With temples closed amid the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the Mata Chintpurni temple in Himachal Pradesh's Una has started the facility of home delivery of 'prasad' to its devotees through online request.

A day after the facility — 'Online Prasad Chhinmastika Bhog' — of the temple was launched by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, around 300 orders have been received.

"We have received close to 300 orders on our website so far, which is encouraging. 'Prasad' offering is available in three categories as of now — ₹201, ₹601 and ₹1,101. The contents of 'prasad' in all three categories will remain the same, however, the quantity will differ," temple officer Abhishek Bhasker told The Hindu on Tuesday.

"For the order received we have started the process of packaging, which will be done in boxes to ensure that sanctity of 'prasad' remains intact," he added.

Amid the pandemic, the State government has closed all the temples and religious shrine to prevent social gathering and spread of the virus. Most of the shrines in the State were providing online 'darshan' to the devotees, but it was for the first time that the facility of providing 'prasad' has been launched with the cooperation of the Indian Postal Department. The Mata Chintpurni temple draws tourists lakhs of devotees from all over the world.

The Chief Minister said during the launch of the facility through videoconference that the people of the State would now be able to get ‘prasad’ of this holy shrine at their doorsteps by applying online for 'darshan and prasad'.

With this, Himachal Pradesh is among the few States that provided delivery of 'prasad' from their temples such as Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine and Baba Kashi Vishwanath, Banaras, he said.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/himachal-pradeshs-mata-chintpurni-temple-starts-home-delivery-of-prasad/article32210023.ece