In past one year, one of the significant changes that is evident was the rise in spiritual tourism. The cornerstone of this is none other than Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir at Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya Dham.
The penance of 500 years fructified when Ram Lalla got the rightful ownership of his birth place. The 500 year journey with generation exhausting struggle created an emotional outburst since the Pran Pratishtha on 22nd January, last year. People from across the world are coming to Ayodhya to witness its revived glory. So when New Year’s eve approached, how could one of THE most sacred places of earth not witness the surge of devotees!
As per reports, lakhs of people were present in the bustling streets of Ayodhya on the New Years Eve, with chanting, singing immersed in devotion. Lighting in the main roads, bhajans at tea stalls captivated the visiting devotees. Alongside Saryu, the chilling winter winds blowing over the sand with sparkling buildings at distance and moon above gave a breathtaking New Year experience to the pilgrims.
The morning as usual woke people early with lakhs of them following a fixed queue of bathing at Saryu River, visiting Hanuman Garhi and then Ram Mandir.
Locals say that such a huge crowd was never seen in Ayodhya during the new year. Earlier, people use to visit various other places for the New Year celebrations but people going Ayodhya this year must be seen as an urge that emerged among the masses to celebrate in front of their deity.
It also shows the tolerance and acceptability of Hindus, who are undergoing through a phase of civilisational revival while shunning the imperialistic impositions, yet celebrating the Gregorian New Year as per their own traditional way of life.
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Ram Mandir has brought a significant change in the masses in terms of mindset. The crowd thronging Ayodhya is seeing a spike since day of consecration. As per the civic body in town, 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh pilgrims visit Ayodhya daily. With due consideration, the new year comes with another mega spiritual event, that is, Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj. This will create a ripple effect of increased pilgrim influx in Ayodhya as the distance between two religious cities is merely 165 km, a 3-hour drive.
When people from all across the world would travel to Prayag, Ayodhya along with Kashi are certainly going to have humongous crowd for over a month.
According to the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation, around 2.5 crore devotees are likely to visit the town from January 13 to February 12.
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“As the Maha Kumbh is likely to witness 25 crore people, so we believe that 2.5 crore to 3 crore devotees will be visiting Ayodhya during the period from Paush Poornima (January 13, 2025) to Maghi Poornima (February 12),” Ayodhya Mayor Girish Pati Tripathi said.
2025 is ready to bring time immemorial moments for Hindus and as Bhagwan Ram resides in his ancient birthplace but modern temple, this will add up more to the spiritual and religious fervour.
