More than 1 lakh pilgrims visited the famous shrine of Jawalamukhi

By Bijender Sharma
JAWALAMUKHI,April 12,2008---More than 1 lakh pilgrims visited the famous shrine of Jawalamukhi in kangra district of Himachal Pardesh, one of the 52 Shakti peeths, here during the Navratras which concluded today.

Yellow-clad pilgrims in thousands from Delhi, Punjab, UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir had visited the temple for the last nine days. Long queues of the pilgrims were seen outside the temple. The town was humming with activities and pilgrims reciting Vedic hymns and bhajans were going to the temple today.

The lanes and bylanes of Mandir Mohala were overcrowded by the pilgrims. Thousands of people attended the "puran Ahuti" of the "Havan" which had started on the first Navratra and concluded today in which pandits participated.

Mr S K Nayyer, temple officer, told that it was for the first time that there was not even a single chain-snatching incident took place on the temple premises during the Navratras. The temple authorities said the pilgrims offered Rs 11,44,069, besides nearly 52 grams of gold and nearly 1 kg of silver during these days.

Meanwhile, Swami Virenderanand Giri, state president of the Himachal Pradesh Math Mandir Suraksha Samiti, today demanded that the temple towns in the state should be declared as "Holy towns" and the liquor and meat shops should be shifted.

Swami Giri said Shakti peeths in Kangra, Naina Devi in Bilaspur, Chintpurni in Una and Jawalaji in Jawalamukhi towns, besides Chamunda temple of this state, were attracting lakhs of pilgrims every year from all parts of the country.But liquor and meat shops in these towns hurt the religious sentiments of the pilgrims.

Swami Giri expressed shock over the water scarcity during the current Navratra at Naina Devi and alleged mismanagement at the Chintpurni shrine putting the pilgrims to inconvenience. He said Jawalamukhi was lacking proper sanitation and cleanliness during the Navratras. He demanded that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal should take necessary steps to redress the problems of the pilgrims.