A paradigm shift in leveraging technology for spiritual experience

The Internet of things, which is all about connecting physical objects to the world of web, is creating ripples of change in society, at large. In recent times, IoT has had the power to make a perceptible difference to our lives, at both- personal and professional levels.  Of late, IoT is setting up a new trend and even helping our spiritual practices to have an ardent God experience.

Perhaps, Sabarimala is the foremost spiritual destination in the world and over recent years, there are multiple instances on how technology is taking control of everything, and helping to simplify and manage the logistical arrangements.  During every pilgrim season, there are several reported cases on pilgrims waiting long hours in queue for darshan, prasad (appam and aravana), to make cash offerings leaving them fatigue; stampede and child pilgrims getting lost in the moving crowd. Virtually, all these issues can’t be addressed and resolved by man power and police personnel.

Down through the years, there have been significant steps taken in utilizing technology to enhance the spiritual experience of pilgrims thronging the hill shrine to worship the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa. The latest technologies introduced in this Sabarimala pilgrim season are, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology introduced by Vodafone and Kerala Police at Pamba and Safe Sabarimala - Application by Kerala Police.

Parents, who are on their way to Sabarimala with children under 14 years of age, can register to avail RFID tag paying a visit to Kerala State Police office at Pamba, before they move towards the Sannidhanam. Post registration, each child is provided with a Vodafone powered RFID tag containing each child’s, guardian’s names, contact number and relevant details. When a child pilgrim with an RFID tag is found wandering in the crowd, police officials finding him would take him to the control room and when Vodafone RFID reader reads the RFID tag, the whereabouts of the child will get passed on to the mobile number registered in the card. Thus, Vodafone RFID tag hugely simplifying monitoring of child pilgrims and facilitating quick reunion with his/her dear ones, in case of getting lost in the crowd.

Safe Sabarimala - Application by Kerala Police is a unique idea of implementing a mobile application and portal to support the devotees, who come for pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The mobile application acts as a bridge between devotees and Kerala Police by providing support and assistance during the Sabarimala Darshan. The key services and facilities offered by the mobile application includes, providing information regarding the queue position, parking position, parking instructions, weather updates from Pamba and Sannidhanam, Temple timings, opening and closure timings, Live news updates. The mobile application will provide services such as missing person alerts, lost and found service, complaint submission, navigation assistance and assistance for medical support.

Sabarimala VirtualQ is an Online Portal for Devotees to book a slot on the separate Queue maintained by Kerala Police. This helps devotees to reach Sannidhanam without waiting in the long queue usually formed at Pampa. The system generates fixed number of coupons for every hour, devotees can plan to reach Pampa on the specified time, and enter on to the queue without any waiting. This dedicated queue will be manned by Kerala Police exclusively for those coming with the Virtual Q coupon. The coupons and ID card will be verified by Kerala Police, before allowing them to enter the Queue.

'e-hundi' where pilgrims can make their offerings through Debit and credit cards. Pilgrims to the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala can now make their offerings without using cash. The Travancore Devaswom Board [TDB], which administers the temple, has introduced an 'e-hundi' for electronic transfer of offerings with a swipe machine.

Book Appam - Aravana online - Facility has started to book appam and aravana online. This will help devotees to avoid long time standing in the queue.

Definitely, next year there will be more technologies introduced at Sabarimala to have serene and zealous spiritual experience.