Religious fervour, gaiety mark Varalakshmi Vratham

Tirupati: The most auspicious Varalakshmi Vratham has been performed by women with religious fervour and gaiety on Friday. Goddess 'Vara Maha Lakshmi' is worshipped by women with pomp and fervour especially in Sravana Masam and perform 'Vara Lakshmi Vratham' normally on Friday that comes before the full moon day.

After two years of low-key festivities due to the pandemic, the Vratham was held following all traditional rituals this time around. The markets were jam packed with huge crowds both on Thursday and Friday morning. The prices of various puja items including coconuts, flowers, fruits, mango leaves, plantain leaves etc., were skyrocketed with the huge surge in demand.

A woman at a store commented that, much hike was noticed in the prices of flowers and fruits. Yet, she wanted to buy everything required to perform the Vratham in a grand way as during the last two years it was a mere formality with Covid fears.

Women dressed in silk sarees have celebrated the event at their homes in the presence of their near and dear while some others took part in mass Vratham performed at Sri Vasavi Kanyakaparameswari temple, Sri Tataiahgunta Gangamma Devasthanam, Annapurnamma temple and many others. Those who performed it at their homes woke up in the wee hours to complete elaborate arrangements.

While there are several forms of worshipping the goddess as part of Vratham, most women do it by setting up a 'Kalasam' on which they beautifully decorate a turmeric smeared coconut as the goddess and wear the jewellery to her. They complete the puja under the chants of mantras by Purohit and listen to the Vara Lakshmi Vratham story with devotion.

The puja will be completed by offering various varieties of 'Naivedyam' to the goddess. Following the customs, women in large numbers have even purchased at least a small piece of gold, preferably goddess Lakshmi dollar or anything related to her.

On this occasion, BJP district cultural wing convenor Gundala Gopinath Reddy distributed food prasadams to the devotees Gangamma Devasthanam in which Akkinapalli Munikrishna Yadav, T Subramanyam Reddy, Vijay Kumar and others participated. The presiding deity Gangamma was decorated with bangles and special puja rituals were performed.