Two blind devotees walk 60 km on foot to offer prayer at Sri Jagannath temple
Thursday, 18 February 2021 (23:13 IST)
Puri: Two of seven differently able (blind) devotees who started their journey by foot from Bhubaneswar today reached the pilgrim city and offered prayers to the presiding deities of Sri Jagannath temple.
Prasant Sahu, one of the blind devotees after offering prayers to Lord Jagannath told media persons that seven friends, all blind have been visiting the Jagannath temple for the last three years on the occasion of Saraswati Puja and offer prayers.
He said we came to know from the radio that every devotee is allowed into the temple for darshan of the Trinity and so we began our journey on foot from Bhubaneswar on February 16 last.
Along the 60 km way to Srikshetra however, five of our companions lost their way and could not reach Puri.
Due to lord’s blessing we two reached Srikshetra and went inside the temple, Prashant said adding that some good persons volunteered and conducted us to reach the Simhadwar. The Priests in the temple also helped us in the temple.
“Though we are blind and could not see the deities we through our internal eye see the lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra on Ratnasimhasan with full glory and feel their presence amidst us,” he said. (UNI)
