Vrindavan, November 28, 2015: “Vraja has become a famous place in the world. It is known for Shri Krishna and his pastimes. The Tirtha Purohits (pandas) guide the pilgrims to all the places of Krishna’s pastime. Though the pandas have significant role in the development of Vraja, yet they are being neglected by the governments. They are passing through an identity crisis. The time has come to uplift the Tirtha Purohits and give them proper identity,” said Pandit Shri Prakash Mishra, the National President of Tirtha Purohit Mahasabha. He was speaking in the Centennial ceremony of Brajwasi Tirtha Sabha’s Foundation day organized at Fogla Asharam.
Shri Mahesh Pathak, the patron of the National body of the Tirtha Purohits said, “The Brajwasi Tirtha Purohit Sabha was founded in 1915 by Pt. Madan Mohan Banke, and later registered in 1930 by the then president Pt. Ratan Lal Purohit to facilitate the pilgrims coming to Vraja – Vrindavan. The Mahasabha has maintained the tradition of giving tour to the pilgrims to all the places of Krishna’s pastimes. But the traditional occupation of the pandas is being intruded by the outsiders.” “The government should issue identity cards to the genuine pandas, so that the pilgrims can approach the genuine pandas”, insisted Shri Pathak.
Shri Ramesh Chandra Gautam and Shri Nanda Kumar Pathak raised the demand of Pilgrimage place (Tirtha sthal) status for Mathura and Vrindavan. They said a delegation of the Mahasabha should meet the state government with the list of demands of the Tirtha Purohits. Shri Girdhari Brajwasi and Shri Ram Narayan Brajwas floated the idea of forming a ‘Vraja Tirtha Board’ in the line of the Waqf Boards to protect the heritage of the pilgrimage towns.
A procession was also taken out in the town to celebrate the Centennial ceremony of the Tirtha Purohit Sabha’s foundation in which hundreds of Brahmins priests participated.
Shri Dorilal Gautam, Murarilal Thokdar, Suresh Chandra Sharma, Jeetendra Gautam, Rajendra Kumar Dwivedi, Chandra Prakash Sharma, Deepak Ghatwala, Mauni Shukla, Kalicharan Gautam, Vanshi Shukla, Krishna Kant Gautam, Vijay Gautam, Uttam Krishna Gautam, Rama Purohit, Vineet Upadhyay, Bharat Panda, P.D. Gautam, Dinesh Mani etc. participated in the ceremony.
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