As dusk settled over Bhubaneswar, the 10th-century Mukteswara Temple did not glow with electric floodlights. It glowed with oil lamps.
Thousands of women stood in rows across the stone courtyard, lighting wick after wick until more than 11,000 flames turned the ancient precinct gold. Conch shells, temple bells and Odia bhajans rolled off the carved walls. For a moment the courtyard looked less like a monument and more like a field of fallen stars.
The evening was the centrepiece of *Aashirbadara Deepa* — Lamps of Blessing — organised by the Odisha government on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 76th birthday and the opening day of Seva Sankalpa Abhiyan-2026.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi lit a lamp in the temple premises and offered prayers for the Prime Minister’s long life, health and strength. Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida, Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari, Ekamra MLA Babu Singh and Brahmagiri MLA Upasana Mohapatra joined the lighting. Mothers and self-help group members, many of them Subhadra Yojana beneficiaries, held the lamps and whispered the same wish: a long, healthy life for Modi.
Majhi then walked into the crowd of young people, spoke with them and praised what he called their unreserved blessing, devotion and sense of duty.
Speaking to the media, he said: “On the 76th birthday of our distinguished Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, I offer him my heartfelt greetings and good wishes. The flame of this sacred lamp is the symbol of blessings rising from the hearts of four-and-a-half crore people of Odisha. India will certainly become Vishwaguru. We will keep working without pause to fulfil Modi Ji’s dream.”
The spectacle in Bhubaneswar was only the most visible part of a much larger map. Officials said more than one crore *Aashirbadara Deepa* were lit across all 30 districts. Families were asked to light one lamp in each home. Collective programmes were held at gram panchayat, block and district levels. Temples across the state added *jhoti chita* — traditional rice-paste floor art — before the lamps were lit. Mission Shakti self-help group members and Subhadra beneficiaries formed the backbone of the gatherings.
By nightfall the campaign had stretched from kitchen courtyards to district headquarters: one flame per household, multiplied until the government could claim a crore of lights for one birthday and one political prayer — that Odisha will help turn the Prime Minister’s vision of a developed India into fact.
The month-long Seva Sankalpa Abhiyan will now move from lamps to service drives. On Thursday evening, though, Odisha chose the older language. It spoke in oil, wick and stone.
