The fear of being deported from America, the crowd of people praying to God in the temples

Washington: After Donald Trump was re-elected as the President of the United States, the number of devotees visiting a Hanuman temple in New Delhi has increased. This has been claimed in a report by Business Standard. According to the report, devotees are visiting the Sri Siddhi Peeth Chamatkari Hanuman Mandir in Neb Sarai, New Delhi to pray for the fulfillment of their wish of getting an American visa.

The report says that Lord Hanuman is the world’s best traveller, after all he travelled to a foreign country without any documents, he is the favourite deity of visa seekers. Visiting the temple, devotees place their passports at the feet of Lord Hanuman and put their application written in red ink in a box.

The report states that to fulfil their wishes, devotees have to recite Hanuman Chalisa for 41 days, surrender to the Lord and give up meat, garlic and alcohol. The receipt for thanking the person for getting the visa has to be recorded in red ink in a notebook kept there. Apart from Delhi, there are many other temples in the country where devotees go to pray for visas. According to the report, as the US is getting stricter regarding visas, the prayers of devotees going to the US in India are becoming even more intense and their pockets are getting lighter because some temples also charge ‘fees’.

Sharmila Chawla, a resident of Rohini in New Delhi, has prayed at the Neb Sarai Hanuman Temple as she awaits her US visa interview in March. She also visited the temple for her daughter’s Canada visa. She said the visa process was completed despite almost impossible odds for her daughter, who at the time was at a very tense stage when Canada-India relations were at a standstill. “The conditions were so unfavourable for my daughter’s work visa that only Hanumanji’s intervention could have helped her get it… I went to the temple with that faith,” she told Business Standard over the phone. She said the temple did not ask for any money. Sharmila Chawla said she gave Rs 1,100 to the temple along with offerings of clothes and sweets. She is hoping for a positive outcome for her application.