On Monday, people went to the major temples of the capital Patna to seek shelter from God to wish for success in the new year. There was a queue of devotees from morning till late night to have darshan of the Lord. According to an estimate, more than six lakh people visited the Lord in various temples.
On the first day of the New Year, the maximum crowd was in Mahavir Temple and ISKCON Temple located at Patna Junction. Apart from this, devotees also reached Darbhanga House Kali Temple, Kankarbagh Sai Temple, Chhoti Patan Devi, Agamkuan, Rajvanshi Nagar Hanuman Temple. Youth had the highest participation among the devotees.
Temples were specially decorated for the New Year. Additional priests and servants were deployed in the temples. Also, special police force was deployed by the district administration for security. So that the devotees do not face any kind of problem.
There was a huge crowd of devotees in Mahavir temple on the first day of the new year. As soon as the doors opened after the Jagran Aarti at five in the morning, women, men and children all gathered to see and worship their idol. Despite the severe frost, the line of devotees started forming outside the entrance of Mahavir Temple from four in the morning. Within a few hours, separate lines of male and female devotees moved forward from GPO Golambar and reached near R Block, passing in front of Veer Kunwar Singh Park.
At 5:15 am in the Mahavir temple, the doors of the sanctum sanctorum containing both the idols of Hanumanji and Ram’s court were opened. As soon as the curtain opened, the process of darshan and offering of prasad by the devotees started, which continued till the curtain closed late in the night. The total number of devotees has been estimated to be more than two lakhs.
Chants of Jai Shri Ram and Jai Hanuman continued throughout the day in and outside the temple premises. A large LED screen was installed in the temple courtyard for the devotees standing in dozens of rows.
Secretary of Mahavir Temple Trust, Acharya Kishore Kunal said that all possible measures were taken from security arrangements, crowd management to the convenience of the devotees. Before the exit gate of the temple, a first aid center was established by the Mahavir Arogya Sansthan run by the Mahavir Temple Trust.
Adequate number of security personnel and police officers were deputed by the police administration for security and crowd management. 15 priests were appointed in the sanctum sanctorum for quick darshan and offering of prasad to the devotees. Six priests were called from Ayodhya on the spot.
On January 1st, about 12.5 thousand kilos of Naivedyam were sold in Mahavir Temple. 10 Naivedyam counters were set up near the entrance.
More than three lakh devotees reached ISKCON
The entrance of the ISKCON temple located on Buddha Marg was opened from 7:30 am on Monday and remained open till late night. The temple was decorated with eight types of flowers and fruits. For the convenience of devotees, separate entrances were made for men and women. The process of bhajan-kirtan continued till late night. For this, kirtan troupes had come from Vrindavan and Mayapur (West Bengal). Young men and women coming to the temple were seen taking selfies.
ISKCON temple spokesperson Gopal Nand Das claimed that today more than three lakh devotees came to the temple and had darshan of the Lord. 85 percent of this number was youth. Prasad was distributed among the devotees. At the same Birla temple, more than four thousand people had darshan of God and wished for success in the new year. Temple head Vishwanath Sharma said that in view of the New Year, the temple remained open from 7 am to 9 pm.