NEW DELHI: First pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meditating at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial were released on Friday.
Winding up a gruelling two-month-long electioneering, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went into a 45-hour meditation on Thursday at Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari. Dressed in an orange attire PM Modi can be seen meditating in front of the statue of Swami Vivekananda.
PM Modi will meditate till June 1 afternoon. This is the spot where Swami Vivekananda meditated for three days in 1892. The rock has a special hall, Sripada Mandapam, where legend has it that Goddess Parvati meditated for Lord Shiva.
The Prime Minister flew into Kanyakumari from Thiruvananthapuram around 4.45 pm and went to Bhagavathi Amman temple on the coast. There, PM offered prayers to Goddess Parvathi, after which temple authorities presented him a picture of the deity.
PM Modi then took a ferry to Vivekananda Rock. After paying obeisance to the statue of Swami Vivekananda and portraits of Lord Paramahamsa and Sharada, Modi began his meditation at Dhyan Mandapam. PM had taken out similar trips at the end of the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha election campaigns in Pratapgarh and Kedarnath, respectively.
This was the PM’s ninth trip to Tamil Nadu since January this year. On Thursday, the rock and Kanyakumari town, which see a steady flow of tourists, was put under heavy security. Devotees were not allowed into Bhagavathi temple after noon. Vivekananda Rock will be out of bounds for tourists till Saturday. Over 3,000 cops kept watch. Navy and coast guard vessels swished around the seas. Fishing has been suspended for three days.