VISAKHAPATNAM:
Call it divine intervention if you will, but the sudden thunderstorm and rains on Thursday coupled with the absence of political VIPs thanks to election fever and early attendance by members of the Vizianagaram royal family enabled the ordinary devotees to have an unhindered and early darshan of the original form of the presiding deity of Simhachalam temple, Lord Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy, on Friday on the occasion of the annual Chandanotsavam festival.
Usually during Chandanotsavam, devotees are allowed a glimpse of the real form of the Lord only after suffering through long hours waiting and jostling in serpentine queues only after 5.30 am because of visits by high-powered VVIPs like government officials and netas.
But this time if the rains resulted in a lower turnout of devotees at just around 1 lakh, the elections put paid the plans of politicians to hog the limelight at the temple and Poosapati Anand Gajapathi Raju of the Vizianagaram royal family, who is supposed to first see the real form of the idol, turned up much earlier than anticipated. Every year, the Vizianagaram royal family visits the temple at around 4 am to 4.30 am, but this time they came with sandalwood and silk clothes at 2.45 am.
This left the aam janta heaving a sigh of relief as they could have a better and more peaceful darshan. “I am happy that this year I got a chance to have a Nijaroopa Darshan of the Lord at around 4.30 am on Friday instead of later in the day. Usually each year there is a heavy VIP devotee rush and the royal family too arrives late,” said M Appa Rao, an LIC agent working in Srikakulam town.
Appa Rao, an ardent devotee of Lord Narasimha, has been attending the festival for the last 12 years and arrived in the city on Thursday evening from Srikakulam town to stand in the general queue outside the hilltop temple. But this time he was able to finish his darshan by 7 am.
Simhachalam temple executive officer K Ramachandra Mohan said: “This year the turnout was lower than previous years because of the elections. Moreover this time we didn’t issue any free VIP passes either because there was hardly any demand for them. Besides last year there were some issues pertaining to VIP passes, due to which we decided not to issue any.”
Some devotees, including K Mahalakshmi, from Tuni, were not too happy with the arrangements. “Though the number of devotees were be less as compared with last year, the authorities have failed in making proper arrangements, especially when it comes to providing drinking water and shelter. Because of the rains and heavy gales, many makeshift shelters were damaged and no alternative arrangements were made ,” Mahalakshmi added.
It may be mentioned that Chandanotsavam is celebrated each year on Vaisakha Suddhatadiya when devotees get to see the real form of the presiding deity, which is otherwise covered by a thick coat of sandalwood paste during the rest of the year. The ceremony began in the wee hours of Friday with the removal of sandalwood paste. After that, the members of the Vizianagaram family led by Ananda Gajapathi Raju entered the temple with silk clothes and sandalwood paste. After giving a chance to the devotees to see the original form, the authorities restarted applying the paste from Friday night.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / May 03rd, 2014