Chennai: The grand spectacle of Lord Athi Varadhar's darshan by lakhs of devotees from all over India at Varadharaja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram for 48 days from July 1 is bound to set social media abuzz.
The last time the Lord came out was on July 2, 1979, and earlier on July 12, 1939, when there was not even enough newspapers to report this rare event.
In 2019, with print, electronic and social media disseminating news 24x7, the mega event has already caught the attention of people throughout the country.
The legend and the significance of the awakening and raising of Athi Varadhar have been written, shared and forwarded by people on WhatsApp and Hike for the last one month.
The countdown for the event which began last week with the cleaning of the temple tank was reported in newspapers with photographs. Twitterati too shared their views on this unique event.
Even the rains in Chennai for the last few days have been attributed to the grace of Athi Varadhar. A forward shared widely in WhatsApp groups claimed that the country had witnessed drought during the years preceding Athi Varadhar's raising.
After His darshan, there had been bountiful rains in the country.
The sender claims he checked the IMD website and found the countryhad suffered drought before His raising. The WhatsApp forward ends with a fervent hope that this time too the country will have good rains as the Lord returns to his underwater abode after giving darshan to devotees in August.
While district authorities have made elaborate arrangements, devotees all over India are gearing up to get, probably, once-in-a-lifetime darshan of Athi Varadhar and share their experiences, photos and videos with their friends on social media.
