A Muslim man on Thursday collected the sacred water from the Sharda Peeth Kund in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and transported it to India via Britain. The purpose was to use the holy water in the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
Ravinder Pandita, the founder of the Save Sharda Committee Kashmir (SSCK), said that his team gathered the holy water from Sharda Kund and transported it to Islamabad, PTI reported on Saturday. From there, it was sent to the UK and then brought back to India by a Kashmiri Pandit activist. This elaborate route was taken due to the temporary suspension of postal services between India and Pakistan after the Balakote airstrikes following the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack.
Pandita has also mentioned that the SSCK members would light ‘diyas’ on January 22 at the Sharda Temple near the LoC in Kupwara district to celebrate the consecration ceremony. This event follows the Sharda temple ‘pran pratishtha’ on June 5 the previous year by the Shankaracharya of Sringeri.
Earlier, devotees donated the world's largest lock, weighing 400 kg, and 1,265 kg of laddoo prasad to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The rock was made by an elderly couple, Satya Prakash Sharma and his wife Rukmini Sharma.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, devotees donated the world's largest lock, weighing 400 kg, and 1,265 kg of laddoo prasad to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The rock was made by an elderly couple, Satya Prakash Sharma and his wife Rukmini Sharma.
{{/usCountry}}"Satya Prakash Sharma died before completing the lock but we got it completed by working day and night," Aligarh resident Mahamandaleshwar Annapurna Bharti Puri was quoted by ANI.
"The purpose of presenting the world's largest lock at the feet of Lord Ram is to represent Aligarh on an international platform. People from the entire country and from across the world who come to Ayodhya will appreciate the large lock, which will boost the lock manufacturing industry in Aligarh. This initiative will also provide an economic boost to the city of Aligarh," Puri added.
Meanwhile, the ‘laddu prasad’ was made by Sri Ram Catering Services in Hyderabad. “These laddoos can last one month. 25 men prepared the laddoos for 3 days,” Nagabhushanam Reddy, the owner of the catering services, told ANI.
The consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple will be held in Ayodhya on Monday. The rituals for the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony began a week earlier on Jan 16 and will conclude with the consecration on Monday. PM Modi will preside over the ceremony. As many as 8,000 guests will also take part in the event.
(With inputs from agencies)