At the stroke of 12.29 pm, lakhs of people in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra celebrated the ‘Pran Prathisthan’ of Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya with processions, special poojas, chanting of prayers, hymns, ringing temple bells, cries of ‘Jai Shree Ram’, spraying ‘gulal’, bursting of crackers and distributing sweet ‘prasad’ and ‘maha-prasad’, here on Monday afternoon.
The celebrations were taken up in a majority of the estimated 4,500 Hindu temples dotting the city, including big and small ones, several which are very old, some very big, others very popular, a few which are very magnificent, representing or dedicated to several gods-goddesses, attracting millions of devotees daily.
Since Sunday, almost all temples in the city have been decorated with flowers with marigolds the top favourite along with an assortment comprising ‘tulsi’, lotuses, hibiscus, etc, rendering the atmosphere divine and lilting.
At night, many temples resemble a colourful vibrant spectacle with twinkling fairy lights, tiny glowing lamps of ghee-oil casting a golden warm glow, symbolising an unprecedented second Diwali to accord a grand reception to the Prince of Ayodhya, Lord Ram at his abode.
Many housing complexes in urban centres like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nashik were fully or partly decorated with flowers and lit up with multi-hued Diwali-style lanterns to mark the joyous occasion.
Maharashtra government is one of the few states that had declared a full holiday, and it enabled lakhs of families including senior citizens and children to step out to the nearest temple and join the festivities, with many from different communities also participating wholeheartedly.
Hours before the Ayodhya Pran Pratisthan rituals attended by many VIPs and celeb, including scores from Mumbai’s big biz and Bollywood, many temples had initiated a special cleanliness drive, led by the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde since the past few weeks.
As per the CM’s directive, each day, three major temples in each of the 24 Wards of BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were scrubbed and deep-cleaned to wear a sparkling look ahead of the big day (January 22).
There are hundreds of Lord Ram Temples in Mumbai, but a few stand out for their unique history, traditions and the sentiments of devotees, including the Ram Mandirs in Borivali, Goregaon, Vile Parle, Dadar, Wadala, Bhuleshwar, or Walkeshwar, which witnessed massive crowds since early today.
Many temples have made special arrangements on LED screens for a live telecast of the Ayodhya ceremonies, ‘hom-havans’, ‘aartis’, special idols of Lord Ram and Sita, post-pooja ‘prasad’ and ‘maha-prasad’ (meal) for the thousands of devotees, plus a special ‘maha-prasad’ organised for the poor in Dharavi slums.
Some of the major temples are having festivities for three consecutive days with a host of religious, social and cultural events.
Elsewhere, in Dombivali town, 111,111 oil lamps were lit to herald the Lord Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya, renowned chef Vishnu Manohar cooked up a staggering six tonnes of ‘special halwa’ in the giant ‘kadhai’ for lakhs of devotees at the Shri Mahalakshmi Jagdamba Temple, a chariot procession in Pune, a gigantic idol of Lord Ram taken out in a lively march in Mira Road town (Thane), among many others.
Hundreds of big and small Ram Mandirs were gaily decorated with flags and festoons, lit up with oil lamps and prayers were conducted in mofussil areas of the coastal Konkan region besides tribal pockets of Thane, Palghar, Nandurbar, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Wardha.