Udupi: Vishwapriya Tirtha Swami of Admar Mutt, after celebrating Bale Muhurtham by adopting a village to grow bananas, had the Akki Muhurtham on Wednesday, the second of preliminary events before the next Paryaya festival.

The objective of Akki Muhurtham is to collect and store rice to prepare meals for the large number of devotees who visit the Sri Krishna Mutt during the two-year Paryaya period. With emphasis on health, he prefers ‘organic padi’ varieties which will be used during his tenure. Adamr Seer will ascend the ‘Paryaya Peetha’, also called the ‘Sarvajna Peetha’, at the 800-year-old Sri Krishna Mutt, established by Sri Madhwacharya, the proponent of Dwaita philosophy, in January 2020.

Paryaya is a religious ritual which takes place every alternate year at the mutt. The puja and administration of Krishna Mutt is shared among seers of Ashta Mutts established by Sri Madhwacharya.

Junior pontiff Ishapriya Tirtha Swamiji said, “Akki Muhurtham is one of the most significant rituals here. When we offer our food to God and later consume it as prasadham, it’s good if it’s chemical free. Rice is one of our most important food items. The Admar seer will try to get rice from 16 different organic seeds from different parts of Karnataka, including Udupi. In our state, we have hundreds of different paddy varieties which are slowly vanishing. This time, we tried to get them and we’ll encourage farmers to grow them. We have famers from Uttara Kannada, Madikeri and other districts. Interested people can come to us and we’ll guide them where to get the varieties.”

He added, “We collected special paddy and encourage farmers to grow them. Currently we have 18 ‘Mudi’ rice of 16 breeds, including Mullare, Raj Kamala, Mattalaga, Padmareka, Gouri, Kempakke Savayava, Manjuguni Sannaki, Ondh Katti, Honnekattu, Sindhu, Alooru Sanna, Thanu, Hemavathi, Sona, Madras Sannaki, Padma 1001 brand and 1010 Brand.”

Vishwapriya Tirtha Swami, senior seer, said, “It’s very difficult to satisfy the public but it’s very easy to satisfy God. For this, Madhwacharya guided to serve food for devotees who come to temples in search of God. If devotees are happy after having prasadam, God will be happy. Hence, 600 years ago, Vadhiraja Seer decided to give Anna Prasadam by collecting and storing rice nine months before Paryaya, which every seer follows systematically.”