Maa Sharada Ashtami Puja to be offered at Sharada Peeth in PoJK

Puja will be offered at the famous temple ‘Maa Sharada Peeth’ on the occasion of ‘Maa Sharada Ashtami’ on August 26. Sharada Peeth is one of the three holiest sites of pilgrimage for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, like the Martand Sun Temple and the Amarnath Temple.

Sharada Peeth is 150 km away from Muzaffarabad and 130 km from Srinagar, the capital of Jammu & Kashmir. Part of the temple is situated in the POJK and partly in the Indian UT of J & K.

The puja will be held at the temple on the Indian side of the border, said Indresh Kumar, senior RSS functionary who served as ‘Prant Pracharak’ of J & K during the heydays of terrorism in the late 80s and early 90s.

According to a report by News Bharati, Indresh Kumar said that the puja will be offered under the leadership of Ravindra Pandit, a Kashmiri Pandit. A group of five-six Kashmiri Pandits has already arrived at Tikar via Kupwara, Karan to offer the puja tomorrow.

This group will proceed to the Indian side of the border and offer the Puja at the temple while some Muslims from POJK will be reaching the border to carry with them the presents from the Goddess, Indresh Kumar said. This way, the worshipping of Maa Sharada will be completed on the auspicious occasion of Sharada Ashtami, he added.

Ravindra Pandit and others will reach Delhi with the Prasad on August 29-30.

Indresh Kumar said that he prayed to Maa Sharada to free the Sharada Peeth from the illegal occupation of Pakistan so that rejuvenation of Sharada Peeth could be done to offer ‘darshan’ to all devotees with ease.

It is believed that the famous temple of Maa Sharda was built by Kashmir’s powerful King Lalitaditya as a prominent seat of learning of Sanatana Dharma. Temple Sharada is also regarded as one of the Shakti Peeths where body parts of Devi Sati had fallen while being carried by her husband Lord Shiva. Since the Partition, the temple has been deserted.