Devotees are flocking to the Alaranath Temple situated at Brahmagiri, 23 km west from here, to worship Alarnath Dev and taste the “Kheer” Prasad of the deity.
As per belief, Shree Jagannath manifests in Alarnath Dev during this fortnight as darshan of lord Jagannath remains suspended at His Puri temple following his sickness since the day of the grand bathing on the occasion of Snan Purnima. During this period, Shree Jagannath and his two siblings Shree Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra remain under treatment of the temple Vaidya (doctor). The self-explanatory name Brahmagiri means a most sacred place.
As per legends and some writings of historians, once upon a time the rulers of Alwar of Rajasthan had established the temple, which was later named after the rulers as Alwarnath or Alarnath. Though history books do not mention the dates of the construction of the temple, the place and the temple became a pilgrimage during this fortnight following Sri Chaitanya Dav’s visit in 1610 AD.
Sri Chaitanya wrote volumes on the sacredness of the place and the temple. Sri Chaitanya wrote that he visualised manifestation of the lord Jagannath at Alarnath. Sri Chaitanya had camped at Brahmagiri for years together worshiping lord Alarnath.
Every day, hundreds of devotees make a beeline at the Alarnath Temple gate along with their families to have darshan of lord Jagannath and partake of Kheer Prasad, which is a special delicacy offered to the deity.
However this year, mismanagement in conducting the large numbers of pilgrims at the inadequate temple site area resulted in almost a stampede on a day, which an alert police managed to avert. Following this, the police deployment has been beefed up. Besides, it is also a very difficult task on the part of a handful of temple servitors to provide all devotees the holy Kheer and other cooked Prasads.
The extremely popular Kheer is prepared with buffalo milk with addition of other ingredients. Every day, over 10,000 litres of milk is used to make the Kheer for offering to the lord and distribution to the scores of devotees waiting to taste it. While the temple servitors enjoy a prime time of their earning, the transport owners get their purse inflated. Every day, the darshan continues till late night.
Bhajans and other devotional songs are recited by noted devotee-singers during the rituals. And many of them dedicate their new compositions to the deity on the occasion.