Mangalore: Sri Gokarnanatha Temple creates history; two widow priests perform pooja

Mangalore: Sri Gokarnanatha Temple creates history; two widow priests perform pooja

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Oct 6, 2013: A new chapter was opened in the history of the Sri Gokarnanatha Temple at Kudroli in Mangalore on October 6, Sunday when  for the first ever time, two widow priests  performed pooja to Lord Sri Gokarnanatha at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

 

 

 

 

 

Indira Shanthi of  BC Road in Bantwal Mooda and Lakshmi Shanthi of Bannur village of Puttur are the two new women priests of the Temple. Thousands were  witness to this historic event.

Earlier, both the women priests were brought to the temple in a procession.  Later       pooja was offered to the statue of Brahmashree Narayana Guru at the temple precincts. The women priests even performed pooja to Shaneeshwara, Mahaganapathi Lords in the temple and then  entered the sanctum sanctorum and   offered Arathi to Lord Sri Gokarnanatha. Later,  Theertha Prasad was distributed to the devotees. The women priests also performed pooja  to Goddess Annapoorneshwari,  Navagriha idols and Lord Hanuman.

They later installed the idol of  Dattatreya  beneath the peepul tree There was Maha Annasantharpane in the temple.

Speaking to reporters later, former union minister B Janardhan Poojari, the brain behind the renovation of the shrine and the revolutionary move, said  the Temple has  set the trend in order to  put a brake to the rising atrocities on women in the nation. He said the Sri Gokarnanatha Shrine aims at wiping out some blind beliefs and customs which keep widows away from many auspicious functions.

Commenting on the opposition from some corners to the new practice,  Poojari said  in the past  Billawas were denied permission to enter temples  just because they belonged to lower castes. But, now, thanks to the  efforts put in by Brahmashree Narayana Guru, people of all cases and communities can enter temples.

He said in the days to come, women priests will be appointed in all the 249 Guru Mandirs in the nation.