Devotees celebrate Janmashtami with gusto

The 80th Janmashtami celebrations held at Sri Krishna Bhajan Mandir, situated near Manohar theatre, were carried out with much fanfare. People from the neighbouring areas and from far off came to offer their prayers at the temple. Musicians played bhajans at the entrance of the temple and people surrounding it were seen clapping and humming to the tunes. Few people, well versed with the hymns, sang in chorus.

The temple had organised a long swing, adorned with lights, where the idol of Lord Krishna was swung gently, electrical lights were twined around the swing and the agarbathi and camphor smoke rendered a mystical appeal to the temple. The head priest was doing the aarthi to the Krishna idol in the swing and at the same time was also doing puja to the Krishna-Radha idols located just a bit ahead. There was a deafening clamour as people were chanting bhajans loudly along with the priest with people constantly ringing the bells.

An elderly lady, perhaps mesmerised by the spiritual appeal of the place, started an impromptu jig near the swing and few people joined her. Once the puja was done, the aarthi was circulated around and the devout offered a large amount of money in the ‘aarthi thaali’. People then started lining up near the priest for the ceremonial ‘tikka’ and received the ‘teertam’. ‘Channa’ and pure white butter were distributed as ‘prasad’ along with sweet ‘boondi’. Everyone was pleased with the way the ceremony was conducted and everyone left with a beatific smile on their face, eagerly looking forward to the next four days of the celebration.