Chhath a festival to worship nature: U.P. CM
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath attended Chhath celebrations, expressing gratitude towards nature and God. He emphasized the importance of faith in maintaining unity and preserving tradition and heritage. Adityanath also mentioned the upcoming opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the need for cleanliness drives after the Chhath puja.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath attended the Chhath celebrations at Laxman Mela ground here on Sunday evening. Prabhunath Rai, the national president of All India Bhojpuri Samaj, welcomed the CM. Speaking on the occasion, Yogi said Chhath is a festival to express gratitude towards the nature and God because all fasting women offer water to the Sun to connect with the nature.
Congratulating the Bhojpuri community, the CM also spoke a few lines in Bhojpuri thereby establishing a direct connect with the people present there. “May Chhathi Maiya bless all of you. May there be joy and enthusiasm in your lives. Special congratulations to our mothers and sisters who observe a difficult fast for their families,” he added.
“Our country is a country of faith. Here faith connects all of us in the thread of unity from north to south and from east to west. It is this faith that has kept entire India united in adverse circumstances,” the CM said.
He further said during the medieval period, foreign invaders had damaged religious places. “But our faith has preserved our tradition and heritage. There are many countries in the world which have developed materialistically but have forgotten their tradition and heritage. Today they are facing an existential crisis. Our country is considered a country of festivals,” Yogi said.
“There are different types of traditions in different areas across the country which connect the common people with faith through special events. The result of this faith was evident during the Ram Janmabhoomi struggle for 500 years. Ultimately a grand Ram temple is coming up in Ayodhya which would be opened for public in January in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the CM added.
“After the Chhath puja, it is the responsibility of the organisers to get involved in cleanliness drives of river ghats with the help of the administration. We should not forget that if there is water, there is life. The efforts we all make to maintain the purity and beauty of water and nature will be better for our life. We should continue to be associated with all these programmes,” Yogi said.
Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak; chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra; principal secretary (home) Sanjay Prasad; Lucknow mayor Sushma Kharkwal; MLA Yogesh Shukla and BJP leader Arpana Yadav were prominent among those present at the event.
