Varanasi, 29 October (Hindustan Reporter). On the occasion of Trayodashi Dhanteras festival of Krishna Paksha of Kartik month, the doors of Swarnmayi Maa Annapurna temple in the city of Kashipuradhipati opened for common devotees from Tuesday. There was a huge crowd of devotees queuing up to get the treasure of food and money along with darshan and worship in the temple of Matarani. Amidst tight security, after reaching the court of Mata from the entrance of the temple, the devotees kept rejoicing after seeing the statue of golden mother Annapurna. During this time, Peethadhishwar Shankar Puri Maharaj kept distributing Mata Rani's treasure, paddy lava and prasad (coins) among the devotees with both his hands. Devotees will be able to see this form of Mata in the court till 11 pm. Devotees will be able to see the divine idol of Swarnmayi Maa for the next four days till Annakoot festival.
Devotee women started queuing up from Monday afternoon with the desire to get the darshan, blessings and treasure of Annapurneshwari, who donates food to Kashi Puradhipati Mahadev on the occasion of Dhanteras. Thousands of women spent the whole night sitting on the road in barricades and chanting bhajans. The queue of devoted women had reached KCM from Bansfatak late in the evening. When Mahant Shankar Puri came to know about this, he sent temple volunteers to serve them. The team of volunteers kept distributing breakfast, drinking water and tea among the devotees sitting on the roadside waiting for darshan. Devotees stood in queues chanting praises of Mata Rani in the hope of getting darshan and worship. In the morning, the idol of the golden goddess Annapurna was installed in the sanctum sanctorum located on the first floor of the Annapurna temple and was decorated with fragrant flower garlands and gold ornaments. At around four o'clock, Mahant Shankar Puri of the temple performed Mangala Aarti after offering Bhog. During this time the treasure was also worshiped. After this, when the doors of the temple opened for the common devotees, the devotees sitting in queues for a distance of about one to one and a half kilometers were filled with enthusiasm. There was chanting of Mata Rani everywhere and deafening chants of Har-Har Mahadev. When the devotees got their turn, they kept paying obeisance in the court with full devotion. The special thing was that even after spending the whole night on the road, there was no sign of tiredness on his face. The unwavering faith in the golden Annapurneshwari outweighed the tiredness. To control the crowd of devotees, barricading was done from Godaulia to Bansfatak and from Gyanvapi to Bansfatak. The devotees, after having darshan of Mata Rani located on the first floor of the temple through the temporary stairs, were leaving from Kalika Gali via Ram Mandir complex via the back way. On the festival, the entire temple complex is attractively decorated with flowers, garlands and electric chandeliers.
One gets the privilege of seeing the golden Annapurna only for four days in a year, this time for five days.
Devotees get the darshan of Mata Annapurna every day, but the special golden idol can be seen only four days in a year, from Dhanteras festival to Annakoot. The special thing is that this time the devotees will get darshan for five days. The mother's mother's loving solid golden statue is sitting on lotus posture and is in the posture of donating food in the bag of Kashipuradhipati cast in silver sculpture. There is a golden idol of Goddess Lakshmi on the right side and Bhudevi on the left side. There is a belief in Kashi that Kashi Puradhipati Baba Vishwanath stands in the mood of a supplicant after the world's sustenance. Baba is dependent on the blessings of his mother for the nourishment of his city. There is a tradition of distributing paddy lava-batasha and fifty paise coins as treasure in the court of Mother Goddess. By keeping it in the granary of the house, it is believed that there is no shortage of money and grains throughout the year.