Athi Varadar darshan now in standing posture
Posted on: 01/Aug/2019 10:22:10 AM
With the Lord Athi Varadhar festival (Vaibhavam) in progress from 1st July up to 31st July, the deity of Lord Athi Varadhar offered Darshan to the lakhs of devotees in the lying posture – ‘sayanitha thirukkolam’.
From today, Thursday, 1st August, Lord Athi Varadhar will offer Darshan in the standing posture – ‘Nindra Thirukkolam’.
Lord Athi Varadhar Vaibhavam is scheduled from 1st July to 17th August.
The Kanchipuram District Administration had earlier announced that as some special arrangements are to be carried out as the posture of the deity of Lord Athi Varadhar is to be changed from the lying posture to the standing posture, the general devotees Darshan queue will be closed from 12.00 Noon from Wednesday (Yesterday, 31st July). Similarly the Darshan waiting line for VIPs will be closed at 3.00 PM on the same day.
Accordingly, the Eastern Entry of the Lord Varadharaja Swami temple was closed yesterday (Wednesday, 31st July) when a very large crowd of devotees had gathered unaware of the above announcement regarding the closure! However, the Police asked the devotees to have a quick Darshan and exit as quickly as possible!
The Police Department Additional Superintendent Charles and Assistant Superintendent Sundharavadhanam thought that the waiting unaware crowds of devotees, especially those who had come from long distances, should not be disappointed!
So, they organised the eastern Entry to be open for 1 more hour and then closed!
Subsequently, the waiting line arrangement for the VIPs was closed at 3.00 PM.
After 5.00 PM, the temple Bhattacharyas made the arrangement to shift the deity posture from lying to standing form.
So, Lord Athi Varadhar will now offer Darshan in the standing posture from today (Thursday, 1st August) to 17th August.
With the change in posture, it can be naturally expected that even those devotees who had Darshan of the Lord in the lying posture would also be keen to have the Darshan of the Lord Athi Varadhar in the standing posture! Thus a swelling huge crowd of devotees are expected for these 17 days taking this factor into accounts and also the fresh devotees who had not visited earlier.
With the huge swarming crowd of devotees expect6ed as explained above, the police protections arrangements have been beefed up.
Including 2 Inspector Generals (IGs), 4 Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs), 18 Superintendents of Police (SPs), and 48 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) who supervised the arrangements, there were 5000 police staff deployed for this occasion.
Presently, as explained above, with more crowds expected, an additional 2000 police staff is being deployed for the remaining days of the Lord Athi Varadhar festival.
2 Awnings - ‘Pandals’ or ‘Shamiyananas’ – are being set up temporarily in 2 places to facilitate 20000 devotees to sit and relax and then proceed for Darshan. An additional 30 toilets are being set up, making for a total of 240 toilets.
Squads of officers and staff consisting of officials from 16 different departments have been formed in order that they monitor the arrangements closely and immediately provide the facilities required by the devotees.
