Dr Veerendra Heggade inaugurates vibrant Mangalore Dasara
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore
Mangalore, Oct 10: The ‘Mangalore Dasara 2013’ (Navaratri) celebrations organized by the century-old Shree Gokarnanatha Kshetra, Kudroli was inaugurated by Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr Veerendra Heggade in front of a large gathering of devotees here on Thursday October 10.
Speaking after the inauguration, Dr Heggade praised the Temple for its beauty and said that he was happy to be a part of this celebration. "We see beautiful temples in all parts of the country where people feel like visiting often and surrendering themselves to god. Kudroli is one such temple. Devotees feel excited and happy to see something new in this temple every year."
Terming the temple as one of the most beautiful places in the city, Dr Heggade asked people to give importance to getting rid of bad qualities in them during this festive season and said the same practice was followed even by the ancestors. "We have sufficient resources in India, but corruption, rape, increasing crimes are hindering the country’s growth. People must to join hands and unitedly strive to prevent crimes in society," he said.
"It is also our duty to show the right path to our next generation, and at the same time, the youth should not forger their roots, culture and tradition," he added.
Former union minister and Kudroli Temple's managing trustee B Janardhan Poojary thanked Dr Heggade for gracing the occasion and said, "Dr Veerendra Heggade has made vast achievements in various fields. His works extend to educating people, uplifting women and various other social works. I am sure one day people will definitely worship a great personality like Dr Veerendra Heggade," he said.
"The government has honoured Dr Veerendra Heggade with Padma Bhushan, which is not enough. A great personality like Dr Heggade should be honoured with Bharat Ratna," he added.
Referring to the appointment of women priests in Kudroli Temple, he said, "It is our duty to respect women. If a woman loses her husband, she is branded as 'unlucky' and importance is not given to her. This should not happen. Hence, the Kudroli Temple has appointed two widows as temple priests."
On the occasion B Janardhan Poojary gifted an idol to Dr Veerendra Heggade.
The celebrations were symbolically inaugurated by Dharmadhikari Dr Heggade by handing over the Temple flag to Temple committee president H S Sairam.
Padmaraj, secretary of Temple committee welcomed the gathering while Manohar Prasad compered the programme.
District incharge minister B Ramanath Rai, health minister U T Khadar, fisheries minister B Abhayachandra Jain, MLA J R Lobo, MLA Shakuntala Shetty, US cultural ambassador for India Aarathi Krishnan, Jaya C Suvarna, J P Narayan Swamy, Urmila Ramesh Kumar, Maalathi Poojary, K P Nanjundi, Harikrishna Bantwal, Raghavendra Kulur, Madhava Suvarna among others were present.