Description
Lord Hanuman is fondly known as Sankat Mochan which is a Hindi word meaning reliever from troubles. The presence of numerous monkeys in the temple premises gives it another name; the monkey temple. The uniqueness about this temple is that the idol of Lord Hanuman is in front of his Lord Rama, whom he worshiped selflessly.
History
The origin of the Kashi Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple dates back to 19th century. The temple was built at the same spot where the author of Ramcharitra Manas, Tulsidas had a vision of Lord Hanuman. Ramcharitamanas is the Hindi edition of the Hindu epic Ramayana, which was initially written by the Valmiki. In 19th Century, by Pandit Mohan Malviya who is a well know educationist and freedom fighter and also the founder of Hindu University in Banaras, built the temple.
Importance/Significance
It is said that Lord Hanuman gets pleased even with little prayer or pooja. It is a common belief amongst the devotees that if they offer prayers in the Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple their desire shall be fulfilled also their troubles will be eradicated.
Facts/Mythology
The temple has witnessed an unfortunate event of bomb blast; in the year 2007 during the evening arti was in progress in which numerous devotees participated. But this did not deter the devotion of the devotees and the next day onwards a large number of devotees resumed their prayer in the temple. The devotees offer Prasad; “besan ke ladoo” and sindoor which are sold in the temple premises, to Lord Hanuman. The idol is decked with marigold flower garlands.The temple is visited by the maximum number of devotees on the Tuesday and Saturday.
Festivals/Events/Gatherings
The Sankat Mochan foundation which was established in 1982 has been serving and working towards cleaning the river Ganga. It had collaborated with an Australian based environmental group called Oz green and has been working under a program known as Swatcha Ganga Abhiyan past 25 years now. For past, 88 years, “Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh” has been organized by the temple in the month of April which is a classical music and dance festival. The musicians and performers from across the country participate in the festival. Pandit Jasraj, Sunanda Patnayak, Pandit Channulal Mishra, Pandit Rajan-Sajan Mishra, Pandit Amar Nath Mishra and other artist performed in the year 2010's five days Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh.A Special Shobha Yatra is organized every year on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, which is the birthday of Lord Hanuman, to Sankat Mochan temple from Durga Temple onwards.