Dharmasthala (Dakshina District, Karnataka), February 18, 2019: Curtains came down on three-day anointment rituals of the 39-feet tall monolith of Lord Bahubali on Ratnagiri here on Monday with a prayer that benefits of the rituals reach the martyrs of February 14 Pulwama attack.
The use of saffron brought from Kashmir on the opening day of the rituals on Saturday, too, had sent out a symbolic message that Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala was with the martyrs and the Lord wished peace for all.
The family of D Veerendra Heggade, dharmadhikari of the Kshetra, took the lead in kick-starting the final day proceedings with 1,008 kalashas of purified water brought to Ratnagiri from Sri Chandranath Swami Basadi in a grand agrodhaka procession. Srinivas Shetty and family from Belthangady were given the honours with the sugarcane (Ikshurasa) abhisheka, while Sunanda Devi Indra from Venoor kick-started the milk (ksheera) abhisheka.
If Dharanendra Kalkodu from Kalasa performed the ‘kalkachoorna abhisheka’, it was the turn of Shreshta Jain and M S Mruthyunjaya from Bengaluru to lead the ‘kashayabhisheka’ and ‘kesari abhisheka’. Rohini Aadiraj from Moodbidri performed kashayabhisheka and quartet of Rathnakar Jain from Mangaluru, Manmatha Kumar from Nellikaru, Sohanlal Jain from Bengaluru and Pankaj Jain from Hubballi performed the ‘chatushkona’ abhisheka.
Shashikiran Jain from Belthangady led the devotees in performing ‘Srigandhabhisheka’, Saroj Gunapal Jain from Moodbidri followed suit with ‘chandanabhisheka’.
PushpadantaSagar Muni Maharaj in his benedictions on this occasion said the darshan and worship of Lord Bahubali will help cleanse devotees of their ‘paapa’ and there is a circulation of ‘punya’ within, besides propagation of principles of non-violence, sacrifice and control.
Sri Lalithakeerthi Bhattaraka Swamiji of Karkala, Sri Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Swamiji of Moodbidri, Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja, president of DK unit of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Pradeep Kumar Kalkura