Ayodhya glows in Ram Navmi fervour
LUCKNOW: Several lakh devotees turned up in Ayodhya on Sunday to celebrate Ram Navmi. The entire city wore a festive look with devotees making a beeline outside Kanak Bhawan and Ram Janmabhoomi to be a part of the birth celebrations of Ram Lalla.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath did virtual darshan of Ram Lalla at Ram Janmabhoomi from Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur, where he performed Ram Navmi puja.
As the CM had prohibited VIP movement in Ayodhya for the convenience of devotees, there was no arrival of any VIP in the holy city on Ram Navmi.
As the head priest at Kanak Bhawan announced the birth of Lord Ram at 12 noon, celebrations began all across temple town.
At Ram Janmabhoomi special puja was organised to mark the occasion. Acharya Satyendra Das, head priest of Ram Janmabhoomi, performed special puja with vedic rituals.
Celebrations at Ram Janmabhoomi were telecast live on various channels of DD Network, including Doordarshan, DD Bharti and other platforms.
At Ram Janmabhoomi, in the first shift from 6 am to 11.30 am, 65,675 devotees visited the makeshift temple. In the second shift from 2 pm to 7.30pm, 1,31,756 devotees visited the temple.
The birth celebration of Ram Lalla was organized in about 8,000 temples of Ayodhya.
At the makeshift temple at Ram Janmabhoomi, ‘jalabhishek’of Ram Lalla was done with milk and honey (charnamrit).
The deity was offered a prasad of ‘chappan bhog’ and around 250 kg of sweets were distributed among the devotees.
Cultural events were also organised at seven locations across the city, including Ram Ki Paidi, Tulsi Udhyan, Gandhi Ashram, Valmik Bhawan, Guptaar Ghat, Bhajan Sandhya Sthal and Digambar Jain Mandir.
Artistes from Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh, were the major attraction for devotees.
All across Ayodhya, live telecast of Ram Navmi celebrations from Ram Janmabhoomi was done on LED screens put up on mobile vans.
Special security arrangements were made to prevent an untoward incident. Senior superintendent of police, Ayodhya, Shailesh Kumar Pandey, was himself present at Kanak Bhawan.
“A large number of devotees turned up in Ayodhya to attend the grand Ram Navmi celebrations. The sant community is happy with the arrangements made by the Ayodhya administration for this festive occasion,” said Sharad Sharma, regional VHP spokesperson, Ayodhya.
After the Supreme Court’s verdict in favour of Ram temple on November 9, 2019, this was the first grand Ram Navmi celebrations at Ram Janmabhoomi.
Due to Covid-19 pandemic there were no Ram Navmi celebrations in Ayodhya in last two years.