This time it’s Shivji’s turn to mystify hundreds of devotees

PATIALA, February 18: Two years back it was a milk-drinking Lord Ganesha who hit the headlines. Today the focus has shifted to Lord Ganes...

PATIALA, February 18: Two years back it was a milk-drinking Lord Ganesha who hit the headlines. Today the focus has shifted to Lord Ganesha’s adoptive father, Lord Shiva. From early morning today, the faithful have been galvanised by reports that images of the three-eyed god had formed on the shivlingas in some of the city’s historic temples and at some places, the shivlingas had changed colour.

As word spread, hundreds of devotees bearing offerings of milk, fruit and cash made a beeline for the temples where the strange manifestations were supposed to have occurred. From the door of the historic Shiva temple at Qila Chowk, a queue of worshippers, mainly women and children, stretched right across the large intersection.

Within hours, devotees had mobilised cash, rice, milk, sugar and other foodstuffs and were serving kheer, halwa and tea from bustling langars set up near the temples. From every langar-tent loudspeakers blared out a background score of bhajans throughout the day and well into the night.

Story continues below this ad

Among the thousands who thronged the temples to glimpse the "miracle", was Madan Lal, a resident of Factory Area. "I rushed to the temple at Sheranwale Gate in the morning itself as soon as I heard about the strange phenomenon. What I saw was a pale patch on the the temple’s brown stone shivaling and this patch presented an outline of the Lord. I never saw it there before … it was very surprising," he said.

Another worshipper, Raghuraj working in a private firm in the Sheranwale Gate area, was disappointed as the huge rush at the Qila Chowk temple prevented him from getting a good look at the shivlinga.

The Shiva temple at Arya Samaj Chowk in the heart of the old city, also attracted a crowd of several thousand. The rush peaked in the evening when employees had returned from offices. A langar of kheer was organised outside the temple.

Meanwhile, the Patiala district convenor of the Tarksheel Society of India, Harchand Bhinder described the development as the "handiwork of certain vested interests" who had spread this rumour. "No scientific explanation of this is tenable," he said.

Story continues below this ad

Dr K.C. Kalia of the Punjabi University Department of Chemistry, when contacted, said that corrosion might effect a colour-change in stone shivalingas. In the case of metallic shivalingas chemical reaction could have the same effect.

However, Kalia asserted that corrosion or chemical reaction would not happen overnight but over a period of time.