Mathura, Aug 26: Lakhs of devotees from across the country thronged Lord Krishna temples in this holy town from early hours on Monday for Janmashtami celebrations.
The Krishna Janmabhoomi temple here held the ‘Mangala Aarti' in the morning, with hundreds in attendance as the temple premises reverberated with the chants of ‘Jai Jai Shri Radhey' and ‘Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki'.
Pilgrims flooded the Nand Bhavan temple in Gokul for the ‘Chhathi Pujan' programme, temple priest Mathura Das said.
“Till late evening nearly 25 lakh pilgrims had paid their obeisance in different temples of Mathura, Vrindavan, Goverdhan, Mahaban while un-official figures estimate more”, Senior Superintendent of Police, Shailesh Kumar Pandey said.
He said the number of pilgrims is likely to increase since the influx of pilgrims is continuing.
“Our effort is to provide easy Darshan without compromising security as the line system is strictly adhered to when the influx of devotees in few temples is more”, he said.
There has been no untoward incident so far, police said.
“I feel really happy here and why not, it's the birthday celebration of Lord Krishna,” Himani, a devotee said.
At the Krishna Janmasthan temple several devotees broke into dance on Monday morning, to the spell of clarinet and drums along with shlokas and chants. The pilgrims were offered ‘Charnamrit' after ‘Mangala Aarti', temple officials said.
“Amidst chanting of Vedic hymns and playing of conch, a procession of priests carried auspicious attire of Radha Krishna and other deities of different temples based at Srikrishna Janmasthan on Sunday evening,” a temple official said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led the Krishna Janmashtami celebrations in Mathura on Monday, offering special prayers to the deities.
“Today in the holy city of Mathura, I visited and worshipped the divine and beautiful forms of Yogeshwar Lord Shri Krishna and Shri Radha Rani. May the blessings of Dukhbhanjan, Yashodanandan, Lord Shri Krishna and Shri Radha Ji remain in the entire universe and this world,” he said in a post on X in Hindi, earlier in the day.
