Allahabad: A temple at Sangam city has Geeta embossed on its walls

ALLAHABAD: At a time when lakhs of pilgrims are visiting Prayag for the ongoing Magh Mela, an ancient temple at the Arail side of the river Ganga is also hogging the limelight.
The highlight of this temple, located within the Falahari Baba ashram, is the walls of the main corridor. The two walls of the corridor have in writing the entire 18 chapters of Bhagwat Geeta.
This ancient temple, which is over 100-year-old, was earlier in shape of a cave in which Brijwasi Baba used to practice Tap (austerity) to please his deity Lord Krishna. It is said that during the same period Tapasvi Swami Ram Charan Das Ji Maharaj arrived in the cave shaped temple in search of his deity and with the permission of Brijwasi Baba, he installed the Shivlinga and henceforth the temple is known to be one with having two deities Krishna and Shiva.
With the passage of time, idols of several God and Goddesses were installed in the temple but Swami Ram Charan Das always wanted to temple to be associate with Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta.
He even laid the foundation stone of a temple of his dream, having Geeta as its central theme but since he left his human body in 1991, the agenda took to backstage.
Now, his dearest disciple Swami Ram Ratan Das, who looks after the temple administration, decided to fulfil the dream of his Guru.
“My guru always wanted to associate the temple with Lord Krishna and Bhagwat Geeta and hence the same now stands as a main theme of the temple for which the main wall of the temple’s corridor has 18 chapters of Bhagavad Geeta is carved on the limestone slab,” said Swami Ram Ratan Das.
He further informed that a team of over 150 artists, mainly from Rajasthan and adjoining areas were roped in and they wrote the slokas in Sanskrit, chiselling the curves of the Sanskrit alphabets so that it remains for ages.
“Had we used the black ink on the sandstone, it could have faded in couple of years but now that the slokas are embossed on the limestone, it will remain intact till the time this temple remains,” added Swami Das.
On the limestone slab, measuring over 50-feet of the each side of the corridor, nine chapters of Geeta have been written while the other nine chapters on the opposite side of the corridor wall.
“I have been a regular visitor to the temple and now the corridor with Geeta on its wall will quench my thirst of knowledge, when I will pray to my deity and recite his preaching at the same time,” said Uma Shankar Pandey a local resident of Naini area.