Massive preparations afoot for Guru Ravidas Jayanti

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, February 2

Large-scale celebrations are on to mark the Guru Ravidas Jayanti in Jalandhar on February 5. While Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann flagged off the Beghumpra Express filled with devotees to Benares at the city railway station earlier today, preparations are now afoot for the huge shobha yatra on February 4 and the celebrations which will be held to mark the jayanti.

The district administration has ordered the closure of all meat and liquor shops on February 4-5 on the yatra route and near religious places. Traffic is also being diverted to avoid chaos and jams on the day.

The decked up Nakodar Chowk and Buta Mandi have been lit up and the area around Sri Guru Ravidas Dham and Buta Mandi has an atmosphere akin to a fair. Stalls and vends have begun lining up both sides of the road.

Notably, while over 10 lakh members of the Ravidassia community stay in the Dalit-rich Doaba region, thousands of devotees are expected to come to Punjab and Benares on the occasion from both India and abroad.

Vinod Kaul, secretary, Sri Guru Ravidass Education and Charitable Trust, Buta Mandi, said, “Preparations for the Parkash Purab begin a week ago, celebrations will be held from February 3-6. We are making arrangements for the devotees who are expected to attend. While 10-12 lakh Ravidasia community members from the region alone are expected to be present, we are expecting lakhs more to travel from all over. The CM also said today that he might be present in Jalandhar on February 4.”

On February 4, the shobha yatra from various villages as well as Dera Sachkhand Ballan — a seat of Ravidasias in Doaba — will come in a large procession from the rural areas and congregate at Guru Ravidas Dham at Buta Mandi in the morning, from where they will head to Dr BR Ambedkar Chowk (also called Nakodar Chowk) by afternoon.

The processsion will then head from Ambedkar Chowk to Nehru Garden, Luv Kush Chowk, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Mai Heeran Chowk, Patel Chowk,

then back to Ambedkar Chowk from where the procession will head back to Sri Guru Ravidas Dham. The processions will then return to their respective villages.

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