Rourkela: ‘Manash Parishad’, one of the oldest organizations in this town, has spent 60 years devoting time to spreading the message of Lord Ram. The temple of Lord Ram inside the Hanuman Vatika complex here has always been a place for devotees of Lord Ram to throng in large numbers. The ‘Manash Parishad’ offers a rendition of ‘Akhand Ramayan or Sundar Kand’ if the devotees seek it. “We do it free of cost. We consider it our ‘prarabdh’ that we get the call to do this noble duty in honour of Lord Ram,” said Rajkumar Shukla, secretary of Manash Parishad. This year, with the inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, there is plenty of work to do for the organisation till January 22. This is no doubt, a very special occasion for us.
However, even without any special occasion, our hands are more or less full. We have more than 100 requests annually to do puja in homes of devotees,” informed the president of the organisation, Siyakand Singh. “We offer our services within a radius of around 50 kilometres from Rourkela,” he added. The members of this organisation have come from different walks of life ‘but love and devotion towards Lord Ram have kept them together’. “We have been performing our duties for the last 60 years. The responsibility was handed over to us from our seniors. Now we are slowly entrusting the same responsibility to our juniors,” Shukla pointed out. Earlier memories of ‘Manash Parishad’ for city residents were the celebration of ‘Ravan Podi’, which was organised on Bijaya Dashami. However, differences between the Central Puja Committee and the Manash Parishad cropped up following which the latter stopped celebrating ‘Ravan Podi’. “We are happy what we are doing and we will continue doing that till our last breath, that offering devotion to Lord Ram,” said Shukla. He added that the body organises chanting of ‘Akhand Ramayana’ on the first Saturday and Sunday of every New Year. The present statues of Lord Ram, Sita, Laxman, and Hanuman have been brought from Rajasthan. “On every Sunday of Savan, a community feast is organised. Anyone can take part in it. On the last Sunday we celebrated ‘Santh Tulsi Jayanti’,” informed Shukla. For them, the Ram Navami remains the most important festival of the annual calendar. “To celebrate the grand occasion January 22, an uninterrupted rendition of Ramayana will take place round the clock,” Shukla added.