Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his 45-hour long meditation at the famed Vivekananda Rock Memorial here on Thursday evening. After arriving from nearby Thiruvananthapuram by a helicopter, Modi worshipped at the Bhagavathi Amman temple and reached the rock memorial by a ferry service and started meditation that is scheduled to go on till June 1.
Clad in a dhoti and a white shawl, Modi prayed at the temple and circumambulated the ‘garbhagriha’. Priests performed a special ‘arthi’ and he was given temple ‘prasad’ that included a shawl and a framed photograph of the presiding deity of the temple. Later, he reached the rock memorial by a ferry service operated by the state government-run shipping corporation and began his meditation at the ‘dhyan mandapam.’
Before he embarked on the dhyan exercise, for a while, Modi stood on the stairs leading to the mandapam that offers breathtaking views of the sea that surrounds the memorial from all sides. Ahead of his departure on June 1, Modi is likely to visit the Thiruvalluvar statue, next to the memorial. Both the memorial and 133 ft statue were built on tiny islets, that are separate and mound-like rocky formations in the sea.
While the PM chose Kedarnath cave to reflect and meditate following the end of campaign in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, now he has chosen a spiritually significant place in the southernmost tip in the mainland of the country.
All arrangements, including heavy security, are in place for Modi’s 45-hour stay at the famed memorial named after the revered Hindu saint. This is the first time the Prime Minister will be staying at the memorial, a monument built in tribute to Swami Vivekananda, who meditated over the rocks inside the sea towards the end of 1892.
