Thakur Banke Bihari Temple
– Photo: Amar Ujala Vrindavan
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Four lakh devotees visited the Thakur Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan in the pilgrimage city of Mathura on Sunday amidst scuffles. One and a half hour before the doors of the temple opened, there was a queue of devotees from the entrance of the temple till the Parikrama Marg.
At gate number two and three of the temple, devotees were seen waiting for the doors to open with kirtan and bhajan. Gradually, a queue of devotees started forming from the gate to Jugal Ghat on the other side and till Vidyapeeth Square on the other side. As soon as the doors of the temple opened at 8.30 in the morning, the devotees entered the temples. Within no time, the temple square, the back platform and Jagmohan were filled with people from both sides.
Seeing the crowd at various places in the temple and on the streets, the policemen were stopping people every ten minutes and moving them towards the temple. Due to this, long queues formed on the roads to the temple. Ashish Khare of Saharanpur told that he had come with his family to see Holi in the temples, but it is difficult to reach the temple amidst the crowd to have the darshan of Bonkebihari. One gets nervous just seeing the crowd, but Thakurji gives courage.
Rinki Vyas, a resident of Sonipat, said that due to the large crowd, he has changed his plan for morning darshan. Umesh Saraswat, co-manager of Banke Bihari Temple, said that after a long time, the number of people visiting Banke Bihari for two days has been very high. Nearly four lakh devotees visited on Sunday. There was a similar number of devotees on Saturday also. There was no decrease in the number of devotees from morning till night aarti.
