VARANASI Anticipating a heavy inflow of devotees on New Year, the district administration along with the management of Kashi Vishwanath temple has restricted sparsh darshan (when devotees are allowed to touch the Shivling) from December 31 to January 2. Officials of the Kashi Vishwanath temple say that the decision has been taken to better manage the heavy turnout of devotees.
“Sparsh darshan has been restricted between December 31 and January 2. We would be carrying out a rehearsal for the same on December 30,” said Kaushal Raj Sharma, divisional commissioner, Varanasi. As per records with the temple management, around 7 lakh devotees visited the temple on January 1, 2022. However, this year, going by the fast-growing popularity of the temple due to the facelift, the total number of visitors is expected to cross the 12-lakh mark on New Year.
Explaining the difference between sparsh darshan and regular darshan (called jhaki darshan in local parlance), officials said that the former is a little time-taking as the devotees are allowed to enter into the garbh grah, the core of the temple, to carry out the religious offerings whereas in the latter, the devotees are allowed to pass on the offerings to the priest from outside the garbh grah. In jhaki darshan, priests present the offerings to the Shivlinga and return the prasad to the devotee. “The regular darshan is far less time consuming and hence, would make it easy for the temple management to manage the crowd and ensure security on the New Year,” said officials.