PM Modi begins 45-hr meditation at Vivekananda Rock Memorial
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 outfits including Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam staged a black flag demonstration in Madurai opposing Modi, social media platform ‘X’ also witnessed a flood of #GoBackModi posts, amid political opposition to the broadcast of his meditation in view of the seventh final phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections on June 1.