Videos have gone viral on social media showing devotees of Mathura’s revered Banke Bihari temple queuing up to drink water flowing from an elephant sculpture in the premises, believing it to be ‘charan amrit” or holy water. However, the water was found to be coming from an air conditioner installed at the sanctum sanctorum.

The videos show many devotees raising their hands towards the elephant sculpture to collect water. They then drink it and put the rest on their heads.

Some of them were even seen with paper cups, collecting water which they thought came straight from the feet of the deities inside the temple.

Ashish Goswami, a caretaker at the temple, said people had spread rumors that the water flowing from the elephant structure was “charan amrit”.

“People should remove this misconception from their minds. Water is flowing from the air conditioner installed in the sanctum sanctorum. This is not ‘charan amrit’ at all,” he said.

Goswami added that getting ‘charan amrit’ is not that easy and is available only inside the temple.

The faithful, however, did not seem discouraged by the guard’s clarifications.

One of them failed to understand that the water was actually coming from the air conditioner and not the sanctum sanctorum.

‘It’s holy water. It’s for our good’karma‘(acts), we get this water,’ she said.

Meanwhile, social media users shared widely varying opinions on the videos.

While one said the “stupidity is getting worse by the day,” another user said there was no shortage of people who were just blind followers.

Some simply said they were neither shocked nor surprised since the faithful only followed their belief and not logic or science.

(Contributions by Madan Gopal Sharma)