President Ram Nath Kovind at Akshar Deri Shrine in Gondal on Monday. (Express photo: PTI)
PRESIDENT RAMNATH Kovind on Monday exhorted Swaminarayan sect to launch a project to keep clean Hindu temples and other places of worship, and praised the religious organisation for its social contribution.
“We observe a general lack of cleanliness in places of worship and Hindu temples. But Swaminarayan temples differ. They are clean and we can say that through the medium of this cleanliness enter in life of an individual. If you, through your volunteers, could make temples of Hindu gods and goddesses clean, it will be a different type of project of national service,” Kovind told followers and volunteers of Bochansanvasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan (BAPS) sect at the inaugural ceremony of 150th annual function of Akshar Deri, a shrine of the sect in Gondal. The religious festival will continue for the next 10 days.
Swaminarayan sect has a wide following in Gujarat. The BAPS sub-sect has over 1,200 temples spread across the world, including the famous Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar.
Governor O P Kohli, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minster Nitin Patel were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, Rupani termed the occasion as “a confluence of Rashtra Satta (Centre), Rajya Satta (state government) and Dharma Satta (religious authority)”.