Mega Celebrations in Ayodhya Today as India Awaits 'Surya Tilak' of Ram Lalla | When & Where to Watch

The newly-built Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya is all decked up for Ram Navami celebrations on Wednesday. The festivities, which fall on the ninth day of the Chaitra month, mark Ram Lalla’s birth. This year, the auspicious occasion will be more special by ‘Surya Abhishek’ of Ram Lalla, when the sun’s rays will fall on the forehead of the deity’s idol at noon.

The celebrations mark the first big religious occasion after the consecration of Ram Lalla in January this year.

Ram Lalla’s ‘Surya Tilak’

Huge crowds are expected in Ayodhya on Ram Navami to witness the ‘Surya Abhishek’ or ‘Surya Tilak’ of Ram Lalla when the rays of the sun fall on his forehead.

Ram Lalla, the Suryavanshi king of Ayodhya, is expected to be gifted with ‘Surya Abhishek’ at noon, a phenomenon through which sun rays would be captured and diverted via a series of optical apparatus.

The sun rays would shine on the forehead of Ram Lalla for the next four minutes in a circular form spanning 75 millimetres.

“The exact period of tilak on the forehead centre is about three to three-and-a-half minutes, with two minutes of full illumination,” said Dr S K Panigrahi, a scientist at CSIR-CBRI Roorkee, who was associated with the project.

Arrangements Made For Special Darshan

The Ram temple in Ayodhya will remain open for 19 hours starting from Mangala Aarti at 3.00 a.m. on Wednesday till noon and curtains of the temple will be drawn for five minutes each during the four ‘bhog’ offerings to the Lord.

On Wednesday morning, the temple authorities posted pictures of ‘divya abhishek‘ of Ram Lalla as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and several other leaders expressed their satisfaction to see Lord Ram finally in his “permanent home” at the grand Ayodhya temple.

Sculptor of Ram Lalla idol, Arun Yogiraj, said, “We are in Ayodhya for the first time after the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony. My family was very happy after seeing my work. We are anxiously waiting for the Ram Navami celebration.”

Elaborating on the arrangements made for the occasion, the chief priest of Ram Janmabhoomi temple, Acharya Satyendra Das said, “This is being celebrated with grandeur because Lord Ram is now in his new abode…The temple has been decorated…Rituals are open and will begin at 3 am tonight…Ram Lalla will wear yellow clothes. He will be offered 56 Bhog. Three types of Panjiri will also be offered. Panchamrit will be offered too…The darshan will continue from 3 am to 12 am.”

The Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has issued an appeal to distinguished guests to visit Ayodhya for the darshan of Ram Lalla only after April 19.

It has also cancelled all special pass bookings for Darshan and Aarti of Ram Lalla between April 16 and 18. Everyone will need to follow the same path as other devotees to enter the Ram Mandir, said the Trust.

No Mobile Phones Allowed, Arrangements for Live Streaming Made

A member of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, Anil Mishra, said, “During the Surya tilak, devotees will be allowed inside the Ram temple. Around 100 LEDs are being put up by the temple trust, and 50 by the government, which will show the Ram Navami celebrations. People will be able to see the celebrations from where they are present.”

To avoid inconvenience and wastage of time during darshan, devotees have been advised not to bring their mobile phones and other valuable items. A service centre for pilgrims has been established by the trust at Sugreev Quila.

“Visitors are advised to keep their mobile phones, shoes, slippers, large bags, and restricted items securely and far away to facilitate a smoother Darshan experience,” the temple trust said.

Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati will live telecast the celebrations at Ram Mandir on Doordarshan.

Local reports stated that live screenings of rituals and proceedings will be conducted based on the advice of temple priests, with brief interruptions during ‘bhog’ and clothing changes.

The temple trust said that the ‘darshan’ will continue until 11pm, followed by the ‘bhog’ and Shayan Aarti “depending on the situation”. Prasad will be distributed near the Mandir exit after the Shayan Aarti.

How Ram Lalla’s Surya Tilak Will Be Done?

The Surya tilak’ of the deity was made possible by an elaborate mechanism, developed by Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) scientists, involving mirrors and lenses.

Experts from the CBRI are already camping in Ayodhya to lay down an optomechanical system on the ground floor of the temple in collaboration with scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics-Bengaluru. The system was tested by the scientists on Tuesday.

The standard optomechanical setup is a Fabry-Perot cavity, where one mirror is movable, to maximize the response of an optical system to a change in the frequency/wavelength of an input laser.

Using the Fabry-Perot cavity (named after French physicists Charles Fabry and Alfred Perot who developed it in 1897), sunbeams would be guided with utmost precision to illuminate the forehead of the Lord exactly at noon on Ram Navami.

“The basic objective of the Surya Tilak project is to focus a ’tilak’ on the forehead of the Shri Ram idol on every Shri Ram Navami day. Under the project, sunlight will be brought on the forehead of Lord Ram at noon on Shri Ram Navami in the Chaitra month every year,” Dr S K Panigrahi, a scientist at CSIR-CBRI Roorkee, who was associated with the project said.

Elaborating further, Panigrahi said, “The position of the Sun changes every year on the day of Shri Ram Navami. Detailed calculations show that the date of Shri Ram Navami repeats every 19 years.”