Puri Govardhan Peeth Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati on Tuesday gave his consent to attend this year's Rath Yatra. Puri Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb, who called on the seer in the day, informed this to reporters. "The Sankaracharya has accepted our invitation to attend the ensuing car festival. He has agreed to have darshan of the deities atop the chariot along with six of his disciples," the Gajapati said.
The seer's consent assumes significance as he had broken the practice of paying obeisance to the Trinity atop the chariots last year due to the restrictions imposed by the temple administration. The restriction was fallout of the alleged misconduct by some sevayats atop the chariots with the devotees. last year in its invitation to the Shankaracharya, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration had requested him to visit lords atop the car alone. The Shankaracharya rejected this invitation and refrained from having darshan of the deities.