Devotees still throng temples

CHANDIGARH, Feb 19: For the second day in a row, frenzied devotees continue to pour into the temples in the city and its adjoining areas,...

CHANDIGARH, Feb 19: For the second day in a row, frenzied devotees continue to pour into the temples in the city and its adjoining areas, in the belief that lord Shiva has opened his teesra netra, third eye. The shivlings in some of the temples, they believe, have suddenly developed thick dark red images on the otherwise plain, black shivlings which are worshipped.

What is surprising is that the spectacle has occurred in only some of the city temples whereas the other Shiv temples don8217;t have these traces. The shivling in Sector 23 temple has a blur on the back and lines that have been etched out all over the shivling.

The devotees are taking the blur to be the image of lord Shiva. The lines and the shapes have been deciphered to be the crescent on the forehead of the god and the image of the river Ganga flowing out of the lord8217;s hair.

The devotees have taken it to be no less than a miracle and long queues have been forming outside the temples of Sector-19, 23, 28 since yesterday.

quot;It is a miracle, the lord has shown his mighty presence,quot; said Hribala, a 58-year-old devotee coming out from the temple of Sector 19. quot;It depends on how you perceive the whole situation,quot; said pandit Lucky Ram, the priest at the Sector 23 temple.

quot;There are various stones that are found on the coast of the river Narmada which resemble shivlings. These are mostly black stones with white or other coloured lines inscribed on them which are collected by the devotees and used for the purpose of worshipping, informed Lucky Ram.

quot;These stones also have the nature ruling over them as after sometime they develop coloured lines,quot; Lucky Ram adds. quot;It might be a chemical reaction,quot; explains Dheeraj Chowdhary, a research scholar in Chemistry, who visited some Shiv temples in Chandigarh out of sheer curiosity.

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The entire commotion started when a lady, a regular worshipper at this temple, spotted red lines on the shivling, says Buddh Nath, the priest at the Sector 19 temple. The shapes are very prominent in the temple of Sector 23 only and attracting the maximum number of devotees.

quot;I don8217;t believe that the god has appeared in the shivling, someone has painted the lines on the shivlings for fun, the images are just the minds8217; perception,quot; remarked Prabha, an 18-year-old who had come to see the phenomenon for herself.