Mumbai: Vishwa Hindu Parishad has announced a special campaign to clean and illuminate around 5,000 temples in Maharashtra and Goa ahead of Diwali festival. The campaign will be carried out on Sunday morning simultaneously across all temples.
Ahead of Diwali, the Konkan division of Vishwa Hindu Parishad has announced a three-faced initiative that will include cleaning of temples, unfurling and changing saffron flags atop the temples and worshipping of saffron flags by youth organisations. This initiative will be launched across Maharashtra and Goa covering around 5,000 temples.
Under the initiative, temple cleaning will be carried out on Sunday from 7 am to 11am. Multiple temples have placed boards outside the premises to register the names of volunteers interested in joining the temple cleaning initiative that aims at cleaning the temple from garbhagriha to its courtyard.
“A devotee’s function in the temple should not be limited to worship and receiving prasad, but they should actually involve themselves in the management of the temple. This campaign is to allow the devotees to integrate with the temple management,” said a spokesperson of the VHP.
Starting preparations for the festival of lights, which is the biggest festival of Hindu religion, the VHP has also called upon people to involve temples in Diwali celebrations by illuminating them with lights. It has also requested the devotees to place a clean saffron flag on top of temples which is easily visible.
Notably, the VHP had launched this initiative before Diwali last year and covered 550 temples in Maharashtra. VHP said that after the initiative multiple temples have witnessed involvement of more devotees who volunteer for regular cleaning of temples.
“Temples are for every sect of the community. It has place and respect for everyone, and it is a symbol of harmony. We need more youth to connect with temples and therefore we appeal everyone to join this initiative and worship the saffron flag,” the VHP spokesperson added.
