Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)
Bantwal, Oct 16: Two persons were among the devotees who visited Lord Vinayaka Shankarnarayana Durgamba temple at Nandavar in the taluk on Sunday October 15 to offer ritualistic libation along with rice ball to appease their deceased forefathers. They slipped and were fighting for life in the river. Priest of the temple, who saw that the two men were facing life and death situation, rushed to their help, swam in the river and brought both them to safety. The incident happened on Sunday October 15.
The father-son duo whose native place happens to be Kanyana, belong to Vishwakarma community. Their main aim of visiting the temple was to appease their deceased forefathers by offering rice balls to them along with libation as per Hindu traditions. As per practice, the two had taken a dip in the river at the conclusion of the rituals. During this period, the father lost control after his foot that was placed on a rock slipped and fell into the river. Seeing that his father was facing danger, the son jumped into the river. He could not get hold of his father, and himself faced the prospect of drowning in deep water. The priest who saw the youngster flailing his hands, rushed to his rescue and jumped into water. He soon rescued the son.
The priest saw that the young man's father was being washed away due to the strong water current. Seeing that the man was being dragged further down the railway bridge about a hundred metres from the river bank, he jumped into the water and caught up with the man. The father who was no more able to keep himself afloat, had drowned. The priest immediately searched inside the river water and caught hold of the man's shorts and pulled him above water level. The man had by then consumed lot of water and had become unconscious. After pressure was applied to his stomach and chest, some water came out from his mouth after which the man resumed feeble breathing.
As the son disclosed that his father had undergone hernia procedure about a week back, the priest decided against applying further pressure on the stomach and took the man to the hospital at Panemangalore. From there, he was referred to a hospital at Deralakatte. After the doctors treated the man, he regained consciousness by 2 pm.
In normal course, temple main priest, Mahesh Bhat, would lhave performed these rituals but as he had some problems on Sunday, Prakash Marathe had performed rituals on behalf of the father-son duo. After three families which had come for similar purpose completed the rituals connected thereto, the father and son, who formed the fourth family, took part in procedures and had ventured into the river to take bath as advised. As they did not reach the temple after the bath as advised, the priest had come looking for them and found that lives of both of them were in grave danger.
Temple managing committee president, A C Bhandary, members of the committee, other priests, staff and temple manager, Ramakrishna Bhandary, have congratulated Marathe for his timely effort which saved two lives. But Prakash Marathe himself explained that saving the lives of the two was a decision taken by the Lord who wanted to save His devotees and that he was only an instrument used by the Lord to implement the decision taken by Him.