A number of shrines in the city were reverberated with the chants of mantras from dawn to dusk on Sunday marking the Guru Poornima celebrations.
Rituals like ‘palaabhishekam’, special puja and ‘haarti’ were performed in various temples of the city as part of the celebrations.
Heaps of cooked rice, rotis and fresh fruits were showered on the idol of Sai Baba at Sri Shridi Sai Baba Spiritual Centre, Seethammadhara after giving a celestial bath to the deity.
Sri Shirdi mandir at Kailasapuram celebrated the day by performing ‘abhishekam’ followed by special puja at the premises. CMR Group CMD Mavuri Venkata Ramana performed ‘abhishekam’ to the idol of Sai Baba. Visakhapatnam Port Trust Deputy Chairman P.L. Haranadh, secretary Harichandran took part in the programme held at the mandir.
At Sri Satya Sai Mandir, devotees offered flowers, turmeric powder and vermilion. Hare Krishna Movement organised ‘sankirtan’ on Beach Road to mark the occasion.
It was followed by a discourse that continued for an hour.
Meanwhile, those who took part in ‘Giri Pradakshina’ thronged Sri Varahalakshmi Nrusimha Swamy temple in Simhachalam and Sai Baba temples located in various neighbourhoods to have a darshan.
“I started trekking at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday and reached the temple at midnight. It was almost 5.30 a.m. by the time I had a darshan at Simhachalam.
This year, the arrangement was much more streamlined as attention was paid to every minute detail to enable a hassle-free darshan,” said Lakshmi Rao, a resident of Lawson’s Bay Colony. What appeared to be surprising for many trekkers was an effective crowd management and an uninterrupted supply of snacks and refreshments facilitated at various points all along the path.
