Ujjain: A 3-day festival of spiritual learning and practices under the guidance of ‘guru’ began at the Jaigurudev ashram located at Maksi road, opposite Pingleshwar railway station on Monday. Thousands of devotees reached the city on the 1st day to attend the inauguration ceremony of the festival. Successor of Jaigurudev, Umakant Maharaj delivered a religious discourse to the gathering, followed by mass meditation and bhajan recital event. Devotees will be given a grand feast for 3 days which according to beliefs will prevent them from bad luck and diseases throughout the year. Motivating devotees, Umakant Maharaj said, “Humans must not deter from their basic nature of compassion and piety, which is the only way of attaining solace in this age”. He also asserted that the habit of over indulgence in material pleasure has resulted in the present state of human race and that ascetic and disciplined lifestyle will lead humans towards salvation
According to the organizers, by the end of the festival, a numbers of devotees attending will be in lakhs and to ensure their safety and comfort at the ashram extensive arrangements like medical care unit and an enquiry centre amongst others have been made, The most encouraging part of these congregations is that devotees from every section of society live in harmony and exhibit mutual care. All the operations like cooking, cleaning, monitoring and maintaining of arrangements are being executed by the devotees. Under the motivation and guidance of Umakant maharaj, around 1 lakh devotees pledged to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. The event will find a place in the Golden book of world records. The timings for ‘satsang’ and ‘naamdan’ will be 5 in morning and evening.
