Crocodile Entered The Temple And People Worshipped It

Various animals and birds are worshipped in Hinduism. People tend to feed and pray these animals with complete dedication. But what happens when the animal they worship is something that can be really dangerous?

Sounds crazy right? But we Indians, tend to be a little extra generous in our beliefs that we tend to forget that we are handling dangerous animals. This is one such a case where a dangerous crocodile entered into the Khodiyar Mata temple in Palla Village in Gujarat's Mahisagar district, India.

The crocodile had strayed in the premises of Khodiyar Temple during late hours on an evening. The Khodiyar temple worships the 'Khodiya Mata', and the belief is that crocodile is her vehicle. Owing to this connection with the reptile, it took no time for the temple to attract a large number of devotees who had come to see and worship the auspicious crocodile.

We all know what a hungry crocodile could do when it sees its prey. Yet the locals did not fear or panic. Instead of getting scared of the reptile, the locals had an unexpected reaction.

It took no time for the locals to gather around it and offer prayers and 'aarti' to the giant reptile. When the forest department learnt that the unusual visitor in the temple was a 6-feet-long crocodile, they took no time and rushed to the spot to rescue it.

The Deputy Conservator of Forests, Mr RM Parmar, Mahisagar, reportedly revealed that the locals at the temple delayed the rescue operations by at least two hours since the people were rushing in the last moment to the temple to see and worship the crocodile.

The authorities had to wait for over two hours as they did not want to hurt the religious sentiments of the people. However, later, the authorities were able to get the reptile to a nearby pond.