Kolkata:
The gates of Chandrodaya Temple, Mayapur, world headquarters of the ISKCON, reopened for devotees on Sunday, more than three months after they were shut in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. The ‘darshan’ of the deities began from 9 am and around 100 devotees came inside the premises through sanitiser tunnel, ISKCON (International Society For Krishna Consciousness) Mayapur spokesman Subrata Das told PTI.
The temple will be open from 9 am to 7 pm every day. “We are expecting 200 visitors today. We expect the numbers to go up next week onwards,” he said.
All the visitors were entering from the main gate and ‘Gammon gate’ and not allowed without masks. The temple premises, restaurants, toilets were being sanitised at frequent interval every day.
The temple was closed since March 23. “Since the safety of our devotees and visitors is of paramount importance to us we took a little more time to open the temple for devotees,” Sri Madhava Gauranga Das, Vice Chairman of Mayapur Administrative Council said explaining the reason why the ISKCON, Mayapur authorities opened the gates for devotees one month after the West Bengal government allowed places of worship to open.
However, authorities of ISKCON, Kolkata don’t have any immediate plans to open the Albert Road temple premises in the city, ISKCON Kolkata spokesman Radha Raman Das said when asked. Authorities of Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Tarapith Kali Temple, Kalighat Temple, Belur Math among others had opened the gates for devotees with several COVID-19 precautionary measures in place during the past one month.
