Kashi Vishwanath temple lit on Maha Shivaratri

Varanasi, Feb 16: A group of young Supreme Court lawyers led by a US 'sanyasi' on the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivaratri here today lit up the world famous Kashi Vishwanath temple with soft solar lamps.

The lights were not only turned on at the 'garbha griha' sanctum sanctorum of Kashi Vishwanath, but also the adjoining Goddess Annapurna temple and the four entry points of highly sensitive Gyanwapi-Kashi Vishwanath complex, which houses both these temples.

Lighting up the two famous temples and neighbouring Jangambadi Mutt with lamps powered by sunlight marks the beginning of a larger project envisaging the illumination of the entire country with solar power.

''We all are Lord Shiv 'bhakts' and there is no better way but to start the project with the illumination of Kashi Vishwanath. We have brought the sun back to where it belongs and this light will now be spread to all corners of the country,'' said Siddharth Bhatli, a young Supreme Court advocate and president of 'Sangharsh - For Justice Welfare Society,' the NGO spearheading the project.

With the blessings from Kashi Vishwanath, we will begin a pilot project of lighting up five villages in the country with the same Mexican-US made solar lamps. The exercise will begin from March next, firstly with a village in Tehri Garhwal to be lit with solar power by May next, Mr Bhatli informed.

The initiative will then be replicated in two more villages of Tehri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand and a village each near Hyderabad and Pune.

''By popularising solar power, we want to reduce the country's dependence on hydro, thermal and nuclear power, the resources of which are scarce and are also polluting the environment,'' Mr Bhatli added.

The group of 50 lawyers, depending on the success of the pilot project, will make efforts to transform the initiative into a national movement by involving the government, social organisations and also the corporate world.

''We call upon the youth of the country to join hands with us in making this intiative a national movement,'' Mr Bhatli, whose NGO was also instrumental in mobilising public voice in the famous Priyadarshini Mattoo case, maintained.

The young lawyers, however, admitted the entire idea was the brainchild of Swami Mahadevanand Saraswati, the 50 year-old from Arizona (USA), who attained 'sanyas' with diksha from Swami Atmanand Giri near the Manikarnika Ghat here in 1997. The sanyasi, who prefers being called a 'Non resident Hindu' (NRH) and follows the immortal philosophy of 'sewa (service) being the greatest Yoga' has successfully illuminated with the same lamps the Kedarnath-Badrinath shrines, Gangotri and Neelkanth Mahadev -- all in Uttarakhand -- in 2004 and 2005.

From the funds donated by his well-wishers, the Swami has also illuminated hutments in those villages of Uttarakhand, which were not electrified.

Praising the efforts of Swamiji and his lawyer friends, Additional Police Superintendent (Gyanwapi Security) Jugal Kishore Tiwari said ''this service will not only bring back the power of sun to the two temples, but also provide unhindered illumination at the entry points of the highly sensitive Gyanwapi-Kashi Vishwanath complex. If this initiative succeeds, we may replicate the effort in other parts of the complex.'' The US sanyasi's effort to light up the temple with solar power has not only remained confined to the soft lamps, but Swamiji has also gifted 105 'solar torches' to the security personnel at the complex.

''During the ancient period temples were lit by sunlight reflected through polished metals. Now this is my way of bringing back the sun god to where he belongs,'' maintained the seer, who claims to have travelled across the world 22 times.

UNI