The third phase of the mass temple festival, Mana Gudi, will be organised in 20,000 temples in the state on the auspicious occasion of Shravana Pournami on August 21, TTD chairman K Bapiraju has said.
Speaking at a review meeting of the TTD staff, endowments officials and Dharma Prachara Mandali members here on Tuesday, Bapiraju said the primary aim of Mana Gudi is to promote Hindu Sanatana Dharma and preserve the great values embedded in the religion for the future generations.
He also announced that over two crore kankanams (holy threads) would be distributed to the public during the programme.
TTD JEO P Venkatrami Reddy enlisted the schedule of the series of activities to be taken up jointly by the TTD and endowments department as a part of Mana Gudi which includes Alaya Shobha on August 8, dharmic discourses on August 11, Kumkumpuja on August 12, Gopuja on August 14 in all 6A and 6B temples of endowments department, Mass Varalakshmi Vratam on August 16, Satyanarayana Vratam in all harijana and girijana wadas on August 17. The programme will be concluded with Mana Gudi on the auspicious day of Shravana Pournami on August 21.
Speaking on the occasion, TTD executive officer MG Gopal asked the officials of various departments to gear up for the third phase of the programme.
“Concentrate more on the temples located in Harijan, Girijan and fishermen colonies and encourage the denizens to take part in this programme,” he said. Gopal also directed the Dharma Prachara Mandali members to identify the villages and hamlets without temples and enlist them.
Later, endowments principal secretary Vinod K Agrawal said that this mass festival unites the entire Hindu community and is sure to spread the essence of Hindu dharma among the masses, more specially among the young members of the community.
TTD CV&SO GVG Ashok Kumar, HDPP special officer B Raghunath and heads of other departments were also present in the review meeting.