India is home to many temples and yearly crores of rupees are spent in their upkeep. Moreover, crores of rupees and gold ornaments are being generously donated by devotees.
In return, devotees get sweet and savoury food times as ‘prasad’.
However, in an interesting fact, there is a temple where devotees get gold as Prasad. It might sound false, but seems like it is true.
The temple is in Madhya Pradesh.
The Mahalaxmi temple in Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh is one such temple. This temple receives offerings worth crores each year that includes even gold and silver ornaments.
So, around Diwali each year, a certain part of this offering is returned to the devotees in the form of prasad; it is said that people travel thousands of miles to come to the temple and receive this prasad, the travelling cost for the same often being more than the prasad cost!
However, here the gold and silver prasad is not treated as jewellery or a precious metal, and is fact considered as a blessing from the Goddess of wealth and is never spend or sold off – it is in fact kept in the locker of the house for safety.
It is also said that every offering made to the Goddess is kept note of, so that the authorities know how much gold is to be returned in the form of prasad.
PNN