Indore: Observed during the holy month of Shravan, Nag Panchami is dedicated to the worship of Nag Devta or the snake god. Remembering that life is just a cycle with changes, the Hindu community observed Nag Panchami on Saturday.
Unlike every year when over 10,000 devotees used to travel from Indore and other districts to Ujjain for darshan of lord Nagchandreshwar, this year devotees stayed home and attended prayers online.
It was for the first time when devotees offered prayers to lord Nagchandreshwar via online streaming on the 'Nag Panchami'.
Click here to see the live darshan of Lord Nagchandreshwar from Mahakaleshar Temple, Ujjain:
Priests had arranged the facility of online darshans in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The doors of this temple are opened once in a year. Usually, lakhs of people visit the temple from across the world. But, this year, due to coronavirus, it wasn't possible," said a temple priest.
Pooja was performed throughout the day and a live darshan facility was available for 24 hours. Nag Panchami falls on the fifth day of bright half (Shukla Paksha) in the lunar month of Shravan, which is in the month of July and August. The day is observed two days after Hariyali Teej.
Due to corona outbreak, Nag Panchami was mostly celebrated at home and with a few devotees in temples.
Starting the day with prayers, people worshipped the serpent god with ‘abhishek’. In some areas, serpents carried snakes in a basket.
However, as shared by Pandit Harish Sharma, “Nag i.e. snakes should not be offered milk to drink, but just bathe with milk.”
Unlike every year, most devotees stayed at home and worshipped the lord and avoided going to temples.
To offer prayers at home, people used silver idols of snake prayers while few prepared snake idols from clay.
The idols were worshipped at home with milk, turmeric, grass, kumkum, and flowers. Flowers and milk were kept near the burrows and holes where snakes live. People also keep a sculpture made of red soil or cow dung of the snake God near the main entrance of the house.
Homemaker Pooja Verma said, “Prayer and our worship is the same as every year, we all wish and pray to lord to help us in fighting corona and making the entire world corona-free soon.”
Educationist Dr Ajit Upadhyaya said, “The Snake primarily represents rebirth, death and mortality, due to the casting of its skin and being symbolically ‘reborn’.” He added over a large part of India there are carved representations of cobras or nagas or stones as substitutes to represent the cycle of life.
