{"id":44573,"date":"2017-03-04T21:46:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T16:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org\/?p=44573"},"modified":"2017-03-04T21:46:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T16:16:43","slug":"pm-narendra-modi-offers-prayers-kashi-vishwanath-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=44573","title":{"rendered":"PM Narendra Modi offers prayers at Kashi Vishwanath temple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>VARANASI: Prime Minister <u><span style=\"color: #0066cc\">Narendra Modi<\/span><\/u> on Saturday offered several litres of milk, Ganga jal and flowers at the fabled <u><span style=\"color: #0066cc\">Kashi Vishwanath<\/span><\/u> temple here and performed aarti at the sanctum sanctorum during a break in his road show.<br \/>\nAmid tight security, the Prime Minister reached the temple at around 1:30 p.m. and paid obeisance to Lord Shiva, the presiding deity of <a href=\"http:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/topic\/Varanasi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u><span style=\"color: #0066cc\">Varanasi<\/span><\/u><\/a>. Prayers were conducted by five priests headed by Acharya Ashok Dwivedi, a source informed IANS.<br \/>\nAfter offering milk, Ganga jal, flowers, chandan and janeyu, the Prime Minister performed aarti. The priests then smeared <a href=\"http:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/topic\/Modi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u><span style=\"color: #0066cc\">Modi<\/span><\/u><\/a>&#8216;s forehead with chandan and vermillion, as a symbol of blessings of the Lord Kashi Vishwanath. He was also given some prasad by the management of the temple.<br \/>\nHe later left for the Kaal Bhairav temple, which is considered to be a very holy place in the temple town.<br \/>\nKaal Bhairav is considered by devotees as the &#8216;shah kotwal&#8217; and it is believed that a trip to Varanasi is incomplete without a visit to this temple.<br \/>\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi soon after his resounding victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections had visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple but skipped Kaal Bhairav temple.<br \/>\nEarlier, the Prime Minister took out a road show in the city as thousands lined up the route, chanted pro-Modi slogans and showered marigold petals on his entourage. The SPG personnel surrounding the Prime Minister had a tough time controlling the milling crowds who tried to come close as he stood up through the sunroof of a bulletproof SUV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VARANASI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered several litres of milk, Ganga jal and flowers at the fabled Kashi Vishwanath temple here and performed aarti at the sanctum sanctorum during a break in his road show. Amid tight security, the Prime Minister reached the temple at around 1:30 p.m. and paid obeisance to Lord [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}