till Thursday.
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a day ago
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