Officials gearing up Chandanotsavam

Visakhapatnam: The district administration is gearing for the ensuing Chandanotsavam of Lord Sri Varahanrusimha Swamy atop Simhachalam which will be celebrated on April 18. It is only on Chandoanostasvam, that the devotees have the ‘Nijarupa Darshanam’ of the idol which is covered by a thick coat of sandalwood paste during the rest of the year.

According to tradition, the Lord will bless the devotees with ‘Nijarupam’ only one day. To have God’s ‘Nijarupa Darshanam’, thousands of devotees across the state, Odisha and Chhattisgargh and West Bengal will flock to Simhachalam on the day. Some of the NRIs also will come to have darshan of Lord Simhadri Appanna.

Every year over 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh devotees will throng the temple on that particular day. After the zero hours, the temple priests after perform rituals will start the removal process of the sandal paste with a blind fold. Almost after three hours long process, the priests will call the temple’s hereditary trustee to have the first darshan of Lord Appanna followed by protocol VIPs and devotees.

From 4.30 am to till night 9 pm, the Lord will bless the devotees with ‘Nijarupam’ and again, the temple priests will apply the sandal paste covering the entire idol which is about 3.5 feet. The endowments, revenue, GVMC, police, medical and health, fire services and other departments conducted a review meeting for the arrangements.

Executive officer of Simhachalam Devasthanam K Rama Chandra Mohan said that the temple officials have taken additional steps to ensure a hassle free darshan of the Lord on the festival day. Special wueues would be arranged for the darshan and prasadam. According to past experiences, it is expecting that 50 lakh laddu’s would be sold this year and arrangements also started to prepare prasadam, the EO added.

The city police are making elaborate arrangements. Special police teams would be deployed to make sure no breach of security takes place. APSRTC is also announced to run special services from several areas from the coastal districts.