Ahead of the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22, grand preparations are continuing at the Temple where RSS worker Anil Mishra and his wife Usha have been performing the rituals as “Pradhan Yajman” (main hosts) leading up to the event.

Mishra, 63, is one of the 15 trustees of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra that was formed in 2020 to oversee the construction of the Temple.

Mishra lives in Ayodhya and since he was named as a member of the Ram Temple Trust in 2020, he has frequently addressed the media and locals about the progress of the Temple’s construction work.

He started off the rituals for the consecration of Ram Lalla on January 16 by taking a dip in the Saryu river, amid chanting of mantras, after which he began a fast. He then performed the prashchita, sankalpa and karmakuti pujas, which lasted for eight hours.

In the town of Ayodhya, where security personnel, devotees and workers have been engaged in preparations of the consecration event, Mishra’s role during the Temple’s construction and his participation in the anusthaan (rituals) are being talked about by locals.

Inside the Ram Temple on Friday evening, Mishra was surrounded by priests and staff members of the Trust, who guided him in performing the rituals.

RSS veteran

Mishra hails from the Patauna village in Ambedkar Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. He joined the RSS during the Emergency (1975-77). He rose up the organisation’s ladder, becoming a prant sah-karyavah and later the prant karyavah of the RSS in the Awadh region. He had been associated with the Ram Temple movement and is currently a member of the RSS’ Awadh regional unit.

He served as a government medical officer (Homeopathy), retiring in 2020. After retirement, he is said to have plunged deep into the RSS activities in Ayodhya.

His wife Usha, a graduate, is a homemaker. She said that she had visited the Temple site several times over the years but did not expect “being a key person in consecration ceremony”.

“It is a matter of pride that my family has got this opportunity to work in the service of Lord Ram. All the family members are Ram Bhakts,” said the couple’s eldest son Ravi Mishra, a businessman.

Ravi said that his father and mother were staying at the Ram Temple site and had not come home since rituals started in the Temple. Ravi said he met them every evening to give the couple their dinner. Mishra has two other sons – they are both doctors, one of whom has been practising in Germany.