An 83-year-old seer, Swami Shankar Das aka ‘Fakkad Baba’ who lives in a cave for the past 50 years in Rishikesh, has donated ₹1 crore towards the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

The 83 yr old sage had received contributions from numerous other devotees which accumulated to one crore rupees. The donation was made to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which has been collecting money for the temple construction.

The VHP handed over this donation to the Jharkhand wing of RSS, which then thanked Swami Shankar Das for his offering to the long cherished goal of Hindu society to construct a Ram Mandir at Ramjanmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

The sage said, ” I have been living in the cave for over half a century. As a seer, I live on donations from the devotees visiting the cave. When I came to know about the VHP campaign, I decided to donate the amount for Ram Mandir for which I have been dreaming for long”

Randeep Pokhriya, in-charge of VHP’s Ram Mandir donation campaign in Uttarakhand, hailed Das’s act and said, “More than collecting donations, the motive of the campaign is to generate a feeling of harmony and service among the Ram Bhakts like Das.”

“We have so far collected donations worth about ₹5 crore which is three times the target we had in mind. However, it is not about the amount collected but the number of people coming forward through their devotion for Lord Ram to help in building his temple in Ayodhya,” said Pokhriya.

He said they have been receiving donations from a cross section of society.

A 10-year-old girl in Nainital donated ₹2,500 for the temple from savings in her piggy bank.

The VHP had earlier said that they would visit 24 lakh families in 14,526 villages and 73 towns in Uttarakhand under the campaign to collect donations for Ram Temple.

The Hindu body has formed various committees to look after the donations to be collected in the campaign. Under this, a team visiting a village would have to deposit the donation money collected to the specified bank account of VHP within 48 hours.

It is providing coupons of ₹10, 100, 1000 and 2000 against the donations made of the same denomination. If the donor is willing to donate more than ₹2000 than it would provide him/her receipts for the same amount.

News Source: 83-year-old cave-dwelling seer donates ₹1 crore for Ram temple construction | Hindustan Times, The Commune Magazine article dated 03.02.2021. Image is sourced from Hindustan Times.

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