Voulnteers distributing Prasadam to some of the thousands of pilgrims to the area for the Maha Kumbh.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims throng to Ayodhya Dham every day after taking a holy bath at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers during the auspicious Maha Kumbh, which started in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Anticipating the arrival of millions of devotees in Ayodhya Dham on Makar Sankranti, ISKCON Ayodhya offered its “squirrel service” by serving 100,000 free meals for the Sankranti festival. ISKCON Ayodhya’s Project Director & Spokesperson “Gita Manishi” Devshekhar Vishnu Das, said “This year Prayagraj Mahakumbha is special since its completing its full cycle post 144 years gap and hence lakhs of devotees converged at Ayodhya after taking a bath in Prayagraj on Makarsankranti date which fell on January 14th 2025. Our team anticipated this mass movement after the opening of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. We thought this was the best chance to serve the devotees for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada, and so we approached our various well-wishers for this mammoth service, and with their help, we were able to do the best service. In order to ensure we are not harming the environment, biodegradable and eco-friendly plates were used for the distribution.”
The free prasadam distribution was held at eleven pavilions across the holy Ayodhya Dham at prominent locations such as Tulasi Udyan, Ayodhya Dham Railway Station, Veena Chowk, and Faizabad Chowk.
Vinay Bhushan Chaitanya Das, the director of “Food for Life,” noted, “The preparation of meal distribution started a day prior when all the resources and materials were brought to a centralized cooking location and around midnight of January 14th, the cooking began with over 60 devotees involved in various cooking related services. On the day of distribution, we had a fixed set of volunteers assigned to each pavilion, and a team of devotees provided logistical support. We also hired multiple mini trucks to transport cooked Kichdi meals to designated pits.”
The whole program was accompanied by a grand Harinam Sankirtan and the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books under the leadership of General Manager Sadbhuj Gaur Das and his team of enthusiastic devotees. Print and electronic media widely covered this event from Ayodhya. Local law enforcement authorities were happy with the conduct of devotees and various devotees from across the world and India partook in the prasadam with joy .
Source https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-ayodhya-serves-100000-meals-to-devotees-arriving-from-maha-kumbh/
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