eNarada, Kokkada, Thursday, February 1, 2018
By Guruprasad
One has to wait for hours to get Darshan at some of the famous pilgrim spots in Karnataka. However, on Thursday, the temple authorities had to wait for hours to find devotees.
Surprisingly, many of the temples in interior and coastal Karnataka found very few devotees coming in! For example, there were very few devotees at temples in Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya and Sowthadka Mahaganapathi.
[dropcap style=”inverted”]Temples wait for Devotees![/dropcap]
Famous Kukke Subrahamanya temple had very few devotees. The ground staff who are always busy in managing crowd control had to resort to talking among themselves to overcome boredom. eNarada Pic
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A temple official at Sowthadka said that usually they prepare Prasadam meals for 2,000 people every afternoon. However, on Thursday, they were doubtful that even few hundreds may not turn up and hence were planning for a limited production. Similarly, an official from Dharmasthala temple said that even they were surprised as to why the devotee count was so low.
It is said that a number of factors could have influenced a low devotee turn out. Firstly, most of the temples were closed on Wednesday due to lunar eclipse. Hence, many devotees had not turned up. Secondly, Thursday being a weekday, thirdly the upcoming exam season and fourthly the closure of Shiradi ghat (which means the travel to these pilgrim places are only getting longer) too could have lessened the number of travellers.
A pointer to the fact that even buses to these pilgrim places were running near empty. For example, a Rajahamsa bus from Dharmasthala to Mysuru had only a single passenger!
Sri Sowthadka Maha Ganapathi Kshethra too had very few devotees. Normally, devotees had to wait in que to get pancha Kajjaiaya prasadam but today priests had to wait for distributing prasadam. Preists usually have a hectic time here but today without devotess, prietsts and staff had to spend time discussing about curent affairs. As almost nil demand for seva tickets, staff at seva counters had to spend time reading newspapers instead. eNarada Pic
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Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Kshetra witnessed lowest tournout of devotees. Very few devotees who visited the shrine had a repeated darshan of deities amd spend thier time very leisurely inside temple sanctum as no body asked them to move away. The mass feeding area was calm without any rush and staff had to wait for serving the devotees. Shops and hotels had a deserted look. eNarada Pic
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Without visitors, Sri Vaidyanatheshwara temple in kokkada town was looking as the temple is closed. The seva counter outside the temple and Rudra Abhisheka, Theertha prasadam counter inside the temple was empty. However, very few devotees who visited the temple enjoyed serene atmosphere at Vaidyanatha temple and Neelakanta Temple located inside the pond. eNarada Pic
