After Facebook CEO's revelation, pilgrims triple at 'Zuckerberg temple'

NAINITAL: Soon after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's revelation in an interaction with PM Modi in the US that he had visited an Indian temple on the advice of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the temple in question, Kainchi Dham in Nainital district, has seen renewed interest of devotees who are visiting the place to seek the blessing of Neem Karoli Baba.

Vinod Joshi, who looks after the management of the temple, told TOI that the influx of visitors has increased after the Facebook CEO's disclosure. "The number of devotees which were earlier limited to around 50 people per day have now almost tripled," he claimed. Some of the new one, in fact, have come looking for what they are now calling the 'Zuckerberg temple'.

Neem Karori Baba was a saint who many believed had miraculous powers. He came to these hills in 1942 and set up Kainchi Dham in 1962.

Located at an altitude of about 1400 mt on the Nainital-Almora Road, on the banks of the Shipra river, the name 'kainchi' for the ashram is derived from the two sharp hairpin bends on the road.

When TOI spoke with some devotees who had landed there, one of them, Prabha Singh, said that she was motivated to come here after reading and watching news about the dham since the past few days. "I already knew about Neem Karori Baba since there is a temple dedicated to him in Mehrauli in Delhi. But after I came to know that his fame is spread across the world, I was motivated to visit the dham."

Temple officials said that besides Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs - who reportedly came here in the 1970s when the saint was still alive but could not meet him - a number of other prominent foreign celebrities have been regular visitors to Kainchi Dham. They included Hollywood actress Julia Roberts, Ram Dass, also known as Dr Richard Alpert, a researcher on the effects of the drug LSD, musicians Jai Uttal and Krishna Das, humanitarian Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist who was associated with Google's philanthropic arm google.org, as well as bestselling author Daniel Goleman.