In preparation of our travel to Ujjain, about which I mentioned in this post, my travel operator asked me to book the Bhasm Aarti slot in advance at the Mahakaleshwar Temple,. This is a very famous Jyotirlinga which is believed to be self-manifested (born by itself), holding immense religious and spiritual significance in our culture and and it is believed that, seeking blessings of the Lord helps in spiritual cleansing, and liberation from the cycle of life and death.
The Bhasm Aarti is a special ritual in which bhasma (ashes) are applied to the Shiva Lingam and happens at 4 am in the morning. Mom is allowed to attend the ritual, with certain restriction - she cannot see the application of bhasma to the Shiva Lingam and will have to cover her face with the saree. However, since I am going with her, I wanted to use this opportunity to see this rare event, which is a highly sought after ritual, for which prior booking is mandatory, as they do not allow walk-ins.
They have an online site, where one can submit only the booking request in advance, without any further information - isn't that a very bad design making it complex ?
After filling all the details and submitting personal photographs along with bio-metric data all it says :
Your bhasmarti booking request is successfully submitted. You will get further information on the mobile number entered.
So they allow you to submit a request, but then there is no details on when you will get further information, making it more complex than it needs to be. At the minimum, I was expecting them to tell me when I will get that further details - it certainly should not be random. And more importantly, if the booking is accepted, then they will send a payment link, which has to be taken care immediately.
Important Note: This is only an advance booking request. It does not guarantee a booking.
No payment is required at this time for placing the request. If and when the request is approved, the payment link will be generated and sent to you via SMS.
The maximum number of requests that can be placed from any mobile number/Aadhaar is 3.
Look at the response - how can you say If and when !!! That's so vague response which shows how bad the management is done. At the minimum, they should have told that booking for so and so date will be considered and updated by this date. And they allow booking for the same data multiple times - I have tried three times, and every time it gives the same response.
And the most important caution about all our temples - priests always try to swindle devotees, even though you have an official ticket -time will tell how it goes here, when we visit.
This post is in response to the Weekend-Engagement topics: WEEK 270
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