Gokarna: A special worship coupled with lamp and flower decoration marked celebrations of Karthika Purnima in the legendary Sri Mahabaleshwara Temple of Gokarna. The temple of Sri Mahabaleshwar was decorated allround with lights both within the temple and outside. Three rallies of the Mahabaleshwara utsava around the temple was followed MahaMangalarati and Prasada distribution.
From afternoon, the temple saw the performance of Mahapooja, Bali, along with the Lord’s festival which was taken to Bhimkunda, a beautiful hillock near the temple. There, Dhartri Havana was conducted along with other rituals performed by the devotees in the presence of Bhimkundeshwara. Then, temple festival continued with Naivedya which was prepared by the temple chefs, mangalarati and prayers.Then the procession entered the main temple.
At 6 pm, the festival of God was celebrated on the ,Main Road, and accepted mangala arati from the families of the locals. Then, the procession entered the temple and completed the deeparadhana. Around 12o’clock the Deeparadhana and the Theppotsava were performed being causing lot of excitement among the devotees. The festival with the statue of the God reached the temple of Koteshwara at the center of Koti Tirtha. There the Lord received the Mangalarathi and came back to the temple through Nageshwara street.
The festival continued with the Utsava Murthi of the Lord going to the chariot house from the temple. There the Murthi was placed in the small chariot which led to the Venkataramana Temple. There the chariot round was completed by reciprocating Mangalarati and returning to the chariot house.
Later in the temple, mass prayers were conducted for the welfare of the village, the state and the nation. Finally, with the prasada distribution, the Karthika festival of Lord Mahabaleshwara came to an end.
This time, Kartik Purnima had another attraction of skilled flower decoration by experts from Bangalore. The temple was decorated around its premises with truckload of flowers from the previous night. The temple was made attractive to the eyes and the mind. A devotee of the temple who did not want to be named has been doing this special flower decoration for the past four to five years. This time the decor has been even more attractive and it has attracted more devotees.
