Co-chairman of Shri Vitthal-Rukmini Mandir Samiti Temple, Pandharpur, Gahininath Maharaj Ausekar said that the exchange of ideas can enhance devotee services further and praised the organisers of three-day International Temples Convention and Expo (ITCX)-2023 in this holy city for creating a substantial platform to facilitate networking between temple organisations. In a temple talk session on the second day at Rudraksh Convention Centre (Sigra) here on Sunday, he said that the 1300-year-old Vitthal Rukmini Mandir has been Pandharpur’s most visited pilgrimage site and the Mandir Samiti has shown exceptional dedication towards serving pilgrims through the years.
During the day, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was also scheduled to address a special session but due to some unavoidable reasons he could not arrive here. Chairman of ITCX and Member of Maharashtra Legislative Council Prasad Lad, founder of Temple Connect and ITCX- 2023 Giresh Kulkarni and Biswanath Patnaik who pledged Rs 250 crore for UK Jagannath Temple felicitated some temple heads representing different religious, including Vivek Muni Maharaj, Buddhist monk Guruvarya, Gahininath Maharaj Ausekar and social worker Manish Mishra.
According to Gahininath Maharaj, with a 15-member committee and a 250-300 member management team, the Mandir Samiti has worked very hard to provide facilities for devotees who travel miles in order to make their darshan experience and stay comfortable.
“Close to one lakh pilgrims visit the temple each day, so managing their food, water, health and sanitation is of utmost importance to us. Our management team also ensures that the line follows due course and no member jumps lines causing disruption. Years ago, there was no arrangement for pilgrims to wait, and they had to do so in the scorching heat devoid of any shade. These people come to the temple without any expectations and solely with the intention of darshan. That is why we are doing everything in our capacity to provide comfort to each and every devotee,” he said.
While delivering a temple talk on the subject of ‘temples - an embodiment of peace, harmony and discipline’, the Founder and Chairman of Blossom Public School, Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu) Alagu Alagappan said that a peaceful world is one that is free from hunger, hatred, mistrust, and poverty. “Violence, hatred and discrimination are never parts of a peaceful world. Any place of worship has the potential to achieve this world, and a temple is no exception. Every temple is an embodiment of equality, a storehouse of peace and a harbinger of harmony,” he said.
According to him, in a spiritually starved and morally bankrupt society, temples play an important role in bringing forth a sense of spirituality and morality while serving as a constant reminder to remain human in all that we do. They make every human being more disciplined for the world to become a better place to live. We talk about air and water purifiers.
However, we need heart and mind purifiers. And temples can purify our hearts and minds - foster right thinking and protect humanity from all kinds of degradation, he added.
Delivering his views on ‘cleaning and hygiene in the temple ecosystem’, Director of Building Care, Diversey Kiran Rao said that it is an honour for Diversey to be able to create and ensure culture heritage protection through our consolidated programmes and solutions using environmentally sustainable products that ensure high levels of sanitisation and hygiene.
“The temple hygiene programme will ensure that together we can enhance and beautify our temples that are the fabric of society and a way to enlighten our future generations,” Kiran Rao added.Sanjay Dighe, CEO, Krystal Integrated Services expressed his views on ‘temple security, housekeeping, crowd management and operational systems’ and said that our main focus is to offer fully customised services to temple organisations of all sizes.