Deoghar: On the last Monday of Shravan, on August 28, a huge crowd of devotees thronged the Baba temple in Deoghar. Long queues of devotees started forming since late night of Sunday to offer water to Shiva Linga.
Due to the rare coincidence of Trayodashi and Pradosh on the last Monday, a large number of devotees reached and performed Jalabhishek. As soon as the water offering started at 3.57 in the morning, Babanagari started echoing with the chants of Bolbam.
According to Pandit Durlabh Mishra, the senior priest of Baba Mandir, in this rare coincidence, the wishes of offering water and worshiping Baba would be fulfilled. Today is the best day to start Pradosh Vrat. Wishing to have a child, a large number of people kept a fast and anointed Baba with water in the temple.
Administration made special arrangements to handle the crowd In view of the crowd of devotees, special arrangements were made by the district administration on the Kanwariya path including the temple premises. Two quick response teams were ready since late Sunday night to make the devotees queuing up in the temple premises to make water offerings accessible. DC Vishal Sagar and SP Ajit Peter continued to monitor the Dungdung
Mela area.
The duty gtime of the policemen have been changed on Monday. They have been given 12 hours duty instead of 8 hours. Magistrates and police officers have been deputed everywhere, water offerings are being done normally since morning, all arrangements have been made to ensure that devotees don’t face much trouble. The speedy darshan counter was also opened ahead of time.
Deoghar DC said that Rakshabandhan is after Monday and in such a situation, devotees will come in less number. Overall, this is the last stage of the State Shravani Mela which lasts for 2 months and today after the last Monday, the crowd of devotees in Deoghar will start decreasing gradually.