Gorakhpur/Lucknow, Jan 15 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday offered khichdi to Guru Gorakhnath on the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti as per the tradition of the Nath Panth.

Adityanath is the Mahant of Gorakshpeeth and on the festival of Makar Sankranti, the famous Khichdi fair is organised in Gorakhpur's Gorakhnath temple that lasts for a month.

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On Sunday after rituals were performed by Adityanath at 4 am, Khichdi was also offered on behalf of the dynasty King of Nepal, said an official statement.

Devotees from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal visit the temple on this festival of faith.

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According to the statement, after offering khichdi on behalf of Yogi and the dynasty of Nepal, Nath yogis, sadhus and saints also offered khichdi and offered prayers.

With this, the doors of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple were thrown open to the public.

On the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti, lakhs of devotees thronged the Gorakhnath temple amid the bitter cold to offer the khichdi of public faith to the Shiva avatar Guru Gorakhnath.

For the auspicious wish of happiness, prosperity and health, devotees, who came from other states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and neighbouring country Nepal, queued up after 4 am on Sunday morning and offered khichdi of reverence to Guru Gorakhnath.

On Sunday, the prasad of Khichdi was distributed to all the devotees in a joint feast with reverence in the temple premises.

Forgetting the discrimination of rich-poor, caste and class, everyone took the prasad of khichdi. A banquet was also organised for the invited guests in the temple premises.

A huge amount of rice and pulses grains and vegetables are offered to Baba Gorakhnath throughout the month in Khichdi Mela and the temple administration uses every grain offered for the people.

Grain and vegetable offerings are used throughout the year to offer prasad (sanskar) to devotees and are also used in temple bhandara, given to the poor at wedding ceremonies, vanvasi ashrams, blind schools and other institutions .

Dwarka Tiwari, who has been associated with the temple for nearly four decades, said that the temple's bhandara serves food for about 600 people daily and programs are organised at regular intervals in the temple in which thousands of people receive prasad.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)