Covid effect: Major Shiva temples to go live online this Shravan season
RANCHI : Jharkhand’s major lord Shiva temples would go live this holy month of Shravan, beginning from Monday, offering virtual ‘darshan’ to devotees, who can offer prayers sitting at home, officials said on Saturday.
Deoghar, Dumka and Ranchi administrations on Saturday were busy making arrangements for live streaming of prayer and worship at the respective templesBaba Baidyanath Dham temple in Deoghar, Basukinath temple in Dumka and Pahadi temple in Ranchi.
The administrations resorted to online facility after the Jharkhand high court on Friday declined permission of holding the annual Shravani fair and opening of two temples at Deoghar and Dumka during the month of Shravan. The court had also directed the state government to arrange live streaming of prayer and worship.
The morning and evening worships at Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, where more than 35 lakh people visit every year during the month of Sharavan, would go live on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and the district administration’s website, officials said.
Deoghar deputy commissioner (DC) Nancy Sahay, “The morning prayer, which will be of about 30-40 minutes, and the ‘sandhya aarti’ will be telecast live on JharGov TV. Besides, the live streaming of prayer and worship will also be provided on various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.”
When asked if the online puja facility would be available this year, she said, “Earlier devotees, who could not come to temple, used to deposit a certain amount online and the priest would perform the puja on their behalf at the temple. Since there will be a limited number of priests at the temple this time, it will be a tough task for priests,” Sahay said.
There are around 5,000 priests associated with the Babadham temple.
However, merely six to seven priests would be allowed in the temple at a time in a bid to maintain social distancing. The priests would be engaged on rational basis during the month, officials said.
General secretary of Panda Dharmaraskhani Sabha (PDS), an association of the priests, Kartik Nath Thakur said they wrote to government seeking permission to allow Kanwar Yatra for a few priests so that the age-old tradition could be followed.
Dumka and Ranchi administrations are also working on the same lines.