Vrindavan, 2016.10.27 (VT): It was a historic event on Thursday, when the ancient Radha Gopinath Mandir witnessed the unique celebration by the widows, who remained unprivileged and were ignored for decades. The widows entered the temple with the lamps in their hands and celebrated the festival of light with great joy. This initiative was taken by Shri Bindeshwari Pathak, the patron of the Sulabh movement. He has been organizing a series of events during the major festivities to ensure dignity and respectable life for the widows.
The event began with a procession by the widows carrying earthen lamps. The procession of women converged on the Yamuna’s Keshi Ghat. Earlier they cleaned their ashrams and decorated the places with interest with rangoli and lights. Around 1000 widows participated in the Diwali celebration.
Their counterparts, the widows from Varanasi also joined them in the celebration. This festival of light was very important for them as it brought a new ray of hope in their life. Incidentally, the widows had even celebrated Holi this year inside sacred Gopinath Temple with scholars and saints from Vrindavan.
Though celebrating the Diwali festival has been a yearly affair for the widows settled here, it was only done in the places where they lived.
According to Shri Pathak, the aim of organizing the festivities in such a grand scale is to ‘bring ray of happiness” to the lives of the widows, who are living away from the love and care of their families.
Pathak said Sulabh has been organizing all festivals in Vrindavan and has been playing a leading role in adding joy to the lives of the widows by organizing various functions from time to time. Sulabh provides these widows the medical facilities and vocational training besides meeting their day to day needs so that they do not feel left out during the twilight years of their lives. Thousands of widows chose to live in the holy region.
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