Traditional Wisdom - Advaita Ashramaadvaitaashrama.org/Content/pb/2006/072006.pdf · Traditional...

Traditional WisdomTÆRTHA: SACRED LOCALE

gÒttu rn ˜buà={k fUrˆa=]àÆt¤swnwhtKrˆaàblmt vrhglT >

;e:uo ltåAt ;t;]MtKbtufUtu =eDtuo l rmÆt{bt f]UKtuÀgÆJt >>

One man propitiates Indra, augmenting (his vigour) by sacrifice; another, who is insin-cere, worships (him) with mind averted (to worldly thoughts); (to the first) he is likethe lake at the tærtha to a thirsty (pilgrim), (to the other) like a long road which retardsthe end (of the journey). (Rig Veda, 1.173.11)

yÆttrg Æter;hmm]d{bkNtô;e:uo l =ôbbwv gàÀgqbt& >

yÇgtlˆb mwrJ;ôg NqMk lJu=mtu yb];tltbCqb >>

The sacrifice is prepared, poured are the allotted oblations: as to a tærtha come the de-vout unto the Wondrous (Divine). May we obtain the happiness of heaven, may webecome acquainted with immortals. (10.32.3)

mbw={tu Jt YM mJonhtu g=ntuhtºtu ;ôg ni;u ydtÆtu ;e:uo gÀmàÆgu >

Day and night are the sea that absorbs everything and the twilights are the unfathom-able tærthas (of this sea). (Shankhayana Brahmana, 2.9)

g:t NhehôgtuæuNt& fuUraàbuÆg;bt& ôb];t& > ;:t v]r:Ôgt WæuNt& fuUraÀvwãg;bt& ôb];t& >>

v{CtJtØw;tØqbu& mrjjôg a ;usmt > vrhd{ntàbwleltk a ;e:toltk vwãg;t ôb];t >>

Just as some parts of the human body (e.g. the right hand or ear) are held to be purer(than others), so some localities on the earth are held to be holier than others. Tærthasare held to be holy on account of some wonderful natural characteristic of the localityor on account of the unique grandeur of the local waters or on account of the fact thatsome sage resorted to them (for austerity). (Skanda Purana, 4.6.43-4)

Gods and sages do come to bathe at Triveni (Allahabad). … If they do not come, theplace can no longer be considered a tærtha. (Swami Vijnanananda)

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Vol. 111 JULY 2006 No. 7

PRABUDDHA

BHARATA

Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!

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� This Month �

Places of pilgrimage have proved to besome of the most enduring locations of cul-ture and human discourse. We take a look atsome of the reasons for their appeal in thisand the next issue beginning with Tærtha: Sa-cred Geography.

Prabuddha Bharata—100 Years Ago fo-cuses on the diverse aspects of ‘The ReligiousInstinct’ as an existential reality.

As the place of Sri Ramakrishna’s sadhanasand the origin of his spiritual ministry, Dak-shineswar is of central importance to the dev-otees of the Ramakrishna Order. Swami Che-tananandaji, Minister-in-Charge, Vedanta So-ciety of St Louis, captures the magic of theplace and some of its numerous spiritual asso-ciations in Dakshineswar: The Stage for Ra-makrishna’s Divine Play.

Ujjayini: The Centre of Cosmic Rhythm,and the Simhastha Festival of 2004 is an in-sightful account of the reasons why Ujjainwas at the centre of ancient India, geographi-cally as well as culturally. It also presents abrief view of the most recent of KumbhaMelas. The author, Dr Mohan Gupta, is for-mer Divisional Commissioner, Ujjain.

Lila-chintana as a spiritual discipline hasreached sophisticated heights in the Vaish-nava tradition; and Vraja, the scene of Krish-na’s sport, is at the heart of this tradition. Inthe Vrindavan of My Heart is a pen pictureof the meaning of Vrindavan for devotees ofKrishna by Swami Achyutanandaji of Rama-krishna Math, Belur. This adapted translationof the author’s original Bengali text, HridiBrindabane, has been provided by Dr ChhayaGhosh, Durgapur.

Spread across the entire Indian subconti-nent and intimately connected with local cul-tures and traditions, the fifty-one devipithasare an enduring metaphor for the religiousand cultural unity of the subcontinent. SwamiChidrupanandaji, Ramakrishna Mission Insti-tute of Culture, Kolkata, visits the twelvepithas located in West Bengal to bring us afascinating panorama: In Search of the Di-vine: An Account of the Twelve Shaktipithasof West Bengal.

The story of ancient South-East Asia, thesuvarnabhumi of Indian fable, is the story ofIndian colonization. But the Hindu-Buddhistculture that took root in these parts developedits own distinct flavour reflected in the artand architecture of places like Angkor Wat.In The Magic of Angkor, Dr Saibal Guptatakes a fresh look at the place and its history.The author, a reputed cardiovascular surgeonof Kolkata, has a special interest in Indian his-tory and culture.

Scenic beauty has been especially associ-ated with pilgrimage sites in India. But thereare numerous secular tourist resorts across theglobe which evoke mystic feelings in sensitivetourists. Alaska! More than a Dream, SoClose to Reality, and Yet So Unique is onesuch account of the mystical elements embed-ded in nature. The author Smt. Pritha Lal, isOrganizational Behaviour Specialist, Nu SkinEnterprises, Provo, Utah.

Dr M Sivaramkrishna, former Head, De-partment of English, Osmania University,Hyderabad, continues his exploration of TheMany-splendoured Ramakrishna-Vivekanan-da Vedanta in diverse contemporary literarytexts across the globe.

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Tærtha: Sacred GeographyEDITORIAL

The Taj Mahal is one of the most widelypublicized tourist attractions of India.But nearby Mathura and Vrindavan get

more visitors every year. A whole host of socio-political issues mobilize vast concourses of peo-ple. However, the Kumbha Mela remains thelargest human gathering on record. Numerousposh metropolises have been springing upacross the globe in the wake of the economicboom. Yet ancient Varanasi retains that uniquecharm of which Swami Vivekananda had this tosay: ‘Brother, does it not make you pause andthink of the marvellous attraction of this won-derful place of preparation for final rest? Does itnot strike you with a mysterious sense ofawe—this age-old and never-ending stream ofpilgrims marching to salvation through death?’

Creative Beauty

What makes for the appeal of tærthas, theholy sites of pilgrimage? Sister Nivedita ob-served: ‘It is certain that behind [the] sanctity ofpilgrimage lies admiration of place, of art, evenof geographical significance. Benares in theNorth and Conjeeveram in the South, are lovedand visited in India for the same reason as Dur-ham or Cologne amongst ourselves. They arecathedral cities, rich in architecture, in treasure,and in the association of saints and scholars.Jagannath is placed where it is, for the sheerbeauty of the sea, and perhaps a little also for theold cosmopolitan grandeur of the port throughwhich flowed the Eastern trade. Allahabad is sa-cred, because there two mighty rivers join theirwaters, making her the strategic key to two vastbasins, inhabited by different races, with di-verse traditions, hopes and folk-lore. It is thesolemn beauty of the Himalayas that makethem the refuge of holy men.’

Natural beauty, however, has evoked a

singularly distinct response from the Indianmind, says Sister Nivedita: ‘Beauty of placetranslates itself to the Indian consciousness asGod’s cry to the soul. Had Niagara been situ-ated on the Ganges, it is odd to think how dif-ferent would have been its valuation by human-ity. Instead of fashionable picnics and railwaypleasure-trips, the yearly or monthly incursionof worshipping crowds. Instead of hotels, tem-ples. Instead of ostentatious excess, austerity.Instead of the desire to harness its mighty forcesto the chariot of human utility, the unrestrain-able longing to throw away the body, and realizeat once the ecstatic madness of Supreme Union.’

If nature is a work of art, God is a uniqueartist. According to Ananda Coomaraswamy:‘That God is the first artist does not mean Hecreated forms, which might not have beenlovely had the hand of the potter slipped, butthat every natural object is an immediate real-ization of His being. This creative activity iscomparable with aesthetic expression in itsnon-volitional character; no element of choiceenters into that world of imagination and eter-nity, but there is perfect identity of intu-ition-expression, soul and body.’

If the universe is an expression of the imag-inative creativity of the Divine, then humanmyths and legends are attempts to capture thatimagination within that very creation. ‘Thetærthas’, writes Diana Eck, ‘are primarily associ-ated with the great acts and appearances of thegods and the heroes of Indian myth and legend.As a threshold between heaven and earth, thetærtha is not only a place for the “upward” cross-ings of people’s prayers and rites, it is also aplace for the “downward” crossings of the gods.… Considering this vast corpus of Indian my-thology, which recounts the deeds of the godsand heroes, it is not difficult to imagine that the

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whole of India’s geography is engraved withtraces of mythic events. It is a living sacred ge-ography.’ The seven ‘liberating cities’, the fifty-one devæpæthas, the twelve jyotirlingas, the sevengreat rivers, the five Kedars and Kashis, the sevenBadris, the five sarovaras (lakes), the twenty-four prayágas (river confluences), the innumer-able sites associated with the legends of the Ra-mayana and Mahabharata, … the list is endless.

Internalizing the Legend

‘In Hinduism, pilgrimage is often the pro-cess of learning to see the underlying or implicitspiritual structure of the land’, notes DavidKinsley; ‘this often involves a change in per-spective, a change that is religiously transfor-mative. Pilgrimage is the process whereby pil-grims open themselves to the sacred power, thenuminous quality, of the landscape, wherebythey establish a rapport with the land that isspiritually empowering. … The physical imme-diacy of pilgrimage, the actual contact with theland, intensifies the experience of appropriatingthe story of the land, learning to see its underly-ing, implicit structure, sensing its spiritually en-livening power. The experience can be lasting,transforming one’s perspective permanently.’

This process of spiritual transformation,more often than not, is a long-drawn process;and holy associations and remembrances aidthis change. Sri Ramakrishna taught his devo-tees that ‘just as cows eat their fill, become freefrom anxiety, and then resting in one place,chew the cud, so after one has visited templesand pilgrim centres, one should sit in a secludedplace, and ruminate over and get absorbed inthose holy thoughts that occurred to one inthese sacred places’.

Madhusudana Saraswati points out thatwhen the mind ‘liquefied’ by higher emotionsflows steadily towards the Supreme, then thatmental modification is termed bhakti: drutasyabhagavaddharmád-dháráváhikatáó gata; sarv-eùe manaso vìttirbhaktirityabhidhæyate. Thesedivine emotions are generated and fostered byhearing about God, living at holy places and as-

sociating with holy persons—that is by resort-ing to tærthas (skilled instructors, holy placesand holy persons are all signified by the termtærtha). If the thought of the Divine is the pri-mary or substantial determinant (álambana vi-bháva) of bhakti, then the places of pilgrimageand its associations act as enhancers of or physi-cal stimulants (uddæpana vibháva) to the gener-ation of bhakti.

Realizing the Divine

So tærtha yátrá (pilgrimage) is much morethan religious sightseeing. Undertaken as partof the prescribed devotional discipline (vaidhæbhakti) it kindles in the receptive heart theflame of bhakti, which is then stoked by thespiritual aspirant’s yearning and spontaneousdevotional moods (rágánugá bhakti) into thefull-fledged conflagration of higher devotioncalled bháva bhakti or premá bhakti.

In the Vaishnava tradition rágánugá bhak-ti consists of ‘an emotional sublimation of inti-mate human sentiments towards Krishna, interms of the intimate devotional sentimentsdisplayed in different personal relationships (asthat of a son, relative, lover, friend, servant andso forth) between the deity and His dear ones inHis eternal sport at Vraja. It is thus an ecstasy ofvicarious enjoyment.’ The devotee ‘prepareshimself for it by imitating and realizing withinhimself the different aspects of the beatificsports’. If the sacred tærthas are physical re-minders of divine lila, then the sadhakas inter-nalize these tærthas and recreate them on thestages of their own hearts (the ‘Vrindavan oftheir hearts’). They live in the company of theirbeloved deity through perpetual acts of loveand service till the distinction between the ex-ternal tærthas and their inner representations iswiped out. In that state of divinized emotion(bháva) Sri Ramakrishna could actually visual-ize the ‘Golden Kashi’ with Shiva granting lib-eration, and see the perpetual sport of Krishnawhich led him to affirm that ‘Krishna is Spiritembodied, and His Abode also is Spirit embod-ied’. Krishna is eternal, so are His devotees. �

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390 Prabuddha Bharata

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Prabuddha Bharata—100 Years AgoJuly 1906

The Religious Instinct

In every nation, in myriads of aeons, under every sky, so far as we can trace from the beginning,

men have paid homage to a god or gods in some form or other, and this instinct has been passed

on through innumerable generations, swaying the feelings of mankind, and especially of individu-

als. But it is uncertain when religious conceptions were first framed. The Rig-veda is considered to be

the oldest literary document in existence, and contains the original conception of God. … At the time

of its production, the worship represented in the great number of hymns, is that of natural ob-

jects—Indra, the cloudless firmament; the Maruts, the winds; Ushas, the dawn; Vishnu, Surya, Agni,

and a host of lesser deities. …

The uniform testimony of history proves the religious instinct of mankind to develop itself in

many directions, and farther examination shows that while one nation sought its gods in the powers

of nature, others developed animal, ghost, fetish, ancestor, and hero-worship, followed later on by

symbolism, oracles, secret doctrines or mysteries. Animal sacrifice, and the belief in immortality were

more or less common at all times.

There were some who thought of cultivating elevated and devout feelings by the aid of the fine

arts. No doubt beauty has an element of infinity which we catch through the medium of form, colour,

rhythm, or harmony, but it is nebulous and vague, and though religion may spring from art, it finally

emancipates itself from it. …

Ages rolled on before the old gods were out-grown and superseded by spiritual ideas and ethi-

cal influences, In the slow march of the centuries, the idea regarding religion as purely a matter of

revelation crept in, and the religious impulse was marked by ever-varying superstitions. …

The assumption that there can be only one true religion, rests on the belief of the unity of God. If

there is but one God, He must stand in the same relation towards all nations of men, and all exis-

tence. An inspired book is only to us what we see it to mean: for no words can convey exactly similar

ideas to all classes of minds, and so cannot carry the same message to everyone. Has the fecundity

of thought been exhausted? Can the world become bankrupt of spiritual experience? We answer,

‘No, it is always one and the same God that gives the light in every age.’ …

We find that one of the profoundest influences of humanity is religious inspiration: a divine affla-

tus controlling the soul. It is essentially intermittent, but hallowed whispers and foregleams come to

the man who is spiritually adjusted. The resulting echo will be determined, not altogether by the illumi-

nating potency, but by the capacity for expression of the instrument that is striving to attune itself to

the Infinite. …

It seems that man in the lowest stage of his spiritual development, identifies himself with the

gross body; in the following stage, with the vital powers; next, with the seat of sensations; subse-

quently with the intellect, and ultimately, with the unchangeable Essence, God Himself. We see that

this inherent consciousness is an attitude of the soul; an effort of the mind, heart, and spirit of the

race to get into right relations with the Omniscient. … Blessed are they who find the entrance into the

Presence chamber of the Infinite, the Holy of Holies, and participate in the beatitude of the One abso-

lute. –Advaitin

Dakshineswar:The Stage for Ramakrishna’s Divine Play

SWAMI CHETANANANDA

It is extremely important for the reader toknow the history of the surroundings inwhich Ramakrishna enacted his divine

drama for thirty years. The Dakshineswar Kalitemple was built by Rani Rasmani, a wealthywoman of Calcutta. In 1847 she had planned apilgrimage to Varanasi. The night before herdeparture, the Divine Mother appeared to herin a dream and said: ‘You need not go toVaranasi. Install my image in a beautiful spotalong the bank of the Ganges and arrange formy worship and offerings to Me. I will manifestMyself within thatimage and acceptyour worship everyday.’1

Rani Rasmanibought a piece ofland in Dakshin-eswar, a few milesnorth of Calcutta,and over the nexteight years built ahuge temple com-plex there. Shespent an enormousamount of moneyto complete the temple and install its deities.Rasmani’s design was unusual in that she in-cluded temples to Kali, Radha-Krishna, andShiva all in the same compound. Generally,Kali and Shiva temples are built side by side buta temple to Krishna is traditionally not in-cluded in the same compound. PerhapsRasmani was intuitively following a divineplan: in the future Ramakrishna would come tothe temple complex and practise different reli-gious paths, demonstrating the harmony of re-

ligions. On 31 May 1855 Ramkumar, Rama-krishna’s elder brother, officiated over the dedi-cation ceremony of the temple; Ramakrishnawas also present on that occasion.

Sister Nivedita wrote: ‘Humanly speak-ing, without the Temple of Dakshineswar therehad [sic] been no Ramakrishna; without Rama-krishna, no Vivekananda; and without Viveka-nanda, no Western mission [of Vedanta].’2

In the eyes of devotees, Ramakrishna isstill in Dakshineswar and Dakshineswar is stillas it was in the 1880s. Of course, due to the

passing of timesome changes havetaken place in thetemple garden. Thetemples have deteri-orated; most of thetrees that grew dur-ing the Master’stime are now dead;and crowds of pil-grims have overrunthe formerly peace-ful temple garden.Such changes are in-evitable. We are

thankful to M (Mahendra Nath Gupta) for thevivid description of the temple garden that heincluded in the first part of Sri Sri RamakrishnaKathamrita (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna).The description is in the Bengali version of theGospel. I translated it in full in Ramakrishna asWe Saw Him (Vedanta Society of St Louis,1990); in this chapter I shall present some ex-cerpts from this description. M begins:

It is Sunday. The devotees have the day off, sothey come in large numbers to the temple garden

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The Bhavatarini temple flanked bythe Radhakanta temple and the natmandir

to visit Sri Ramakrishna. His door is open to ev-erybody, and he talks freely with all, irrespectiveof caste or creed, sect or age. His visitors aremonks, paramahamsas [illumined souls], Hin-dus, Christians, Brahmos, the followers ofShakti and Vishnu, men and women. Blessedwas Rani Rasmani! She, out of her religious dis-position, built this beautiful temple garden andbrought Sri Ramakrishna, the embodiment ofdivinity, to this place. She made it possible forpeople to see and worship this God-man.3

With these words M invites suffering hu-manity to relax in the blissful abode of theDakshineswar temple garden and listen to theimmortal message of Ramakrishna. His inten-tion was to imprint the setting of the templegarden in the minds of the audience before hepresented the drama.

When one visits a holy place and worshipsthe deities there, one’s mind is purified and onethen develops longing to hear more about God.M says:

According to the scriptures, one should circum-ambulate a holy place at least three times becausethat makes an indelible impression on the mindof the pilgrim. But once is enough for those whohave a good memory and a strong power of ob-servation.

What should one do in a holy place? First,drink a little of the deity’s sanctified water. Sec-ond, sit in front of the deity for a while. Third,sing or chant the glories of God. Fourth, feed theholy people. Fifth, bring some fruits and sweetsto offer. Sixth, don’t be stingy or cheat any-body.4

In the sixteen volumes of Srima Darshan,Swami Nityatmananda has recorded conversa-tions with M and many of his memories of theMaster that are not in the Gospel. In this chap-ter, I shall translate some of this material intoEnglish for the first time.

We spend our money, time, and energy inorder to visit a holy or historical place. We hire aguide who explains the importance of thatplace, for otherwise our trip would be meaning-less. After Ramakrishna’s passing away, M tookmany people to Dakshineswar and acted astheir guide.

In the eyes of a lover, everything related tothe beloved is sweet and precious. M tried toimprint his experiences with the Master on theminds of his visitors, thus giving them a taste ofthe divine bliss that M had enjoyed.

The Chandni (Porch)

The Dakshineswar Kali temple is on theGanga, five miles north of Kolkata. One cantravel by boat to Dakshineswar and disembarkat the chandni ghat to enter the temple com-plex. One is supposed to purify oneself withGanga water before visiting the deities. It washere at the chandni ghat that Ramakrishnawould bathe. After Ramakrishna’s passing,

when M visited Dakshineswar, he would cometo this ghat and soak a towel in the water of theGanga. When he returned home he wouldsqueeze the towel and sprinkle that water on hisvisitors, reminding them that this water camefrom the spot where the Master used to bathe.Swami Nityatmananda writes: ‘M reached thechandni ghat. He sat on the second step fromthe top and four yards from the north. He said:“The Master sat here when Keshab Sen and hisfollowers came”’ (6.90). The Master sat on thisghat as if he were a ferryman waiting for passen-gers who sincerely wanted to cross the turbulentocean of maya.

Bhavatarini KaliM describes the image in the Kali temple

at Dakshineswar:

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Dakshineswar: The Stage for Ramakrishna’s Divine Play 393

The chandni ghat

South of the Krishna templeis the Kali temple. Thebeautiful image of the Di-vine Mother is made out ofblack stone and her name is‘Bhavatarini,’ or the Saviourof the World. The floor ofthis temple is paved withwhite and black marble. Ahigh altar, with steps to thesouth, is also made out ofstone. Above this is a thou-sand-petalled lotus made ofsilver, on which Lord Shivais lying, with his head to thesouth and feet to the north.The image of Shiva is madeof white marble. On hischest stands the beautifulthree-eyed image of MotherKali, wearing a Varanasi silk sari and various or-naments.5

The height of the image is 33½ inches. Mlater says about this image: ‘The Master told usthat the sculptor of this image was Navin [Pal].He would work on the image the whole day andeat one vegetarian meal at 3:00 p.m. He under-took severe austerities to make that image ofKali in Dakshineswar. That is the reason theimage looks so alive. As the sculptor’s heart wasfull of devotion, his hands transmitted that feel-ing to the stone image.’6 There are many Kaliimages in Bengal, but the image in Dakshin-eswar is special because the Master invoked thedeity within it. He checked to see if the Motherwas alive by holding cotton near Her nostrils; ashe did this, he saw Mother breathing.

The image of Kali is much misunderstoodby Western people, who think She is terribleand frightening. Kali is the Shakti, or the powerof Brahman by which He creates, preserves, anddissolves the universe. She is the Cosmic En-ergy and manifests in both benign and destruc-tive ways. She is the Divine Mother who lovesall beings because all are Her children.

Kali’s deep blue complexion representsthe infinite; each hair is a jiva, or individualsoul. Her three eyes symbolize her knowledge

of past, present, and future.Her white teeth symbolizesattva (peace); Her redtongue, rajas (activity). Theprotruding tongue betweenthe teeth reminds the viewerthat one controls restlessnesswith calmness. Her necklaceconsists of fifty skulls, sym-bolic of the fifty letters of theSanskrit alphabet, the originof sound. Her upper-righthand grants fearlessness asHer lower-right hand offersboons. She cuts human bon-dage with the sword in Herupper-left hand and impartswisdom with the lower-left

one, which holds a severed head. She is infinite,so She is naked, clad in space. Shiva is cosmicconsciousness and Kali is cosmic energy; Shivalies on His back beneath Kali’s feet. No creationis possible without their union.

During his second visit to Dakshineswar,M raised a question about the ‘clay’ image ofKali, and Ramakrishna told him, ‘It is an imageof Spirit.’ He further explained that God is bothformless and with form, like water and ice.

The Terrace

There is a terrace between the steps of theKali temple and the natmandir (prayer hall).‘Sometimes the Master used to sit here alone orwith the devotees facing the Mother not farfrom the edge of the natmandir’, writes M. Oneday Ramakrishna dedicated M to the DivineMother by singing this song:

Thy name, I have heard,O Consort of Shiva,is the destroyer of our fear,

And so on Thee I cast my burden:Save me! Save me! O kindly Mother! (12.175).

Another day the Master was seated on theterrace, close to the eastern column of thenatmandir, when he prayed: ‘Mother, I don’twant any physical enjoyment; Mother, I don’t

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Bhavatarini Kali

want name and fame; Mother, I don’t want theeight occult powers; Mother, I don’t want theother hundred powers; surrender, surrender,surrender; may I never be deluded by Your be-witching maya’ (6.91).

The Natmandir

M describes this building:

In front of the Kali temple and just to the southis the spacious natmandir. It is rectangular andthe terrace is supported by both inner and outerrows of columns. Theatrical performances takeplace here on special occasions, especially duringthe night of Kali Puja. On the front side of theroof of the natmandir there are images of Shivaand his followers, Nandi and Bhringi. Sri Rama-krishna used to salute Lord Shiva with foldedhands before entering the Mother’s temple, as ifhe were seeking his permission to enter the tem-ple.7

One day M went to the natmandir, wherehe embraced the left column of the inner rowon the north side of the building. He remainedfor a while with closed eyes and then said to hiscompanions: ‘This column has been touchedby the Master. While listening to the yatra per-formance of Nilkantha, the Master embracedthe column out of ecstasy.’8

M describes a wonderful scene that he wit-nessed in the natmandir during his third visit toDakshineswar:

It was now late in the evening and time for M’sdeparture; but he felt reluctant to go and insteadwent in search of Sri Ramakrishna. … At last hefound the Master pacing alone in the natmandirin front of the Kali temple. A lamp was burningin the temple on either side of the image of theDivine Mother. The single lamp in the spaciousnatmandir blended light and darkness into akind of mystic twilight, in which the figure ofthe Master could be dimly seen. …

In the dim light the Master, all alone, waspacing the hall rejoicing in the Self—as the lionlives and roams alone in the forest.9

The Krishna Temple and the Courtyard

M wrote:

East of the chandni and twelve temples is a largetiled courtyard. There are two temples in themiddle of the courtyard—the Radhakanta [Kri-shna] temple on the north side and the Kali [Di-vine Mother] temple on the south side. In theRadhakanta temple there are two images on thealtar—Radha and Krishna—standing and fac-ing west. Steps lead from the courtyard into thesanctuary. The floor of this temple is paved withmarble. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling of theverandah. They are usually covered with redlinen and used only during festive occasions. Infront of the verandah is a row of columns.10

Ramakrishna became the priest of theKrishna temple when the previous priest slip-ped, dropping Krishna’s image and breakingthe foot. The Master subsequently repaired thisimage.

While listening to the Bhagavata on theveranda of the Krishna temple, the Master had avision: he saw a light emanate from the image,then touch him, and then touch the Bhagavata;he experienced the truth that the scripture, thedevotee, and the deity are one. On another oc-casion, a photograph of Ramakrishna was takenas he sat in front of this temple. This photo-graph subsequently became the one most com-monly worshipped by the devotees in theshrine.

The Brahmos did not believe in God withform. When Keshab Sen and the Brahmoscame to Dakshineswar, the Master would es-cort them to the temples. When they reachedthe Krishna temple, Ramakrishna would wrappart of his wearing cloth around his neck andbow down to Krishna from the courtyard,touching his forehead to the lower step of thetemple. This is how he taught them to respectthe deity.11

Blessed are the tiles of that courtyard!They were touched by the Master’s feet thou-sands of times. M recalls:

Seven or eight days after my first meeting withthe Master, as he was walking through the court-yard of the Kali temple I said to him, ‘It is betterto take one’s life than to suffer such terriblepain.’ At once he replied: ‘Why do you say so?

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You have a guru. Why do you worry? Your guruis always behind you. He can remove your suf-fering by a mere wish. He makes everything fa-vourable. A juggler threw a rope with manyknots in it in front of a thousand people, andnone could untie a single knot. But the jugglerimmediately removed all the knots just by a jerkof his hand. Don’t worry. The guru will removeall your obstacles.’ What agony I was suffering,but I had found the Master. How he guided mylife! Later my father came. We were reconciledwith love and affection, and he took me backhome. In retrospect we see that God is all-auspi-cious, but we judge things superficially. It wasmy family problems and my desire to commitsuicide that led me to God (1.340-1).

The Twelve Shiva Temples

M describes them thus: ‘The chandni is lo-cated at the centre of twelve Shiva temples—sixof them on the north and six on the south.Seeing the twelve temples from a distance, pas-sengers in boats on the Ganges point out to oneanother: “Look! There is the temple garden ofRani Rasmani.”’12

It is said that the Master embraced thenorthernmost image of Shiva, which is situatednear his room. Swami Saradananda writes:

One day the Master entered one of the Shivatemples of Dakshineswar and began to recite theShiva-mahimnah, a hymn in praise of the Deity.He was beside himself in ecstasy as he recited thefollowing verse: ‘O Lord, if the blue mountainbe the ink, the ocean the ink pot, the biggestbranch of the celestial tree the pen, and the earth

the writing-leaf, and if by taking this, the god-dess of Learning writes forever, even then thelimit of Your glory can never be reached.’13

Ramakrishna’s Room

Ramakrishna spent fourteen years, from1871 to 1885, in a room located at the north-west corner of the temple courtyard and imme-diately to the north of the Shiva temples.

After Ramakrishna’s passing, M would tellthe devotees:

One should see everything connected with theMaster in detail. For example, in the Master’sroom there are cots, a jar containing Ganges wa-ter, pictures of gods and goddesses—Kali, Kri-shna, Rama, Chaitanya and his kirtan party,Dhruva, Prahlad, Christ extending his hand tothe drowning Peter, and a white marble image ofBuddha, which was given to him by Rani Kat-yayani, the wife of Lalababu. There was a pictureof the goddess of learning on the western wall.Whenever a new person would come, the Masterwould look at that picture and pray, ‘Mother, Iam an unlettered person. Please sit on mytongue’, and then he would speak to him. If aperson can imprint these divine sights on hismind, he will have deep meditations, and evensitting at home he can live at Dakshineswar withthe Master.14

One can feel the tangible spiritual atmo-sphere in this room. Here the Master had manyvisions, and he went into samadhi on numerous

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The row of Shiva temples

Sri Ramakrishna’s room

occasions. This is where he received his visitorsand disciples and talked to them about God.Unfortunately during the centenary of theDakshineswar temple garden in 1955, the Mas-ter’s red cement floor was replaced with mosaictiles, so we can no longer walk on the same floorthat he trod.

The Semicircular Porch

M writes: ‘To the west of this room is asemicircular verandah. Standing here facingwest, Sri Ramakrishna would watch the holyriver Ganga flow by. In front of the verandah isa narrow garden path running from north tosouth. On the other side of this path is theflower garden and then the embankment. Fromhere, one can hear the sweet, melodious mur-muring of the Ganga.’15

M later told Swami Nityatmananda:‘Sometimes at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. the Masterwould pace on the embankment. He said: “Atthat time one can hear the anahata sound [mu-sic of the spheres]. Only the yogis can hearit.”’16

The South-east Veranda

Ramakrishna would walk through thesouth-east veranda when he visited the temples.Ramlal recalled: ‘One day the Master wasseated on the south-east veranda of his room.All of a sudden, he saw the Divine Motherstanding on top of the temple, wearing Her an-klets, extending one of Her legs towards thecourtyard. Immediately he cried out and for-bade Her, waving his hands: “Don’t—don’t gofarther! You will fall.” Saying so, the Masterwent into samadhi.’

One day Ramakrishna was resting on hisbed while Baburam (later Swami Premananda)fanned him. Narendra (later Swami Viveka-nanda) sat smoking with Hazra on the south-east veranda of the Master’s room. Hazra said toNarendra: ‘You are all mere boys! You are visit-ing Sri Ramakrishna off and on, and he justkeeps you satisfied with fruits and sweets. Hold

him—press him—and get something [power,wealth, and so on] from him.’ As soon as theMaster heard this from his room he jumped upfrom his bed, rushed to the veranda, andshouted: ‘Naren, come to my room right now.Don’t listen to his calculating advice. The beg-gar pesters the rich man, saying, “Sir, give me apice! Give me a pice!” Being disgusted with thebeggar, the rich man throws a small coin tohim, saying, “Take this and get out of here.”You are my very own. You will not have to askfor anything from me. Whatever I have, it is allyours.’17

(To be concluded)

References

1. Swami Saradananda, Ramakrishna and His Di-vine Play, trans. Swami Chetanananda (StLouis: Vedanta Society of St Louis, 2003),182-3.

2. The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita, 5 vols.(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1995), 1.190.

3. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, trans. and ed.Swami Chetanananda (Calcutta: Advaita Ash-rama, 1992), 475-7.

4. Swami Nityatmananda, Srima Darshan (Cal-cutta: General Printers & Publishers, 1970),4.116-7.

5. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, 478.6. Srima Darshan, 4.200-1.7. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, 479.8. Srima Darshan, 12.174.9. M, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, trans.

Swami Nikhilananda (Chennai: RamakrishnaMath, 2002), 92.

10. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, 477.11. Srima Darshan, 4.67.12. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, 477.13. Divine Play, 487.14. Swami Chetanananda, They Lived with God

(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1991), 204.15. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, 480.16. Srima Darshan, 1.252.17. They Lived with God, 182-3.

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Ujjayini: The Centre of Cosmic Rhythmand the Simhastha Festival of 2004

DR MOHAN GUPTA

The Centrality of Ujjain

Ujjayini or Ujjain, the city eternal, hasbeen attracting the civilized world withthe light of its religious and cultural at-

tainments and the glow of its economic devel-opment since centuries. So much so that onewonders whether its glory, sustained throughthe vagaries of nature and the vicissitudes of his-tory, could be attributed merely to humanendeavour. Is there something in the very soulof this tiny city that enables it to weather the de-structive forces of nature and man, and to risefrom the ashes like a Phoenix? Perhaps the se-cret lies in its location at the ‘centre of the uni-verse’, symbolized by Lord Mahakala, the em-bodiment of cosmic Time, its presiding deity.

The yogis of yore discovered by their tran-scendental knowledge that:

Ájðácakraó smìtá káùæ yá bálá ùrutimérdhani;Svádhiøôhánaó smìtá káðcæ maîipéramavantiká;Nábhideùe mahákálastannámná tatra vai haraë.

‘When this world is compared with the humanbody with its eight chakras (yogic nerve-cen-tres), its Ajna chakra (in between the eyebrows)is Kashi or Varanasi, its Svadhisthana centre (inthe throat) is Kanchi and the Manipura (in thenavel) is Avantika or Ujjayini, where residesLord Shiva as Mahakala’ (Varaha Purana). Thisanalogy was in keeping with a similar concep-tion of the ancient Indian astronomers. SuryaSiddhanta, the celebrated treatise on Indian as-tronomy, declares:

Rákøasálaya daivokaë ùailayormadhya sétragáë;Rohætakamavantæ ca yathá sannihitaó saraë.

‘Situated upon the (central) line which passesthrough the abode of the demons (Lanka) andthe mountain which is the seat of the gods

(Sumeru or the North Pole) are Rohitaka,Avanti and Kurukshetra’ (1.62).

Thus, when civilization first dawned onhumanity, Ujjain was located on the centralmeridian of the world, a place now enjoyed bythe Greenwich Line. But Ujjain was not onlysituated on the East-West divider of the globe,it also stood on an important latitude inasmuchas the sun in its northerly course came up toUjjain and then returned to its southerlycourse. The city lies on the tropic of Cancer. Itwas regarded as the centre of the universe be-cause the position of planets was, and has been,computed with reference to the Ujjain meanmeridian. This is true of a predominant schoolof Indian astronomy even today. Varahamihi-ra, the illustrious astronomer, writes: ‘Mithun-áóùe ca kuvìttádaóùa caturvióùatió viháyoc-caië; Bhramati hi raviramaráîáó samopariøôáttadávantyám. The sun, at the end of its north-erly journey through Mithuna, is seen movinground the abode of the gods 24° north of theequator. On that day, it is seen crossing the ze-nith over Ujjain’ (Panchasiddhantika, 13.10).

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The Mahakala temple of Ujjain

Bhaskaracharya (1114 CE), themost celebratedIndian astrono-mer, has also con-firmed this in hisfamous SiddhantaShiromani. Be-cause of this sig-nificant positionof Ujjain, its im-portance in thefield of astronomyand mathematicsspread far andwide in the civi-lized world. It is

well known that a batch of scholars led byAcharya Kanaka went to Arabia from Ujjain inthe eighth century and taught astronomy andarithmetic there. The famous work ofBrahmagupta (628 CE), the Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta, was translated into Arabic as Al SindHind. Indeed, Lord Mahakala or Nataraja, theCosmic Dancer, resides at the centre of the uni-verse.

An Ancient Centre of Culture

However, Ujjain was the centre of thethen civilized world not only astronomicallyand geographically but also culturally and eco-nomically. Rev. E Burgess in his famous trans-lation of the Surya Siddhanta has nicely sum-med this up:

But the circumstance which actually fixesthe position of the prime meridian is the situa-tion of the city of Ujjayini. … It is the capital ofthe rich and populous province of Malwa … andfrom old time a chief seat of Hindu literature,science and arts. Of all the centres of Hindu cul-ture, it lay nearest to the Great Ocean-route bywhich during the first three centuries of our eraso important a commerce was carried on be-tween Alexandria as the mart of Rome, and Indiaand the countries lying still farther east. That theprime meridian was made to pass through thiscity proves it to have been the cradle of the

Hindu science of astronomy or principal seatduring its early history.

So it is no surprise that the universal con-sciousness of a great poet like RabindranathTagore was nostalgically drawn towards thisgreat holy city:

Far, far awayin the dream world of Ujjain

I once went searchingfor the first beloved of my previous life. …

Rising from the temple of MahakalaWere the grave notes of vesper bellsThe markets were empty, and above

shone the twilight across the fading skyline.

As we glance through the history of thisplace, we find it mentioned in Valmiki’s Rama-yana, the world’s first epic, and the Mahabha-rata, where it is presented in all its glory:

Mahákálaó tato gacchenniyato niyatáùanaë;Koôitærthamupaspìùya hayamedhaphalaó labhet.

‘Go next to Mahakala (Avanti) with regulateddiet and senses subdued. By taking bath (there)in Kotitirtha, one gets the fruit of an Ashwa-medha yajna.’ (‘Vana Parva’, Mahabharata,82.49).

Another verse attributed to the ‘UdyogaParva’ of the Mahabharata mentions thatAvanti was ruled by two brothers, Vinda andAnuvinda, heroic and resolute horsemen whohad fought on the side of the Kauravas (andwhose sister Mitravinda was married to SriKrishna):

Ávantyau ca mahæpálaumahábala susaóvìtau;

Akøauhiîyáó ca kauravyáóduryodhanamupágatau.

Vindánuvindávávantyausammatau rathasattamau;

Kìtinau samare tátadìõhaværyaparákramau.

With the Mahabharata, we are on the solidground of history. This epochal event has beenvariously dated by modern scholars from 1952BCE to 1450 BCE and 950 BCE.

Coming to the Puranas, they are replete

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Ujjayini: The Centre of Cosmic Rhythm 399

The Mahakaleshwarajyotirlinga

with descriptions of the all-round glory of thisimmortal city. The Skanda Purana devotes awhole section, ‘Avanti Khanda’, to describingevery nook and corner of the place. But it is theBrahmanda Purana (chapter 43) that presents apicturesque view of the city from a secular angleto give us an idea of its magnificence:

Deváyatanairdivyaiëùobhitá sá mahápuræ;

Hìøôapuøôajanákærîádìõhaprákáratoraîá.

Rathyápaîavatæ ramyásuvibhaktá catuøpathá;

Samìddhá sá muniùreøôhavidvadbhië samalaïkìtá.

Jðátáraë sarvaùástráîáóbhettaraë ùatruváhinæm;

Dátáraë sarvaratnánáóbhoktáraë sarvasaópadám.

Striyástatra muniùreøôhadìøyante sumanoharáë;

Suvarîábharaîopetáësarválaïkárabhéøitáë.

‘This great well-fortified city is adorned withmagnificent temples, and bustling with menand women who are healthy and virtuous,scholars well-versed in all the shastras, warriorscapable of conquering the toughest enemy,wealthy persons possessing all luxuries and yetready to give away anything, and beautifuldamsels laden with gold and diamond orna-ments from head to toe and spreading the fra-grance of sweet flowers, sandal paste andscents.’

Ujjayini was later described by the greatpoet Kalidasa:

Svalpæbhéte sucaritaphalesvargiîáó gáó gatánám;

Ùeøaië puîyairhìtamiva divaëkántimatkhaîõamekam.

‘A fluorescent piece of paradise brought to earthby the inhabitants of Heaven whose virtuousdeeds are nearing exhaustion’ (Meghaduta,1.30). Seeing the prosperity of the city, Kalidasawas justified when he said that the oceans werebereft of their gems and pearls as all these hadcome to the markets of grand Ujjayini.

The Sacred CityDue to its great prosperity and multi-fac-

eted importance, Ujjain was called by variousnames, each one representing one or another ofits prominent spiritual, cultural and economicsides. As Avanti, it is seen as the goddess whoprotects and preserves living beings in their ger-minal form; as Pratikalpa, it springs up againand again, ever renewing itself from kalpa(aeon) to kalpa—a fact substantiated by themany stratigraphic layers of the city and its per-vasive presence in the mythology, history andliterary imagination of India. It is Kanaka-shringa and Padmavati, full of palaces withgolden pinnacles, dear to the goddess of wealth;it is also Kushasthali, the place of sacrifice laidwith kusha grass by Lord Brahma himself. It isUjjayini because here Lord Shiva achieved ab-solute victory over the demon Andhaka, whopersonified the forces of darkness and igno-rance: Andhaka tried to steal Parvati, the pureintellect, out of lust and was destroyed in theMahakala Vana, the forest of all-consumingTime. The story is reflected in Mahakala (whois also called Pratapana or ‘the Scorcherer’ inthe Varaha Purana) merging himself in the re-fulgent jyotirlinga called Mahakaleshwara.

Ujjain’s immense sacredness can bejudged by the fact that according to the ‘AvantiKhanda’ (5.70.31-2, 34, 91) it is supposed to bethe abode of the eighty-four Mahadevas, theeight Bhairavas, the eleven Rudras, the twelve

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Shipra arati

Adityas, the six Vinayakas,the twenty-four Devis, theten Vishnus and the nineGrahas (the planets, sun,moon and the nodes):

Æùvaráøcaturaùætis-tatháøôau santi bhairaváë;

Ekádaùa tathá rudrá’’-dityá dvádaùa smìtáë.

Øaõvaináyakáùcátradevyaùca caturvióùatië;

Yato’hamágato bhadremahákálavanottame …

Ujjain was a great seat oflearning and this is borne outby the fact that Sri Krishnahimself, along with hisbrother Balarama, had comehere to study under the sage Sandipani. Thisstory finds place in almost all Puranas includingthe Bhagavata.

Ujjain in History

Though, archaeologically speaking, thedate of this old city goes back to the Chal-colithic period—excavation near Garh-Kalikahas yielded painted grey-ware and other sup-porting material in addition to the sufficient lit-erary evidence already alluded to—its actualhistory begins in the sixth century BCE with thewell known king Chanda Pradyota. The Pur-anas tell us that the last king of the Vitihotra dy-nasty was assassinated by Punika, who en-throned his son Pradyota. Pradyota’s daughterVasavadatta’s love for Udayana, the king ofVatsa, and their elopement from Ujjain hasbeen the subject of many a literary creation inSanskrit. Ujjain acquired great power and pros-perity during this time which is reflected in thearchaeological remains of the period, specially alarge moat 80 feet wide and 20 feet deep roundthe town of about two square miles.

During the great Mauryas, Bindusara wasthe governor of this province when Chandra-gupta was the emperor. When Bindusara cameto power, his son Ashoka became the provincial

governor. Ashoka’s sonMahendra and daughterSanghamitra were brought upand educated in Ujjain and itwas from here that they wentto Sri Lanka to spread Bud-dhism.

Agnimitra of the Shungadynasty is the hero of Kali-dasa’s famous play Malavik-agnimitra. This clearly indi-cates Shunga power in thearea. The weak Shungas wereconquered by Gardabhilla. Asa result of his infatuation forSaraswati, sister of the Jainamonk Kalakacharya, Garda-bhilla incurred the latter’s

wrath: Kalakacharya persuaded the Shakas ofSind to invade Malava (Malwa). However,within a short period the Shakas were van-quished by Vikramaditya, Gardabhilla’s son, inthe first century BCE. Stories of Vikramaditya’ssuperhuman deeds, valour, wit and sense of jus-tice abound not only in the Malwa region butall over India. Bhartrihari, the well-known as-cetic, was his brother. The Vikrama Samvat(Vikrama era) of Indian chronology began in57 BCE and is still in use in northern India.

Vikramaditya was followed by such illus-trious kings as Rudradama, Yashodharma (whodefeated Mihirakula, the powerful Huna king)and Harsha Vikramaditya (whose chief priestHariswami authored the Natyavartika and acommentary [vritti] on the Shatapatha Brah-mana; very likely, Hariswami also wrote the fa-mous Sanskrit dramas Ratnavati and Priya-darshika).

After a brief intervention by the Rashtra-kutas, Ujjain was taken by the Paramara kingsin the late tenth century with Munja, thepoet-king, and his illustrious nephew RajaBhoja shifting the capital from Ujjain to Dhar.Bhoja was a great scholar and poet and an ar-dent lover of knowledge. He patronized schol-ars of all branches of learning and himself made

25 PB - JULY 2006


Sandipani Pith

no mean contribution to the vast treasure houseof learning. His successor Naravarma repairedthe Mahakala temple of Ujjain and had a pane-gyric in praise of Lord Mahakala carved outwhich can be seen even now.

But bad days for Ujjain came in the thir-teenth century with the advent of Iltutmish, thesultan of the Slave dynasty, who invaded it anddestroyed the Mahakala temple. He took awaythe statue of Vikramaditya to Delhi. Duringhis time many temples of this pilgrim city weresacked and mosques sprang up on their re-mains, a fact that is obvious even now on thebanks of the Shipra River. Mughal kings Akbarand Jahangir also had come to Ujjain andstayed in the Kaliya-daha palace situated in themiddle of the Shipra. The palace was built bythe Khalji king Mahmud Khan in 1437, proba-bly after destroying the Kalapriyadeva sun tem-ple that then stood there. Jahangir used to comeby boat to meet Swami Jadrup, a great asceticwho performed penances in a narrow cave.

In the early part of the eighteenth century,Sawai Jaisingh was the governor of this Malwaprovince under the Mughals. He was knownfor his interest in astronomy. Jaisingh con-structed four observatories in Ujjain, Jaipur,Mathura and Delhi, and the Ujjain observatoryis functional to the present day.

Years before the 1752 peace treaty be-tween the Mughals and the Marathas, this areahad came under the suzerainty of the Marathas,and with this started the era of reconstruction

and renewal of Ujjain.Baba RamachandraSukthankar, the primeminister of RanojiScindia, built manytemples here and did ex-tensive repairs to theMahakala temple. Healso constructed the fa-mous Ramghat on theShipra River and madeelaborate arrangementsfor the celebration of the

twelve-yearly Simhastha (Kumbha Mela) festi-val from 1732. In 1807 the capital of theScindias was shifted to Gwalior, and through-out the British rule Ujjain remained the divi-sional headquarters of Gwalior state.

The present city of Ujjain is situated onthe Bhopal-Ratlam section of the Western Rail-way at 23°11’ N and 75°46’ E on the Malwaplateau. It enjoys a salubrious climate and iswell connected on all sides by rail and roadlinks. The nearest airport is at Indore, onlyfifty-six kilometres away, from where there aredaily flights to Mumbai and Delhi. It is a divi-sional headquarters of Madhya Pradesh with apopulation of over five lakhs. Located in an areaof fertile black soil, cotton and soyabean are itsmain crops. In spite of all modern facilities nowavailable here, the town retains its basic pilgrimcharacter and is still a principal seat of learning,culture and spirituality. The Mahakala temple,the sacred river Shipra, Harasiddhi Pith, thetemples of Chintaman Ganesh, Mangalanathand Kalabhairav, Sandipani Pith, the seat ofMahaprabhu Vallabhacharya, Kalidasa Acad-emy, Vikram University, Jiwaji Observatoryand a host of other religious and cultural insti-tutions draw countless people to this holy townevery year.

The Simhastha Tradition

The origin of the Kumbha Mela festivalcan be traced back to the Puranas. Our scrip-tures teach that the supreme Reality, though

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The Ujjain observatory (vedhashala)

free from the limits of time and space manifestsItself more in pure beings, on auspicious timesand at holy spots. Hence the combination ofthese three factors becomes immensely sacredand brings great benefit to the world. Festivalslike the Kumbha Mela at the hallowed cities ofHardwar, Prayag, Nasik and Ujjain, on theshores of the Ganga, Godavari and Shipra, dur-ing auspicious times augured by benefic combi-nations of heavenly bodies, and in the sanctify-ing presence of world-renouncing sadhus, areoccasions of concentrated holiness. No won-der, therefore, that millions of devotees fromthe entire length and breadth of the countrygather together on these occasions in order topurify themselves in the divine atmosphere.

Wherefrom does this burning faithspring? From the rich spiritual heritage of thecountry, from the words of the scriptures. Saysthe Skanda Purana (5.48.51):

Pratikalpámanuprápyadìøôvá devaó maheùvaram;

Vaiùákhe paurîamásyáó vaisnápayantyeka vásaram.

‘Having come to Pratikalpa (Ujjain) and hav-ing had the darshan of Lord Mahakala, theytake a bath (in the holy river Shipra) on thefull-moon day of Vaishakha (April-May).’ So also

Avantæ yátrá kartavyáprayatnena mumukøuîá;

Mádhave’pi viùeøeîahyavantæ snánamácaret.

‘One desirous of gaining salvation should makea pilgrimage to Avanti (Ujjain); especially, heshould take a bath in the month of Vaishakha.’Thus the Puranas announce auspicious resultsfor the person who takes a holy bath in Ujjain inthe month of Vaishakha, when Ravi (Sun) is inMesha (Aries).

The Brahmanda Purana eulogizes Jupi-ter’s (Brihaspati) transit through Leo (Simha)as also very auspicious. This is in connectionwith the Godavari (at Nasik):

Øaøôivarøasahasráîi bhágæratyávagáhanam;Sakìdgodávaræ snánaó sióhayukte bìhaspatau.

‘Bathing in the Bhagirathi (Ganga) for sixtythousand years cannot equal a single bath in theGodavari when Brihaspati is in Simha.’

Similarly, mention is made of the Jupiter-Aquarius (Kumbha) conjunction with refer-ence to Hardwar:

Padminæ náyake meøekumbharáùigate gurau;

Gaïgádváre bhavedyogaëkumbhanámná tadottamam.

‘With the Sun in Mesha and Brihaspati inKumbha, there is the festival of Kumbha inGangadwara (Hardwar).’

From this we get an idea that originallyKumbha Melas were held only in Hardwar,when Jupiter was in Aquarius, and Nasik, whenthe planet was in the opposite position, that isin Leo. As far as Ujjain and Prayag are con-cerned, their auspiciousness lay in bathing therein the months of Vaishakha, when the Sun is inAries, and Magha (January-February), whenthe Sun is in Capricorn (Makara) and begins itsnorthern journey (uttaráyaîa), respectively.

Subsequently, when Nasik and Ujjaincame under Maratha control, the rulers, influ-enced by a certain priest of Ujjain, are said tohave extended the Nasik Kumbha Mela (Sim-hastha Brihaspati) to Ujjain, but in the monthof Vaishakha, which was already auspicious forUjjain. Similarly, some politico-religious au-thority seems to have made the same decree inthe case of Prayag also, but in the month ofMagha, when Brihaspati was in Mesha rather

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The Simhastha Kumbha Mela of 2004

than Kumbha. And once the practice of hold-ing the Kumbha festival at these four placesgained acceptance and acquired authenticity,‘supplementary’ Puranic stories were woven insupport of it. That is why though the story ofthe churning of the milky ocean by the godsand demons is found in almost all Puranas, theidea of the pitcher being taken from place toplace and the falling of nectar-drops at Hard-war, Prayag, Nasik and Ujjain—‘Viøîudváretærtharáje’vantyáó godávaræ taôe; Sudhábinduvinikøepatkumbha parveti viùrutam. It is wellknown that since drops of nectar fell on Vish-nudwara (Hardwar), Tirtharaja (Prayag),Avanti (Ujjain) and on the banks of theGodavari (Nasik), the Kumbha festival is heldthere’—is nowhere in them. So it can safely bepresumed that it is a later addition.

It is in one of these Puranic supplements(puráîa máhátmya) that we read about the tenauspicious combinations for the Simhastha fes-tival at Ujjain. The Skanda Purana Mahatmyasays:

Mádhave dhavale pakøe sióhe jæve tvaje ravau;Tuláráùau niùánáthe svátibhe pérîimá tithau.Vyatæpáte tu saóprápte candravásara saóyute;Kuùasthalæ mahákøetre snáne mokøamavápnuyát.Ete daùamaháyogáë snáne muktiphalapradáë.

1) The month of Vaishakha; 2) the bright fort-night; 3) Jupiter in Leo; 4) Sunin Aries; 5) Moon in Libra(Tula); 6) the star Svati; 7) thefull-moon day; 8) Vyatipatayoga, when Sun and Moon areparallel or with the same declina-tion; 9) Monday; 10) in Kusha-sthali (Ujjain).

According to the reputedhistorian Jadunath Sarkar, theoldest Kumbha Mela mentionedin preserved historical recordswas held in 1235, probably inHardwar. There is also a men-tion of the Nasik Simhastha inthe fifteenth-century Marathiwork Guru Charitra. The pres-

ent Simhastha tradition of Ujjain had a definiteand organized beginning in 1732 during the re-gime of Ranoji Scindia due to the efforts of hisprime minister Ramachandra Sukthankar.

The Simhastha Festival of 2004

Ujjain celebrated the first grandSimhastha festival of the twenty-first centurybeginning from the Chaitra Shukla Purnima ofVikrama Samvat 2061 (Monday, 5 April2004). Its other principal bathing days wereVaishakha Amavasya (19 April), VaishakhaShukla Tritiya or Akshaya Tritiya (22 April),Vaishakha Shukla Panchami (24 April, Shan-karacharya Jayanti) and Vaishakha Purnima (4May). The first, third and last baths were de-clared royal baths (shahi snan).

The mela area was vast and vibrant, a veri-table ocean of humanity with countless peoplepouring in from all sides. Cars, buses, trucks,trains—all bursting with passengers—wereconverging on this holy city throughout the dayand night. It was an uphill task for the local ad-ministration to cope with the massive crowds,but they had elaborate arrangements in place inanticipation of such a turnout.

A 71-kilometre-long outer ring road con-nected all the six entry points to Ujjain andseven satellite towns were laid out around the

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Devotees converging on Ujjain for the Simhastha

city with all basic amenities. Pilgrims couldalight from their vehicles and move into themin local conveyances. The mela area, some2,151 hectares, was divided into five zones andsixteen sectors spread on either bank of theShipra. The locations of Shaiva and Vaishnavaakharas were decided according to traditionalprotocol. Thus the Shankaracharyas of Puri,Dwarka and Jyotirmath and the abbot ofSrimath, Dharma Sangh, Varanasi, were lo-cated in the Mahakal zone closest to theMahakala temple. The Shaiva Dashamaniakharas were located on the other side of theShipra in the Datta akhara area closest to theriver whereas all Vaishnava akharas were lo-cated in the Mangalnath and Bherugarh areas, alittle away from Ramghat.

An estimated ten lakh sadhus gathered atthis Simhastha and about two crore devoteestook the holy dip this time, the last day alonewitnessing a multitude of fifty lakhs!

The task of managing crowds of suchenormous size was efficiently discharged by15,000 policemen under the direction of abouta hundred officers. Each sector had a five-bedhospital equipped with sufficient stocks ofmedicines and manned by doctors and trainedparamedical staff. The zonal offices wereheaded by zonal magistrates aided by officers ofall public-service departments: enquiry, watersupply, power, fire brigade, ambulance serviceand sanitation. Hundreds of voluntary organi-zations too worked in tandem with the authori-

ties and provided various other services.The religious leaders who adorned this

mammoth congregation included Swami Nis-chalananda Saraswatiji, Shankaracharya ofGovardhan Math, Puri; Swami Swarupanan-daji, Shankaracharya of Dwarka; Guru Sharva-nandaji of Gokul; Swami Satyamitranandaji ofBharat Mata Mandir, Hardwar; Swami Avadh-eshanandaji of Juna Akhara; Mahant ShivendraPuriji of Avahan Akhara; Swami Divyanandajiof Bhanpura Pith; Swami Srikaranandaji Mah-araj of the Ramkrishna Math; Barfani Baba, SriMurari Bapu, Rameshbhai Oza, Sant AsaramBapu, Sudhanshuji Maharaj, Prema Pandu-ranga, Kanakeshwari Devi, Sadhvi Ritam-bhara, and many, many others.

The entire place was abuzz with spiritualdiscourses, recitations from the scriptures,bhagat kathas from the Bhagavata, expositionsof the Ramcharitmanas, and enactments oframlilas and raslilas. A number of free kitchensserved thousands of pilgrims every day. Reli-gious functions went on incessantly and thedevotees participating in them augmented theirstore of punya. Ramakrishna Ashrama, Ujjain,with its avowed objective of serving jivas asShiva, had also set up camp here. It offered resi-dential accommodation and meals, hospital fa-cilities and spiritual discourses; its bookshopsold spiritual literature.

The great festivals of Kumbha Mela andthe Simhastha tradition of Ujjain are rooted inthe very core of Hindu religious ritual; theyhave entered deep into the religious conscious-ness of India and Hindu society all over theworld. The Simhastha, especially, has passedthrough so many vicissitudes during the medi-eval period—natural calamities, violent clashesbetween the akharas, the apathy of the rul-ers—that Ujjain, the city eternal, was on theverge of losing its grandest tradition. Butthanks to the buoyant resilience of the SanatanaDharma and the vibrant devotion of the Hin-dus, the festival has not only survived but overthe years has acquired a status unparalleled inthe Hindu world. �

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Naga sadhus get ready for the shahi snan

In the Vrindavan of My HeartSWAMI ACHYUTANANDA

Iam particularly fond of this part ofVrindavan—the bank of the Yamuna be-tween Radhabagh and Tatiasthan—which

has a few kelikadamba, neem and mango trees,over a hundred years old. Whenever I am inVrindavan, I make it a point to come to thisplace after offering my daily pranams atGovindji’s temple.Every day I comeand spend sometime out here, im-bibing the pristinebeauty of nature:the gentle fragranceof the flowers, themyriad chirps ofbirds, the sweetmurmuring soundof the dark Kalindi(Yamuna), and thepleasing sight of cat-tle plodding back totheir homes. Driving the cattle home this hotsummer day was a dark cowherd boy, clad in aloincloth, staff in hand, with a white headbandholding back a shock of unkempt hair. Mymind was transported back to a similar land-scape, set several millennia ago, when the cow-herd boy had peacock plumes tucked into aneat headband and a flute instead of the staff.… I was jerked out of my reverie by the tune of awell-known song wafting into my ears. As thesinger drew nearer, I could discern the words:

O ye blue waters of the YamunaTell me, oh, tell meWhere is the Dark One?

The voice sounded familiar, and when he cameand stood in front it did not take me long to rec-ognize the singer. But it took some time beforehe, in turn, recognized me. And a volley of

questions followed when he did: how I was,when did I come down from Uttarkashi, wherewas I putting up and the like. Amitananda wasobviously happy to have met me again and thattoo in Vrindavan. I answered in brief, as best asI could. We had hardly exhausted our initialqueries when it started raining.

Haridas Swami,the Ascetic

We took shel-ter at Tatiasthan.Of all the ashramason the banks of theYamuna, this onehas always been myfavourite. The en-tire ashrama is sur-rounded by ancientgroves. The innercourtyard is un-paved and covered

with sand. The inmates are austere celibates.They wear minimum clothing and paint theirfaces with a special kind of clay. This is the maincentre of the monastic lineage of thewell-known Vaishnava saint Haridas Swami.The ashrama has certain precious relics: the rugused by Haridas Swami, his begging bowl and aserpentine staff. Every year, on Radha Ashtamiday, these holy relics are put on display for dev-otees. The main ingredient of the special foodofferings made on this day is kachu, a smallyam-like edible root—since kachu was the mainitem of Haridas Swami’s sustenance! Such washis austere life. Haridas Swami had practisedthe sadhana of sakhi bhava, in which thesadhaka thinks himself to be a sakhi, a womanfriend or confidante of Radharani. HaridasSwami looked upon himself as Lalita Devi, a

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Holy Yamuna at Vrindavan

close companion of Radharani. The imageworshipped in this ashrama is that of Bihari-ji. The head priest performs the worshipwith utmost dedication. He is well versed inVaishnava philosophy. As we approachedhim, he offered us a mat to sit on. He askedthe brahmachari who served him to getsome prasad for us. After having had theprasad we asked him how the ashrama hadbeen established.

‘There is a story behind this ashrama.That is the wonderful life story of HaridasSwami. He is widely known as the guru ofthe famous musician Tansen. But that is nothis real identity. He had an amazing life.People in Vrindavan called him ‘Biharinji’, thatis, the spiritual consort of Bihari or Sri Krishnaof Vrindavan. Not much is known about hisearly life. He is said to have been born sometimein 1478 or 1480 in Rajpur near Aligarh in thefamily of a Saraswat brahmin who had migratedfrom Punjab. His father, Asdhir, was a Vaish-nava sadhaka who had come to Vrindavan todedicate himself to a life of spiritual austerities.Haridas married at an early age. But he had noattraction for worldly life and soon after thedeath of his wife, he too came over to Vrinda-van to lead a life of spiritual austerities. He hadhis initiation from his father and chose the fa-vourite haunt of Sri Krishna, Nidhuvan, as theplace for his spiritual practice. He would singdevotional songs to his chosen deity thinking ofhimself as a companion of Radharani. His fameas a singer and musician soon spread far andwide.’

Even as the babaji was thus recountingHaridas Swami’s story, there was a tug on myshawl. Amitananda wanted to leave for Nidhu-van and tell the rest of the story at the very placeof Haridas Swami’s sadhana. We took leave ofthe babaji—saying, ‘Radhe, Radhe’—and leftfor Nidhuvan.

Nidhuvan is a place of celestial beautywith numerous small groves and clusters oftrees. It is surrounded by walls on all sides. It isthe site of the divine play of Krishna and his

holy consort Radharani, affectionately calledRai.

We soon reached the entrance to Nidhu-van. Amitananda advised me to deposit my be-longings with the gateman, lest they weresnatched away by monkeys. As we entered, hepointed to a small deserted temple, which hesaid was the original temple of Bihariji. HaridasSwami used to worship and sing to the Lord inthis very temple. Later on, when a new templecame up, the image was shifted there. Thewhole courtyard was nicely paved. We crossedit and reached a second gate, which opened intoNidhuvan. This is the place that has witnessedmany divine activities. It was here that HaridasSwami saw Bihariji himself in flesh and blood.We offered our pranams to the holy soil ofNidhuvan. The very thought that Krishna him-self had walked on that soil made us feel hesi-tant to tread upon it. I trembled all over tothink that it was here that Krishna, the supremeincarnation of divine love, danced with theblessed gopis, who were themselves embodi-ments of divine love! I thought how they wouldleave all the attachments and attractions of theworld and come here to be with Krishna—todedicate themselves at the feet of the Divine! Iwas standing at that very place!

I bowed down to Radharani again andagain. As we walked a little to the right, we cameacross a temple-like precinct. It had three smallshrines, the middle one slightly bigger than the

In the Vrindavan of My Heart 407

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Nidhuvan today

other two. This housed the samadhi of HaridasSwami. It was here that he would immerse him-self in deep spiritual practices and in singing tothe Lord.

It was in this place that we met RadhikadasBabaji. He had been practising spiritual austeri-ties for quite some time in Vrindavan. Hewould stay in Nidhuvan at daytime and wouldgo to Kala Babu’s grove at night. The elderlybabaji was sweeping the place when we wentthere. He gestured us to wait for a while. Hav-ing finished his work he came and sat near thetemple and asked us to do the same. We learntthat before taking to this life of renunciation hehad been the drawing teacher of a renownedEnglish-medium school. His frail figure wassparsely clad in a piece of white cloth. He wore asingle tulsi bead strung on a white thread roundhis neck. His large eyes had a deep, sad look andan ineffable beauty in them. He was probablyaround sixty. I requested him to tell us moreabout Haridas Swami. He looked at the templeand then delved deep within himself to fish outthe invaluable accounts of this great sadhaka.

Haridasji and Rai-Kishore

Radhikadasji told us that Nidhuvan wasactually called Nidhivan—precious treasure—by the old-timers. It is regarded as the mostimportant of the twelve groves that go to makeVrindavan. The people of Vrindavan believethat even today every night Krishna performsrasa here with Radha-rani and other gopis.It is for this reasonthat no one is allowedto stay within thewalled precincts ofNidhuvan at night. Itis believed that if any-one happens to strayinside by chance orchoice, (s)he does notcome back to narratewhat (s)he saw atnight. Even animals

stay away from the place at night. The purityand holiness of this place can be imbibed onlyby a realized soul. Haridas Swami came here in1503 and had his realizations in this very place.It is said that he would invoke the presence ofShyamal-kishore and Rai-kishori with his mu-sic and he could actually visualize them. His fa-mous book Kelimal depicts his divine visionsand his experiences with his beloved deity.Ashtadasha Siddhanta, another work of his, isan important text on the philosophy of thesakhi cult. This book outlines his mode ofsadhana in eighteen lucid verses. The sadhakaswho live at Tatiasthan on the banks of theYamuna are mostly followers of Haridasji’ssakhi cult.

But a lot of change has come over the placeand its surroundings over the past five hundredyears. The countless groves and the endlesstrails of tamala and kadamba trees are practi-cally no more.

Babaji paused for a while, and what he saidnext arrested my attention even more: ‘Did youknow that when Sri Ramakrishna came toVrindavan he had met Ganga Mai, a famouspractitioner of this sect in this very place?’ Gan-ga Mai too looked upon herself as Lalita. Whenshe saw Sri Ramakrishna in mahabhava, thatsupreme state of divine inebriation, she wasconvinced that he was none other than Dulali,that is Radharani herself, and so behaved withhim accordingly. Sri Ramakrishna was also at-

tracted by the devo-tion of Ganga Maiand was even think-ing of settling downpermanently at Vrin-davan. We find thisepisode in his biogra-phies. As I heard allthis, Nidhuvan be-came all the more at-tractive and mean-ingful to me.

Vitthal Vipul issaid to be the first dis-


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Sant Haridas Bhajan Sthal in Nidhuvan

ciple of Haridas Swami. Attracted by his modeof sadhana, he asked Haridas Swami: ‘You wor-ship the divine couple as your beloved. Can ev-eryone see them as you do?’ The guru replied,

‘Surely, when the time is ripe.’One morning, in 1515, Haridasji called

his disciple and said, ‘Today is a holy day. Doyou know why? It is your birthday. And todayyou will see your chosen deity. Come, let usmeditate upon him in this Nidhuvan.’ Sayingthis, he took his disciple to the north-easterncorner of Nidhuvan. Haridasji had his tanpurawith him. Gradually the mellifluous strain ofhis bhajans spread across the grove and perme-ated the whole of Nidhuvan. The disciple sattransfixed as the guru dived deep in that oceanof soulful music. The atmosphere was ecstatic.Suddenly, in one corner of the grove, there ap-peared the resplendent figure of the divine two-some, one dark and radiant and the other gor-geously fair and bright, locked in embrace!Haridasji’s voice broke out in a fresh strain:

O friends, behold this beautiful twosome,Fair and Dark, like cloud and lightning!The two splendid ones shine as one,Sitting here Haridas beholds Kunjabihari

—his master!

The divine twosome smiled as they heard thesong. The divine lady asked Haridasji, ‘Lalita,what do you wish of us?’ Haridasji replied,‘Kishoriji, you have forgotten me! Why shouldit be otherwise? How can you remember us

while drinking of the divine bliss of Bihariji’scompany?’ ‘Why, Lalita!’ intervened Bihariji,‘Your wish has already been granted. Shall weremain here in this grove in this very form?’

With folded hands Haridasji said, ‘Friends,this is the form that roams the groves(nikunjabihari). How can I worship thisform outside this place? Pray unite and re-main here for ever, for the welfare of all; letyour devotees have their wishes fulfilled byseeing this unified form.’

Haridasji’s wish was granted. The di-vine couple vanished from sight only toleave behind the beautiful icon of Banke-bihariji, which was found at that very place.This new image was ceremonially installedand worshipped with utmost love and affec-tion. The offerings were distributed among

the peacocks and monkeys. Even today the fifthday of the bright lunar fortnight of the monthof Agrahayan—called Bihari Panchami—is cel-ebrated in remembrance of this event. The im-age is also called ichhabihari, one who roams (orstays) of his own accord. Bihariji is said to bepermanently present here holding his belovedRai within his heart.

Haridasji used to be perpetually immersedin divine moods, virtually seeing his beloveddeity at will. Gradually the intensity of his emo-tions became a deterrent to his day-to-day func-tioning as the priest of Bihariji and Haridasjivoluntarily handed over the responsibility tohis disciple Vipulji. As time went on, Vipuljialso became incapable of bearing the formal re-sponsibility of Bihariji’s worship and the dutywas next transferred to Jagannath Goswami, anephew of Haridas Swami. He was a familyman, and the first in a line of goswamis per-forming the services at Bihariji’s temple. Thegoswamis who presently conduct the services toBihariji are none other than the descendants ofJagannath Goswami.

Babaji once again looked at the threeshrines. In the centre lay Haridasji, and thesamadhis of Vitthal Vipulji and JagannathGoswami stood on either side. On every Bihari


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Haridas Swami shows Kunjabihari to Vitthal Vipul

Panchami day, Haridas Swami’s portrait is car-ried in procession in a palanquin to the presenttemple of Bihariji, and a grand concert is orga-nized there wherein renowned musicians fromall over the country come to participate. Legendhas it that once Akbar himself had come here tolisten to the music of Tansen’s guru, HaridasSwami. It is said that Haridasji refused to singfor the king, as his music was only for the serviceof his beloved and not for the pleasure ofworldly people. But Akbar did get to hear himsing from a distance without the swami’sknowledge. He was so impressed by Haridasjiand the other ascetics at Vrindavan that henamed the place Fakirabad and issued a firmanbanning all killing of animals within its pre-cincts. Mirabai too visited Vrindavan towardsthe end of her life and offered her devotionalsongs to Bihariji. In 1573 Haridas Swami en-tered mahasamadhi and became one with hisbeloved at the age of ninety-five.

The Lila of Bankebihariji

The following day was Akshaya Tritiya.On this day Bihariji’s image is decked up verylightly and displayed with both feet uncoveredfor the devotees to see. This is the only day ofthe year when this kind of darshan is granted.So there is a huge rush ofpilgrims and devotees onthis day. We too went tohave darshan of the deity.But due to the heavy rushof devotees I could notstand for long inside thetemple and decided tocome again the followingday.

Next day one of thegoswamis took me close tothe image and pointed outall the details that I hadmissed the previous day.At the base of the image, toits left, is a portrait ofHaridasji in the Rajasthani

miniature style, done in oil. It is turned slightlytowards the image so as to make it easier for theswami to look at his beloved all the time. Every-thing that is offered to Bihariji is first touchedto the swami’s portrait to signify that even nowit is he who is serving Bihariji.

To the right there lies a crown; it is the em-blem of Radharani. Below the crown is an ovalstone, with a radius of about two inches. This isa radhayantra, which probably had an esotericgeometric diagram (called the radhayantra)marked on it at one time. This was used byHaridas Swami as an aid to his sadhana. Thepriest in service could not tell us much aboutthe origin of this yantra. The little icon is kepton a velvet cushion, decked in a long ghagra(skirt), and placed to the left of Bihariji as asymbol of Radharani. She is sprayed with per-fume twice a day, as is Bihariji. But most won-derful is the ritual involving their rest. Both inthe afternoon and at night, this radhayantra isplaced on Bihariji’s chest, symbolizing the un-ion of supreme Shakti with the supreme Self.The ritual has been in practice ever since thedays of Haridas Swami.

There is yet another distinctive feature ofthe worship here. At the time of arati, every twominutes a curtain is briefly drawn across the

sanctum portal as if to hideBihariji from the gaze ofthe devotees. Several ex-planations are given forthis. According to one, at-tracted by the ardent gazeof a devotee, Bihariji hadonce almost walked awaywith her. The priest real-ized this and pulled thecurtains to prevent himfrom going away. The rit-ual has persisted ever since.It is called jhanki darshan(or brief vision).

When Sri Ramakri-shna came to Vrindavanwith Mathur Babu, it was


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Bankebihariji

at this place that he had many spiritual experi-ences. He later said, ‘At the sight ofBanku-Behari I was overwhelmed with emo-tion and ran to embrace him.’ Various othersites of Vraja associated with Krishna’s lilaaroused his spiritual emotions. I also remem-bered Sri Sarada Devi’s prayer to Krishna:‘Your form is bent but Your mind isstraight–kindly straighten the windings of mymind.’

All these associations add to the attractionof Vrindavan. Even as my mind was lost inthese thoughts, Goswamiji called and took meclose to the image. He told me that sinceHaridas Swami had asked Krishna and Rai-kishori to become one, the image here is dressedin a special way. The ‘thrice-bent’ (tribhanga)form is first dressed in a pyjama which is thencovered with a ghagra; the chest is covered by ashort blouse with a shirt on top. On one side ofthe head there dangles a long plait, symbolic ofRadha, while on the other side there is a diademwith peacock feathers, symbolic of Krishna.There is a diamond nose ring too. This image ofKrishna does not hold a flute. Only on thefull-moon night of the month of Ashwin, whenthe image is dressed as Madan Mohan, is itgiven a flute and dressed up gorgeously for thespecial rasa festival held that night.

Food offerings (bhog) are made four timesa day and dressed betel rolls, with condensedmilk and nuts inside, are offered each time withthe bhog. An essen-tial item of the bhogis the dahi-vada(salted doughnutssoaked in curd),which is supposedto be a particular fa-vourite of Bihariji.Legend has it thatonce he went out ofthe temple in theguise of a little boyand purchased dahi-vada from a shop by

pawning his gold bangle. Next day the news ofthe missing bangle spread like wildfire. Whenthe neighbouring shopkeeper heard this, heconfirmed that a small boy had pawned a goldbangle the previous night to buy dahi-vadafrom his shop. After that it did not requiremuch sleuthing to identify the culprit! Sincethen the shopkeeper started sending the choic-est dahi-vadas for Bihariji’s bhog.

Gyangudri:Where Knowledge is Overwhelmed

I often take solitary walks on the banks ofthe Yamuna. Winter is setting in. It is becomingdifficult to remain outdoors for long. One day Imet Krishnadas Babaji near Gyangudri. WhenI told him that of late I had been thinking ofhim quite often, he was pleased and called meover to the cemented platform nearby. TheGyangudri is an oval-shaped sand enclosurebound by a stone platform. A stone plaque an-nounces the importance of the place. I askedBabaji why this place was held in such great rev-erence by the people of Vrindavan and he ex-plained the reason: When Krishna left forMathura, the gopis almost went mad with griefat his absence. Coming to know their condi-tion, Krishna sent Uddhava as his messenger toconsole these grief-stricken, lovelorn gopis.And this was the place where Uddhava metthem. At that time Gyangudri was thicklywooded and the Yamuna used to flow close by.

Uddhava was struckby the depth of thegopis’ love for Kri-shna and the inten-sity of their suffer-ing on account ofthis separation. Incomparison, hisown love for Krish-na and the depth ofhis spiritual knowl-edge appeared but atrifle. In fact, theplace takes its name

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Uddhava gets an idea of the gopis’ devotion to Krishna

from this realization of Uddhava. Gudri meansa quilt or covering in Hindi. Uddhava’s jnanagot covered by the bhakti of these devotees ofKrishna. The enlightening conversation be-tween Uddhava and the gopis forms the famous‘Bhramaragita’ episode of the Bhagavata.Krishna had sent Uddhava to the gopis to makehim realize that jnana was not the only means tothe realization of the supreme Self and that di-vine love or bhakti can also take the aspirant tothe same goal. When Uddhava saw the gopis herealized that what he saw was merely their bod-ies—their souls were already merged withKrishna. This realization removed all pride ofknowledge from Uddhava’s heart. All that hewished was to roll in the soil hallowed by thetouch of the blessed devotees of Krishna and bereborn as the trees, bushes or groves that arepermanent witness to the divine drama of thisblessed place. Gyangudri draws its sanctityfrom this incident and is held in high reverenceby all Vaishnavas. When a Vaishnava breatheshis last in Vrindavan, his body is brought to thisplace, kept here for some time and then im-mersed in the Yamuna or cremated. On theRatha Yatra day in the month of Ashadh, all thetemple chariots converge to this place in proces-sion. A large fair is also held at the time.Gyangudri is one of the holiest sites inVrindavan.

The Tulsi TempleHaving narrated this, Babaji rose to

leave. He went a short distance and stoppedin front of a small temple. This wasTulsidasji’s temple, he said. When Tulsi-dasji came to Vrindavan, he was disap-pointed at not seeing his own beloved ishta,the lotus-eyed Sri Rama. In his prayers toKrishna he said that he did not like thisplace, for his lotus-eyed beloved, bow andarrow in hand, was not seen there. Headded, ‘O Krishna! Either you reveal your-self as my Rama or I quit this place rightnow!’ And to grant the desire of a bhakta,Krishna had to take the form of Rama, re-

placing his flute with a bow and arrow. Babajiasked me to go in and see the image. I went in-side the ornately frescoed temple and saw thetribhanga image with bow and arrow in hand.Tulsidasji was apparently so overwhelmed thathe recorded this experience in an impromptucouplet, which remains engraved on the templewall to this day, reminding the devotees howGod himself bows down to bhakti and gratifiesthe bhakta.

As I saw all this, I was reminded of a simi-lar incident, when Narayana himself along withLakshmi had to take the form of Rama andJanaki to grant the desire of their supremebhakta Hanuman. At this Hanumanji had said:‘Though Srinatha (Vishnu) and Janakinatha(Rama) are one and the same as the supremeSelf, still my all-in-all is Rama, the lotus-eyed.’

The experience of Mahavira in the Treta-yuga was repeated in the Kaliyuga for Tulsidas.I bowed low to the great bhakta Tulsidas andalso to Krishna, the carrier of the bow and ar-row.

There are a few more temples aroundGyangudri. As the gongs in the temple an-nounced the evening arati, I rolled on the holysoil of Gyangudri, unobserved by anyone, andwalked back to the ashrama thinking of Radha-rani immersed in her mahabhava.

(To be continued)


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Gyangudri: The spot where Uddhava met the gopis

In Search of the DivineAn Account of the Twelve Shaktipithas of West Bengal

SWAMI CHIDRUPANANDA

Let us start with a story, the wonderfulmythical story of Dakshayajna that wefind in slightly modified forms in the

Mahabharata (‘Shanti Parva’, ch. 283), Puranaslike the Brahma Purana (ch. 39) and KalikaPurana (ch. 18), Tantras like the Yogini Tantra,and in many other scriptures like the DeviBhagavata (7th skandha). The story will helpexplain the concept of the Shaktipithas easily.

Lord Shiva is an aspect of the highest Ab-solute. He is known by various names like Mri-tyunjaya (victor over death) and Pashupati(lord of created beings). His Energy is wor-shipped as the Universal Mother, who is all-merciful, all-powerful and all-pervading. Moth-er is the sweetest word known to the Hindus,and motherhood is the highest ideal of Indianwomanhood.

Be that as it may, according to legend theMother Goddess—in her form of Sati, one ofDaksha Prajapati’s daughters—was the wife ofShiva. Once Daksha Prajapati was performing agreat sacrifice to which he had invited all thegods in heaven except Shiva and Sati. Sati de-sired to attend the yajna but Shiva refused. Un-deterred, Sati revealed to her husband her awe-some Dashamahavidya form and an overwhel-med Shiva allowed his wife to go to the yajna.So Sati went to her father’s sacrifice uninvited,and was insulted. Unable to bear the ill-treat-ment, Sati gave up her body by an act of yoga.When the news of Sati’s death reached Shiva hewas furious and rushed to the scene with his nu-merous attendants, the gaîas. The sacrifice ofPrajapati Daksha was completely destroyed bythe demon Virabhadra, who is said to have beencreated for the purpose by Shiva. Inconsolable,Siva then roamed over the world dancing a mad

dance carrying Sati’s dead body on his shoul-der. The gods became anxious and requestedBhagavan Vishnu to free Shiva from his infatu-ation. They conspired to rid Shiva of his wife’scorpse and Vishnu cut Sati’s body to pieceswith his discus Sudarshana. The fifty-oneplaces where the limbs fell became Shakti-pithas, or sacred spots or seats of the DivineMother. In each of them she is believed to beliving in a particular form along with a particu-lar Bhairava. This then is the story behind theworship of Shiva-Shakti.

From the spiritual angle, the human bodytoo can be viewed as an altar of the Divine. Ac-cording to Krishnananda Agamavagisha’s Tan-trasara, the fifty-one parts of the human bodyrepresent the fifty-one Devipithas. The wor-shipper imagines these various parts of his bodyas divine altars and concentrates the thought ofthe Universal Mother on them, thus convertinghis own body into a veritable Devitirtha. Forexample, at the base of the spine (muladhara)resides Devi Kamakhya and Bhairava Uma-nanda. The worshipper must establish a yantra,a mystical diagram or symbol of the DivineMother, in order to worship Shiva-Shakti. It iswritten in the Bhairava Tantra that the bulk ofthe body should be imagined as a site of joy andworshipped as such. Thus having withdrawnhimself from the mundane world and absorbedin meditation, the worshipper is completelyimmersed in samadhi and becomes one withthe Divine Mother.

According to the Pithanirnaya Tantra thefifty-one pithas, scattered all over India, Paki-stan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and Sri Lanka,have their own pæôhadevatás (forms of theDevi), k÷etrádhæùas (Bhairavas) and the Devi’s

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aïga-pratyaïgas (limbs and ornaments). TheShivacharita also lists fifty-one mahapithas; be-sides, it supplies a list of twenty-six more upa-pithas (pithas of lesser importance). The wordupapitha is also found in works such as theSadhanamala. The Bengali almanac, Vishud-dhasiddhanta Panjika, too describes the fifty-one pithas, including their present modifiedaddresses.

This article, however, is restricted to an ac-count of the twelve Shaktipithas located inWest Bengal: 1) Kalighat in Kolkata; 2) Kshira-gram, 3) Kogram and 4) Ketugram in Bardha-man; 5) Bolpur, 6) Labhpur, 7) Sainthia, 8)Nalhati and 9) Bakreshwar in Birbhum; 10)Lalbagh in Murshidabad; 11) Salbari in Jalpai-guri; and 12) Tamluk in Medinipur.

Devi Kalika of Kalighat

The mahapitha of Kalighat is situated insouth Kolkata to the east of the Adi Ganga. It isa very ancient place of pilgrimage and one of themost important Shaktipithas, being a maha-pitha, siddhapitha (seat of success) and guhya-pitha (esoteric seat) in one. Here fell Mother’sright little toe. Describing the authenticity ofthe place, the Pithanirnaya Tantra says: ‘Nakul-æùaë kálæpæôhe dakøapadáïgulæ ca me; Sarva-siddhikaræ devæ káliká tatra devatá. Nakulisha[is the Bhairava] at Kalipitha, [where fell] Myright little toe; Devi Kalika, who grants allsiddhis is the [presiding] deity there.’

The builder of the old temple was Raja

Basanta Ray, uncle of Pratapaditya and the kingof Jessore, Bangladesh. In order to ensure thatMother’s service and worship continuedsmoothly, he offered 595 bighas of land to thetemple. This temple was situated on the banksof River Adi Ganga. It is believed that onceupon a time bandits used to offer human sacri-fices here. The goddess here is very alive (já-gratá). Even the East India Company had madea votive offering of five thousand rupees desir-ing the success of their political objectives! Thepresent temple was built by Santosh Ray, amember of the famous Sabarna Chaudhurifamily of Barisha, Kolkata, in 1809. To thesouth of the temple are the natmandir and thesite for animal sacrifice; to the north-east are thetemples of Nakuleshwara Shiva and the AnadiLinga; to the west is the Radha-Krishna temple.Beyond this is the Adi Ganga. The Radha-Krishna temple was built in 1843 by Uday-narayan Mandal, the zamindar of Baowali.

The image of Devi Kalika of Kalighat is in-complete. The original image did not includeShiva. Now, however, one can see a small silverstatue of Shiva there. Suryakumar Chattopa-dhayay says in his Kalikshetra Dipika that onlythe face of the deity was made first, from stoneobtained from the basin of the Kalikunda lake.The hands, made of gold and silver, the tongue,the Shiva statue, and all the jewellery wereadded over the years.

Mother’s toe is preserved in a box recessedinto the stone image. This is only taken out onthe auspicious day of Snan Yatra. During thisobservance the priests bandage their eyes whilegiving Mother the ceremonial bath. A largenumber of devotees throng the place on the aus-picious occasions of Kali Puja, Durgashtami,New Year’s Day and Sankranti. A little distanceaway from the temple, towards the south on thebank of the Adi Ganga, lies the Keoratala burn-ing ghat.

Devi Yugadya of Kshiragram

According to the Tantrachudamani, theDivine Mother says: ‘Bhétadhátræ mahámáya


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Devi Kalika

bhairavaë køærakhaîõakaë; Yugádyáyáó mahá-máyá dakøáïguøôhaë pado mama. Mahamaya,the nourisher of beings, and Bhairava Kshira-khandaka [preside] at Yugadya, where My rightbig toe [fell].’ Mahamaya, however, is calledDevi Yugadya in these parts. The sixteenth cen-tury Shivacharita also concurs: ‘Køæragrámemahádevo bhairavaë køærakhaîõakaë; Yugádyá-yáó mahámáyá dakøáïguøôhaë pado mama’,meaning that Mahadeva is known as BhairavaKshirakhandaka and Mahamaya as Yugadya atKshiragram. In the well-known Bengali playMahiravan Vadh, there is mention of the god-dess Yugadya, whom Mahiravana worshippedas Devi Bhadrakali. After the destruction ofMahiravana, at the Devi’s command Sri Rama-chandra asked Hanuman to establish her inKshiragram: ‘Mátháy pratimá kare áno hanu-mán; Abanimaîõal madhye khæragrám nám.Carry the image on your head, O Hanuman;take it to the place called Kshiragram.’ Interest-ingly, Swami Prabhananda in an article in Ud-bodhan (vol. 110, 110-15) says that Sri Rama-krishna himself transcribed a village drama onDevi Yugadya of Kshiragram. In his beautiful

handwriting, he wrote in praise of the goddess:‘Yogádyár bandaná likhyate. Jay má jogádyábande khiragrámbási; Abaíite siddhapæôh guptabáráîasæ. Dakøiî haste kharpar máyer bám hastekháîõá. Rábaîer ghare mátá chhile ugracaîõá.The praise of Yogadya is being written. Glory toMother Yogadya residing at Kshiragram, asiddhapitha on earth, the secret Varanasi. Witha skull in your right hand and a sword in theleft, [you were] Ugrachanda in Ravana’s home.’

The goddess of Kshiragram is also knownas Kshirabhavani. The temple was founded bythe king of Bardhaman. Surprisingly, there isno image in the temple; prayers are just offeredat an altar. The original Devi image was im-mersed in the nearby lake during a Muslim at-tack. Later, in 1284 BE, a new image similar tothe original was made. It has ten hands. But fol-lowing the old practice, this statue of the Devi isput inside a box and kept immersed in the lakethroughout the year! On the last day of themonth of Vaishakha, it is brought out of thewater and placed on the altar for worship. Thisis the only day when everyone can see her.

According to a local legend, in formertimes there used to be human sacrifices at theplace. But once when it was the turn of a de-voted brahmin to become the offering, heprayed to Mother for his life. Then Mother her-self appeared and stopped the practice forever.

There are two ways Kshiragram can bereached. By road, one can go from Kolkata toBardhaman and then proceed to Koichar vil-lage, which comes on the way to Katoa. By rail,one has to travel from Bardhaman to Koichar,from there make a four-kilometre bus journeytowards the south-east, and then turn right and

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In Search of the Divine 415

Kshiragram temple

‘Jugadyar Pala’ in Sri Ramakrishna’s handwriting

follow a kuchcha road for another kilometre toreach Kshiragram.

Devi Mangalachandi of Kogram

After visitingDevi Yugadya atKshiragram one cango to the Ujani-pitha at Kogram.Kogram is aboutone kilometre westof Natunhat and issituated on thebank of the Ajayriver. Here the roadbifurcates, one pathleading straight intothe village, while

the other, turning east, passes by the famouspoet Kumudranjan Mallik’s house and ends atthe temple. In the olden days this place wasknown as Ujaninagara. So Kogram is also calledUjani-Kogram. Two rivers, Ajay and Kupur,flow on either side of the village. Laced by theAjay, the temple is a delightful sight.

Ujani is counted among the importantmahapithas by scriptures like the Pithamala,Tantrachudamani and Shivacharita. Rent bythe Sudarshana, Sati’s left elbow fell here. Thedeities of this place are Devi Mangalachandiand Bhairava Kapileshwara. Here the Devi isconceived as the ten-armed Durga. She is seensitting on her lion and slaying the demonMahisha. Regular prayers and services are heldin the temple. On the new-moon night of themonth of Kartika a grand service with offeringsand prayers is organized. It is written in the sto-ries about Mangalachandi that the legendaryDhanapati Saudagar was born in this village.Before his journey to Singhala he is said to haveprayed to Mangalachandi. Inside the templethere is a statue of Buddha seated in the lotusposture. There is also a statue of the sixteenthtirthankara, Shantinatha. All this suggests thatin bygone days there was a happy combinationof the brahminical, Buddhist and Jain religions

in Ujani-Kogram.In order to reach Kogram one can go from

Koichar to Natunhat by road or from Guskara(near Bardhaman) to Natunhat by train,though the distance is only fifteen kilometres.The best way to reach Guskara is by theGanadevata Express or Shantiniketan Express.One can find buses or cars for hire outside theGuskara railway station.

Devi Bahula of Ketugram

Ketugram was formerly known as Bahula-pitha. Situated in Ketugram Palli, the place liesfifteen kilometres north of Katoa. About theBahulapitha it is written in the Pithanirnaya:‘Bahuláyáó vámabáhurbahulákhyá ca devatá;Bhæruko bhairavastatra sarvasiddhipradáyakaë.At Bahula[pitha] fell [Sati’s] left arm. [Here]the Devi is known as Bahula and Bhiruka, thebestower of all siddhis, is the Bhairava.’ TheDevi is also called Bahulalakshmi by the locals.At a short distance from Ketugram fell Sati’slower lip, near the Ishani river, where the tem-ple of Devi Attahasa or Phullara stands. To-gether these two places are known as yugma-pithas, or twin pithas.

Situated inside Ketugram village, thesmall temple of Bahula has beautiful surround-ings. Walking straight through open fieldsfrom here, or by taking the kuchcha road fromNiral, three kilometres away, one can reach thetemple of Attahasa or Phullara on the bank ofthe Ishani. The temple is surrounded by a denseforest. However, there is no mention of theplace in the government gazetteer. Accordingto the government, the Attahasa temple is innearby Labhpur in Birbhum district. But localsbelieve that Attahasa belongs to Ketugram.Jajneshwar Chaudhuri, in his book Bardha-man: Itihas o Sanskriti, says that the twin pithasare located in Ketugram. But then again, manyother books, including the VishuddhasiddhantaPanjika, say just the opposite.

The original statue of the Devi, like every-thing else of the Ketugram temple, is said tohave been destroyed by the dreaded iconoclast

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Mangalachandi:An artist’s conception

Kalapahar. Or itmay be that theDevi was re-es-tablished in Labh-pur in anticipa-tion of an attackbyhim.TheBhai-rava too is miss-ing from theAttahasa temple;he is now in theneighbouringvillage of Bilv-eshwar. Be that

as it may, one must visit the Attahasa templealong with the temple of Bahula.

The image of Bahula in Ketugram is verybeautiful, but there is no image of Bhiruka inthe village. People worship Bhutanatha of Sri-khand as Bhiruka here. The image of Bahula,made in the likeness of Durga in black stone, isabout five feet high. She stands atop a specialthree-tiered lotus altar. She has four arms.Ganesha and Kartikeya sit on either side of her.According to local belief, King Chandraketubuilt this temple and initiated the regular wor-ship. Every year on the day of Mahanavamielaborate arrangements are made for the Devi’sworship when sacrifices are offered.

Devi Devagarbha of Bolpur

Seven kilometres from the Bolpur railwaystation, on the bank of the Kopai river, liesKankalitala. Kaïkála means skeleton in San-skrit. It is said that Sati’s skeleton fell here(though some believe that it was the Devi’s hipthat fell here). The names of the presiding dei-ties are Devi Devagarbha and Bhairava Ruru,which is obvious in the Tantrachudamani verse:‘Káðcædeùe ca kaïkálo bhairavo rurunámakaë;Devatá devagarbhákhyá ….’ Many, however,identify Kanchidesha with Kanchipuram inTamil Nadu.

There is a small pond beside the temple atKankalitala. When the alien invaders attackedand destroyed the old temple, they threw the

image into the pond. Strangely enough, thispond never dries up and is the main seat of theDevi. Local people address prayers and offertheir gifts to the water. The new temple and im-age are of fairly recent origin. To the south ofthis temple stands another, dedicated toBhairava Ruru. The place is very beautiful. Themany trees around the temple create a pleasingand serene atmosphere. A story from theMarkandeya Purana says King Suratha had per-formed one lakh sacrifices in order to receivethe blessings of Devi Chandi. The place derivedits original name of Balipur from those sacri-fices (balis); Bolpur is just a variant name.

Devi Attahasa of Labhpur

Our next stop, Labhpur, is about twenty-five kilometres north of Bolpur and Kankalitalaand about twelve kilometres from Ahmedpur.Labhpur is quite a developed village. In earliertimes the place was known as Attahasa. Duringthe Muslim rule, the place became a famous

business hub and was renamed as Labhpur(labh meaning profit or gain).

The debate regarding the authenticity ofthe two Shaktipithas of Labhpur and Ketugramstill remains undecided. Be that as it may, herethe Devipitha is set amidst a grove of tamarindand tamal trees near the village.

We shall read about the legends and im-portant events associated with this spot in thenext instalment.

(To be concluded)

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In Search of the Divine 417

Ketugram Bahula

Attahasa temple

The Magic of AngkorDR SAIBAL GUPTA

It was another time in another India.Ocean-going ships, laden with merchan-dise and bearing young fortune-seekers,

priests and scholars, and also some soldiers toprotect them all, set out from the east coast ofIndia to explore the distant lands of South-EastAsia, braving the unstable weather of that re-gion. The Periplus and the writings of Ptolemy,Plutarch, Pliny and Strabo indicate the pres-ence of a large empire in eastern Bengal in thefourth century BCE known as Gangaridai withits capital at Gangabandar (Gange), which wasa big port on the Bay of Bengal at the mouth ofthe Kumar River. Tothe west of Gangari-dai was the empire ofPrasioi (Prachya), onthe western side ofthe Ganga as it flowsdown out of the Raj-mahal hills, with aseaport at Tamra-lipta, which still ex-ists as the small townof Tamluk. The Chi-nese silk trade, beforethe discovery of theoverland routethrough Central Asia, passed throughnorth-eastern India and Bengal and ships fromBengal took the merchandise along the coastalroute around Kanyakumari and brought themto traders on the west coast, who in turn tookthem across the Arabian Sea along the coast ofSind and Baluchistan to the mouth of the Per-sian Gulf. From there it used to travel all overMiddle East as far as modern Israel, the king-dom of Solomon, and then to the Phoeniciansof the Mediterranean. Indian traders later dis-covered the direct route across the Arabian Sea

to the mouth of the Red Sea and shared thisroute with the Arabs for centuries.

Similar expeditions crossed the easternseas and the mainly coastal trade graduated toseafaring vessels going to Siam, the Malay Pen-insula and Sumatra and then through theMalacca Strait to Java, Bali, Cambodia andVietnam up to south China. During the time ofthe Roman Empire the trade in spices fromSouth-East Asia, silk from China, fine cottonfabric, red pepper and pippali from Bengal wasso prolific that the Roman drachma became le-gal tender in Bengal and still survives in the

Bengali language, asin ‘Koto dam? What isthe price?’

During theeighth and ninth cen-turies CE the entiresea trade closed downon both sides of theIndian peninsula. Onthe eastern side, a re-ligious injunctioncame into force forunknown reasonsbanning sea voyage;anyone crossing kala

pani or ‘the black waters’, as the sea came to becalled, lost his caste. It was so effective that theentire eastern sea trade came to a stop. It is diffi-cult to know how effective this injunction wasin the south and west, but overseas commercein those parts too slowed down. In the west,traders began to depend more and more on theArabs to transport their goods and thus savedthe expenditure of maintaining a maritimefleet. In the south, the collapse of the Chola andRashtrakuta empires probably contributed tothe end of maritime trade, since no big power

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The author in front of Angkor Wat. The perimeter wall andmoat surrounding the temple complex can be seen

in the background

followed them. All this had a deep and lastingeffect on India’s history and culture. Today onehas to travel to the outposts of Indian civiliza-tion to taste the grandeur of the India that was.These outposts got detached from the main-land at various times but evolved on their own,keeping alive their traditions, culture and wayof life unaffected by the changes that took placein their motherland. Over time they too disin-tegrated or were forgotten, until the Europeansrediscovered them recently. These relics appearlike preserved museum pieces of Indian philos-ophy and culture of bygone days. The ruins ofAngkor are one such museum. For the author,visiting them was a pilgrimage.

The Journey

Cambodia, the land of the Khmers,known as Cambodge in French and as Kam-buja to us Indians, was renamed Kampuchea in1989 and has its capital at Phnom Penh. Be-tween the ninth and fifteenth centuries, thecore of the Khmer empire was in the vicinity ofAngkor. The ruins of Angkor lie in Siem Reapprovince, whose capital is Siem Reap city situ-ated 320 kilometres north of Phnom Penh. Thearea was ravaged in the past decades by civil warand the atrocities and genocide of the KhmerRouge, from which it has not yet fully recov-ered. Even today the tourist is cautioned againstleaving the paved road and loitering in the jun-gle for fear of landmines. Siem Reap is a smallcity with an international airport that bringsthrongs of tourists from all over the world.However, there is no direct flight from India.Visitors usually change flights at Bangkok andobtain their visas there or on arrival at SiemReap. In fact the locals rue that there are veryfew Indian tourists. To them we are rich andbetter people. Big banners across main roadswarn tourists that child molestation is a seriouscrime punishable by imprisonment in the tour-ists’ own country. The warning has been issuedby the UN in order to protect the poor popula-tion ravaged by flesh trade, which has resultedin a high incidence of HIV-AIDS in the region.

Coming out of the airport one sees a small,sparsely populated town with a few main roadsand red, dusty fields. Apart from a few newhigh-rise hotels and some shops, the rest of thetown mostly consists of small single- or two-floor wooden houses. The big hotels are expen-sive but there are large numbers of small or me-dium-sized hotels that are not bad and givegood service. Rooms in these can be bookedthrough the Internet and are clean and reallycheap. I got into one such hotel in a newly builtcorner of the city and liked it. The hospitality ofthe people of South-East Asia is well known andthe Cambodians are no exception. I hired a carwith a guide for three days at an unbelievablycheap price. Group tour buses are also availablebut these are mainly European or Americangroups. I always love to travel alone taking myown time, so that my mind can work withoutbeing cluttered by unnecessary conversation.This allows me to interact with the local peopleand thereby get to know the place better. It alsoenables me to combine travel and solitudewithin myself. I got an intelligent young man asguide who was bubbling with stories about eachand every site. Whenever necessary, he guidedme to safe restaurants, which were large opensheds in the shade of big trees serving tasty andhygienic food. The time was mid-February.Though it was cool in the shade it was alreadytoo warm in the sun outside. I could imaginehow hot it would get in summer! Thus startedmy pilgrimage.

The Magic of Angkor 419

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A view of the Tonle Sap ‘floating market’

A Brief History of the RegionThe time between the first and eighth cen-

turies makes up the proto-historic period. Re-search into the prehistoric period of the placehas yielded scarce data. There was a presence ofcave-dwelling Stone Age people as early as 6000BCE in one area, and the farming people, whodomesticated cattle and were organized in smallvillages, appeared after 500 BCE.

The socio-political history of Cambodiaand South-East Asia starts at the beginning ofthe common era, in the first century CE, withthe appearance of Indian ships, followed sometwo hundred years later by the Chinese. Theearly site of Oc Eo in the Mekong Delta, whichflourished in the second century, has yieldedIndian jewellery, Ro-man coins and Bud-dhist religious arte-facts. This combina-tion indicates theeastern seaboard ofIndia as the source.At this time Indiantrade with Chinathrough the north-east was sufferingfrom the attacks ofnomadic frontiertribes, and improvedknowledge of shipbuilding and navigationpushed Indian ships eastwards towards Chinaacross the Bay of Bengal. This was closely fol-lowed by the Chinese themselves pressingeastwards.

Early Chinese records of the third centuryshow the presence of the state of Funan occupy-ing the southern parts of Cambodia and Viet-nam, where the culture was Indian and the reli-gion brahminical; the dialect, however, was de-rived from the Mon-Khmer family of lan-guages. The Chinese considered South-EastAsia a land of barbarians and were not inter-ested in settlements. Whereas the Chinese wereexplorers and record-keepers of history fromthe earliest times, the Indians cared little about

history and less for exploration, except in theline of trade. But they brought their socio-reli-gious culture that bonded the small coastalmaritime settlements into ports and then intocities followed by states.

Chinese texts and Sanskrit and Khmer in-scriptions describe the mythical origin ofFunan from the marriage of an Indian prince ofthe Chola dynasty or an Indian brahmin withthe daughter of the local Naga king. The Nagaswere serpent spirits who inhabited the watersand ruled over the soil. Similarly, in another in-scription from the third century, the origin ofChampa, a kingdom in central Vietnam, is as-cribed to the marriage of a prince namedKaundinya, who travelled to that land, with

Princess Soma, thedaughter of the Nagaking.

The history ofthis region duringthis period reads likechapters of Indianhistory with names ofkingdoms like theChampa of Vietnam,the Dvaravati ofThailand, the Pyu ofBurma, the Srivijayaand Sailendra of In-

donesia—all fighting with each other. Whetherall or even most of the kings were of pure Indianorigin is doubtful, as it was common evenamong known usurpers to take Indian or San-skrit names to appear honourable. The overallculture was Indian with a mixture of the Vedas,the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Ramayanaand the Mahabharata, followed by Mahayanaand Theravada Buddhism, and all of it mixedwith tribal naturalism and animism. One or an-other aspect of this mixture predominated de-pending on the taste of the king in power andprobably on other social or economic factors.Most scholars call this cultural processIndianization rather than Indian colonialism.Even during the Angkor period, from the ninth


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The towers of Angkor Wat

to the fifteenth century, all the kings hadVarman for their surname. This is true even ofthe present king of Cambodia, who retains theappellation in his full official name.

Angkor is unique in that it has preserved ahistorical record of this amalgam of culturealong with its political and social history inmonument after monument and in extensivegalleries of bas-relief carvings over successiveepochs with very little damage. This is some-thing that is unparalleled anywhere.

The Topography of Angkor

Angkor is situated in a large basin formedby the Kulen Hills in the north and the TonleSap Lake in the south. The plateau is drained bytributaries of the Siemreab River and markedby three hills: Phnom Bok, Phnom Bakhengand Phnom Krom. These hills, the sites of theearly capitals of Jayavarman II (802-850),Indravarman I (877-889) and YashovarmanI (889-910), are purely Hindu sites dedi-cated to Shiva. The total area of Angkor cov-ers 5,000 square kilometres.

The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwa-ter lake in South-East Asia. The Sab Riverflows out from this lake to join the MekongRiver, and Phnom Penh is situated at theirconfluence. The monsoon rains raise thewater level of the lake and the tides of theMekong keep the Sab flowing downwardsthroughout the year to provide an externalwaterway for Angkor. It is the main sup-

port for fishing and agriculture in the area.A large population lives on the lake—infloating houses fixed to the lake bed—withfloating vegetable gardens, fisheries en-closed within reed barricades, schools, apost office, dispensary, police station, res-taurants, a church, wireless stations andmobile markets—all on boats! Today alarge number of these lake people are Viet-namese. However, most of the importantmonuments of Angkor and the royal pal-aces and the capital city of Angkor Thomare situated on the plateau.

The most important element a city or akingdom requires for survival is water. Angkoris an example of efficient water-resource man-agement in the contemporary world. In addi-tion to access to the Siemreab River (which,though, is rather far away) and the Tonle SapLake, rainwater used to be harvested. Vast areasof land were enclosed by earthen dams, calledbarays, to contain rainwater. There are foursuch barays, built by powerful kings. The larg-est one measures 8,000 by 2,100 metres. In thecentre of each baray there is an artificial hill onwhich stand beautiful ornate temples that wereapproachable by boat in those times. Today,however, most of those dams have crumbledand the lakes dried up, except the Indratatakabaray (893 CE) at Roluos, where seaplanes usedto land during the Cambodian war. There arerainwater reservoirs inside Angkor Wat too.


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The causeway from the gopura to the main temple

Entry to the gopura guarded by lions

The MonumentsIt is impossible to de-

scribe all the ruins ofAngkor in one article.This narrative will focuson the Angkor Wat tem-ple complex and the capi-tal city of Angkor alongwith the temples of PreahKo, Ta Prohm and Ban-teay Srei. Scholars are ofthe opinion that the wordangkor is derived from theSanskrit nagara. But, in-terestingly, Angkor Thomis described in some of ourpopular literature as Om-kar Dham. Wat meanstemple. So Angkor Watcould be Omkar Mandir.

It is generally accepted that Angkor wasfounded by King Yashovarman I and wasnamed Yasodharapura; Angkor is a later name.King Suryavarman II (1113-1150) builtAngkor Wat but he died before constructionwas complete. The temple was known asParamavishnuloka and had a big image ofVishnu under the central tower. At Vishnu’sfeet was embedded a gold urn that containedthe ashes of the king. The temple was designedby a brahmin named Divakarapandita, whowas reputed to have spiritual powers and wasprobably the king’s guru. Vishnu was removedand replaced by Buddha during the reign of thenext important king, Jayavarman VII (1181-1220), who embraced Mahayana Buddhism. Inbetween the two reigns Angkor was defeatedand ravaged by the Chams of Vietnam. TheBuddhists did not destroy the extensive bas-re-liefs depicting scenes from the Ramayana andMahabharata, the Puranas, and the king’s cam-paigns but added a gallery devoted to Buddha.The temple became a Buddhist monastery thatoutlived the Angkor empire. However, theBuddha in the central tower is now no moreand many Buddha statues in the gallery have

been defaced. This mighthave happened during ashort period of Hindu re-surgence, but more prob-ably it is the work of van-dals. A large Vishnustatue, which might ormight not have been theoriginal one that was inthe central tower, standsin a colonnade on the rightside of the gopura at theentrance and is still wor-shipped. A later image ofBuddha is also wor-shipped in the temple.The Vishnu image that isworshipped today wasonce decapitated, but the

head was later found and reattached, and the lo-cals worship it. Western accounts say that it is aBuddha head on a Vishnu body but the localsdo not think so.

Each area of Angkor Wat is laid out ac-cording to measurements specified in theHindu architectural and astronomical charts.However, the temple faces west, which is ratherunusual for a Hindu temple. Some Westernerssuggest that because it is actually a mausoleumit faces the setting sun. But a more plausible ex-planation is that it faces India, the Vishnuloka.Angkor Wat is an immense monument occupy-ing a rectangular area of 500 acres defined by alaterite wall, which is surrounded by a 200-metre-wide moat filled with water. The perime-ter of the wall measures 5.5 kilometres. A hugecauseway built with massive sandstone blocksruns across the moat. The balustrade signifiesthe body of the snake god Vasuki with itsmany-headed hood raised at the entrance. Eventhe roofs of the vestibules are parts of Vasuki’scoiled body. After crossing the causeway oneenters through a short flight of stairs a raisedplatform that stretches in the form of a cross allthe way to the main temple complex. The tem-ple’s three towers are symbolic of the Meru


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The eight-armed Vishnuwith the Buddha head

mountains, the abode of thegods. The proportions areenormous yet beautiful.Midway on this inner cause-way are two beautiful ruinedbuildings on either side thatonce housed libraries.

Angkor Thom is the in-ner capital city with manypalaces from different peri-ods built by individual kingsand is also encircled by a walland a moat. There are fourgates to this city. Over eachgateway is a head with fourfaces facing in the four direc-tions that smile benevo-lently on the onlooker. Thisis the head of Avalokitesh-vara. There is a large central plaza with a ram-part on one side where the king and his retinuesat and watched marching troops and festivals.Jayavarman VII, who built the city on thepre-existent Yashodharapura, also built thisrampart, called Elephant Wall because of therows of elephants on its frontal bas-relief.Jayavarman conquered many countries and histerritory extended fromVietnam through Thailandto lower Burma up to theborders of the Pagan king-dom. It was he who built thehighway from Angkor toPhimai in Thailand.

After a 30-minute drivefrom Siem Reap comes thebeautiful ornate temple ofBanteay Srei, or ‘the citadelof women’. This was built inthe second half of the tenthcentury by Jayavarman V,successor of Rajendravar-man II, who had set in mo-tion a period of peace andprosperity after decades ofpolitical instability. It is ac-

tually an exquisitely ornateShiva temple with delicatelycarved panels depicting talesfrom the Puranas and has asurrounding moat.

Though JayavarmanVII was a staunch Buddhisthe was not intolerant ofHinduism; rather he seemsto have attempted to inte-grate the two religions. TheElephant Wall of AngkorThom has a bas-relief show-ing Buddha sitting on Garu-da, and across the plaza thereare ruins of twelve smalltemples—now being rebuiltas Buddha temples—whosenumber and shape indicate

that they might have been Shiva temples. Fur-thermore, at Preah Ko Jayavarman built a tem-ple that has Buddha and Shiva figurines facingeach other across a central colonnade. Curi-ously, some shivalinga bases in the chapel haveholes for three lingas, which have vanished along time ago. A European tourist asked mewhy there were three shivalingas together. It re-

minded me of Bali, whereShiva represents a formlesstrinity—Paramashiva, Sada-shiva and Dhyanashiva.This corresponds with theShaivite thought of Indiathat was strong in the eighthand ninth centuries. Theconcept is still alive in Bali inthe temples of Besakih,Mengui and the more recentone at Tanah Lot. Interest-ingly, Jayavarman rejectedVishnu but found Shivacompatible with Buddha,and in Indonesia a formlessShiva happily coexists withIslam! He probably foundAvalokiteshvara and Brah-


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Angkor Thom: Avalokiteshvaraoverlooking the eastern gateway

Banteay Srei: Millennium-old linteldepicting Ravana shaking Mount Kailas

ma, the god of sustenance, similar and so built atemple to Brahma at Ta Prohm (literally, ‘An-cestor Brahma’). It has both Shaivite and Bud-dhist areas and a dancing hall where stoneapsaras dance. Thick tree roots intertwiningwith the stone structures hold the temple to-gether. The task of preserving this monumenthas now been delegated to Indian archaeolo-gists following a visit by former Indian primeminister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Throughout history attempts at religiousintegration has had its enemies with peoplechoosing strife for selfish reasons, and the timeof our story was no different. Still, it appears tohave succeeded in Angkor at least until the earlyfourteenth century when Indravarman III(1295-1307), a follower of Theravada Bud-dhism, ruled. After that there was a steady de-

cline. But Angkor remained the capital till1432 though subject to repeated aggres-sions. Then the Khmers gradually movedtowards Phnom Penh abandoning theirgreat city—and Mother Nature gatheredAngkor to her bosom, as it were, andguarded it with giant trees and dense jungle,thus preserving one of her unique civiliza-tions for posterity.

‘I Have to Win Sita Back’

After three days of continual walkingmy legs are aching. I sit in a teashop in thecentral plaza of Angkor Thom across the

Elephant Wall. The shopkeeper offers a largeglass of very dark tea with lemon and localsugar. It is very sweet but refreshing. The af-ternoon sun slants into the shop. The shop-keeper’s pretty thirteen-year-old daughtercomes and sits near me and, like all teenagers,laughs for no reason, bubbling with curiosity.She asks me where I come from. I look aroundat the scenery and reply, ‘From here.’ Shedoubles up with rippling laughter. I ask hername. ‘Sita’, she says. I say, ‘My name is Ram.Will you marry me?’ She lets out a peal oflaughter. Her mother, busy sorting vegeta-bles, admonishes her across the shop and theadoring father sitting at the table just smilesand looks on—it is a scene from eternity. Sitaasks, ‘Will you buy some souvenirs from me?’

‘I can buy you as a souvenir’, I reply. ‘Howmuch do you cost?’ There is great laughterall around and the girl runs away to herfriends. Then they come and encircle meand I stroke their heads. My mind floatsaway … I did not conquer this land, but itbecame mine. I won it with love. I sharedwith these people my heritage and theycherished it. Now they tell me ‘Ram isours.’ Maybe, today Ram is more theirsthan mine. I forgot this greatness of mineand became smaller and poorer. I have towin it back for my own survival andgrowth. I cannot afford to forget my littleSita. �


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Trees with giant roots springingfrom the walls of the Preah Ko temple

Angkor Wat: Apsarasin the inner sanctum of the central tower

Alaska!More than a Dream, So Close to Reality, and Yet So Unique

PRITHA LAL

The first thing I will always rememberabout Alaska will be the pearl-grey wa-ters of the Knik Arm reflecting the light

of the sun and the view from the plane window.It was breathtaking! It was the 10 p.m. Augustsun that shone over the Anchorage coastline.

The way it cast its mystical spell over the stillocean waters, I knew this was going to be differ-ent from any other place I had been to. And ittruly was. As soon as the plane touched down,there was a light drizzle—and then I saw it: alovely arch just outside the plane window.Yes, the rainbow said it all. This would be alovely trip. Alaska made me feel at homethat day with that rainbow and I know I willalways want to go back.

Anchorage is a nice quiet town. It hasthe downtown area, the corporate build-ings, a Sam’s Club and a Costco store; it alsohas Great Clips and Toys R Us. But beneathall that there is a starkness, a striking solitari-ness in the place that attracted me im-mensely. The vegetation is green, but notlush; there are flowers all over the place and

colours one would expect in the tropics. Itseemed as though the flowers had to bloom inall their glory and splendour for the little sum-mer sun they received, lest the snow and iceshould make visitors forget the lovely hues theybrought to the landscape. The local people are

so nice, the food is great, there are lovelyplaces to shop, and the museum is filledwith some really neat artefacts about theAlaskan Pipeline, the shaman spirits, the to-pography of the tundra, the life of the Eski-mos, etc.

The train ride from Anchorage toSeward was beyond words. One hears of theAlaskan cruises, but few people know of thebeauty of the Alaskan railroad as it traversesthrough the mountains from Anchorage toSeward. It hugs the coastline, overlooksdeep gorges and ravines, winds its waythrough hundreds of waterfalls, and comes

really close to glaciers. The landscape is green,filled with various types of evergreens, and thetrack is lined with wayside wild flowers.Fireweed is the most common wild flower one

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sees; these long magenta blossoms just seem topeep out of every nook and cranny and fill themountains with colourful patches.

The stillness and quiet of the mountains,the total wilderness in these areas is so calming… the mind just turns inwards and you findyourself saying a prayer for all that you havebeen blessed with, and for this opportunityto view nature in her glory and splendour.The camera will not—cannot—do justiceto the stark, lonesome beauty of this place.One can only try to bring back as manymemories as one can in little rolls of film oron digital memory cards.

The cruise along the fjords of Sewardwas quite an experience. Even the rain squalland the tumultuous ocean were not enoughto dampen the fun of viewing rocks coveredwith white seagulls, diving puffins, leapingsalmon, jellyfish, sea lions, mountain goatsalong the cliffs, some really interesting seaweeds… the list is endless.

Then came Denali. I had read about it,seen documentaries on it, but seeing it in per-son was a dream come true for me. The summitof Mount McKinley was covered with clouds,but the National Preserve is just huge and whatI could see that day was just a fraction of it. Iknow I have to go back for a week to really get afeel of the place.

Unlike in most national parks I have vis-

ited, the trail along the Savage River here is nota paved one, and that is what made it so muchfun. It felt as if you were making your own trail

through the wilderness as you hiked alongwith small furry animals and different typesof birds. And you really heard the sounds ofnature—the rippling river, the chatter ofsquirrels, the distant sound of rain—andsomewhere along you saw a moose or a cari-bou (but I have to go back to see a bear,though).

All the time in Denali, I really did notknow how to fathom the wilderness, whatto make of the quiet. I have been in wideopen spaces, whether it was the Grand Can-yon or the Zion National Park, the PacificCoast in Oregon or Interstate 1 through

California, the Swiss Alps or the English Chan-nel. I have always known what the places mademe feel. But Denali left me speechless—and

then I saw this quote at the visitor centre: ‘Thewilderness at Denali answers many questions forman, questions that man has not yet learned toask.’ That summed it up for me.

As my eyes scanned the August night skyfor a faint glimpse of the northern lights beforemy Delta flight took off for Salt Lake City, Iknew that somewhere deep inside, Alaska hadtouched my soul … and I knew I had to comeback for more. �


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The Many-splendouredRamakrishna-Vivekananda Vedanta - II

DR M SIVARAMKRISHNA

The Supernatural

What has Sri Ramakrishna to do withthe supernatural, the miraculous? Itis part of his uniqueness that he was

totally against any miracle- or mystery-monger-ing. That is the point which makes him figurein The Oxford Book of the Supernatural (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1994). In thismassive anthology of 555 pages, the editor—adistinguished litterateur, D J Enright—cites apassage in the section entitled ‘Miracles andPrognostications’. Enright obviously was notdirectly familiar with Ramakrishna. He citesMichael Edwards, the famous historian, who inturn cites from Max Muller’s Sri Ramakrishna:His Life and Work. And the passage is: ‘Thenineteenth-century Indian mystic Ramakrish-na used to tell his disciples of the man who hadspent years acquiring the power of walking onwater. Crossing a river on foot, the man wentproudly to his guru only to be told, “My poorboy, what you have accomplished after four-teen years’ arduous labour, ordinary men do bypaying a penny to the boatman.”’ I was not ableto consult Michael Edwards’s book The DarkSide of History (1978), otherwise I would haveknown the context in which he quoted MaxMuller.

This is an interesting dimension: Westernwriters on Ramakrishna are struck by his totalindifference to the aspect of siddhis. Not thatsuch powers did not exist in Ramakrishna (quitea few are cited in Swami Abhedananda’s My LifeStory), but he regarded them as by-productswhich, far from having any significance for, arepositively inimical to the spiritual life.

In contrast, we have the Master figuring attwo places in a big-sized book which, running

into 607 pages, is remarkable in many ways. It iscalled Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred inEveryday Life. Described by Nancy Brook as abook ‘that will sustain you for years to come’, itis regarded as ‘a banquet for the soul’ by Law-rence Kushner. ‘Using more than 650 brief ex-amples from contemporary books and movies,[the passages] tutor us in the art of lingeringwith experiences and seeing the world withfresh eyes. They present spiritual perspectiveson things, places, nature, animals, leisure, cre-ativity, service, body, relationships and com-munity. The Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy de-scribes the key spiritual practices—from atten-tion to zeal—that spell meaning in daily life.’

Grace and Service

The editors, Frederic and Mary Ann Brus-sat, choose two passages from Ramakrishna (182,325). The first figures in the section on ‘Grace’:‘Ramakrishna declares, “The winds of grace arealways blowing, but you have to raise the sail.”’

‘The world’s religions all recognize the im-portance of service to others’, say the editorsand quote a story illustrating this: ‘MythologistJoseph Campbell tells a story on this point. Atroubled woman came to the Indian sageRamakrishna saying, “O Master, I do not findthat I love God.” He asked, “Is there nothing,then, that you love?” She responded, “My littlenephew.” And he said to her, “There is yourlove and service to God, in your love and serviceto that child”’ (325).

In short, grace and service are the basic let-ters in the alphabet of spiritual literacy. Onemore thing to be noted is: generally it is a ‘com-patriot’ whose ‘commendation’ of Ramakrish-na is the reason which makes editors/authors

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quote him. That is, such writers may or may nothave read the original sources. This is an inter-esting phenomenon: Ramakrishna becomingthe exemplar of a universal context either of aspiritual or a mystical nature. The pathologicalconcern for original authentic texts is refresh-ingly absent here.

Recently I was surprised by an amazing co-incidence. I was casually looking at a bookwhich I had with me for quite some time. Its ti-tle is Inevitable Grace. ‘Grace’ again. Written byDr Piero Ferrucci ‘a leading European psycho-therapist’, the book ‘presents research on themost significant and beautiful experiences inthe lives of 500 men and women of varioustimes and cultures—sages, artists, scientists,mystics, pioneers, political leaders and ath-letes—and discusses in detail their abilities’.The author ‘shows that transpersonal experi-ences such as creative inspiration, ecstasy and il-lumination, rather than being the monopoly ofa few exceptional people are our common heri-tage, and the truest expression of our being—natural, simple states within reach of us all’.

One thing which strikes us in this descrip-tion is the figuring of Ramakrishna among sci-entists, political leaders and even athletes—con-texts which we usually assume are secular. Thefirst mention of the Great Master is in the ‘Wayof Illumination’ (chapter 3; 122-3). ‘Thebreakthrough’ in this path, says Dr Ferrucci,‘comes as the result of a search in the dark. TheIndian sage Ramakrishna likens it to the experi-ence of a burglar feeling his way around a roomin the dark touching one object after another;he says neti, neti to himself—“not this, notthat.” He then comes across the gem he hadbeen looking for and recognizing it [at] once,rejoices: “This is it!”’ In short, ‘the point of ar-rival is the point of departure’.

The next context is the ‘Way of Science’. Itis an extremely fascinating and right now themost relevant area: science as a way of illumina-tion. The author, with his characteristic in-sight, observes that he proposed to ‘discuss a ba-sic attitude in this path’ [of science] which is

‘intellectual honesty’. And using ‘analogy andchance’ he tries to ‘show that scientific work is amuch subtler process than mere logical reason-ing and systematic observation—that there ismadness in this method’. Finally, ‘tackling thenext subject, discipline’, he ‘brings to light themore balanced and systematic side of science.Finally, by looking into curiosity and wonder inscientists, we reach the transpersonal roots ofscientific research.’

Discipline

It is in these frames of analysis that DrFerrucci cites Ramakrishna and Vivekananda(section on ‘Discipline’) alongside Isadora (thedancer), Renoir (the painter), Napoleon, Pedrode Alcantara (the Spanish mystic) and Rein-hold Messner (the South Tyrolean mountain-eer): ‘The Indian yogi Swami Vivekanandacomplained to the sage Ramakrishna, histeacher, that the noise from a nearby jute fac-tory disturbed his meditation. Ramakrishnaadvised him to concentrate on the noise it-self—and the problem was solved.’

The way in which the allegedly ‘spiritual’arena of Ramakrishna’s ‘divine play’ and itsbenchmark of ‘discipline’ now becomes thecommon denominator of creative achievementin almost all fields is remarkable! Could anyoneimagine the Great Master appearing alongsideNapoleon and a mountaineer? Perhaps, in thissense, it is necessary to have a re-look at scienceand spirituality. The equation could be scienceis spirituality. Indeed, if every soul is potentiallydivine and the Divine manifests in myriadways, what is outside its purview? Here is in-sider/outsider, the One and the other are lin-guistic games, if not gallows!

Devotion

The next area is the ‘Way of Devotion’.Here the motif is ‘surrender’. Surrender is seenin many ways: for Jalaluddin Rumi, it is ‘be-coming an instrument in the hands of God’, ‘aharp upon which the Divine played wonderfulmelodies. Yet others have thought of surrender


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in terms of death. In dying one becomes inani-mate, like a stone or a piece of wood.’ After thiscomment, Dr Ferrucci quotes Ramakrishna:‘Live in the world like a dead leaf. As a dead leafis carried by the wind into a house or on theroadside and has no choice of its own, so let thewind of Divine Will blow you wherever itchooses’ (269).

Finally the Master and Swamiji figureagain when Dr Ferrucci describes visions as oneof the characteristics of ‘Transpersonal Experi-ence’. Initially, the doctor draws a distinctionbetween ‘intuition’ and ‘full-blown enlighten-ment’. ‘Intuition’, he says, ‘is seeing a truth for amoment at a distance; enlightenment meanscomplete fusion of the I with the Self-gnosis. Itis a form of knowledge that transforms theknower more than any other.’

The author provides a detailed account ofthe ‘encounter’ between the Master and his dis-ciple and also notes that Narendra was predis-posed to ‘visionary experience’ even before hemet the Master. And ‘when they met, Rama-krishna turned to him and, following an ancientIndian custom of physical contact between mas-ter and disciple, placed his right foot on theyoung man.’ What happened next is quoted inNarendra’s own words: ‘Immediately I had awonderful experience. My eyes were wide openand I saw that everything in the room, includ-ing the walls themselves, was whirling rapidlyaround and receding, and at the same time, itseemed to me that my consciousness of self, to-gether with the entire universe, was about tovanish into a vast, all-devouring void. This de-struction of my consciousness of self seemed tome to be the same thing as death’ (331).

‘A short time later’, says Dr Ferrucci, theMaster touched him again and ‘with that mar-velous touch of the Master’, Narendra’s ‘mindunderwent a complete revolution’. There was‘nothing whatsoever in the entire universe butGod … everything I saw was God.’

Thus the Great Master is cited in contextsconcerned with: i) creative inspiration, ii) theway of science, iii) discipline, iv) the way of de-

votion, v) surrender, and vi) experienceInevitable Grace, from which I drew these

details, also interests us in another aspect: I wascurious to know whether Dr Ferrucci was fa-miliar with the sources in English. The onlysource noted is ‘Ramakrishna, Sri, Alla Ricercadi Dio. Jean Herbert, ed. Roma: Ubaldini,1963’. All subsequent quotations are, I pre-sume, from this book. Inevitable Grace is itselftranslated from the Italian by David Kennard(Weelingborough: Crucible/The Aquarian Press;Los Angeles: Jeremy P Tarcher, Inc., 1990).

Visionary experience is the motif againwhich Richard Lannoy—his earlier work, TheSpeaking Tree (Oxford: 1971, 1999), remains aclassic study of Indian culture and society—cites in his recent book: Benaras: A WorldWithin a World—The Microcosm of Kashi Yes-terday and Today (Varanasi: India Books,2002). Interestingly enough, this also refers tothe motif of death, which I noted earlier. De-scribing the Master’s experience Lannoy says:

In the center of the complex is the temple ofTarakeshwar. When the Hindus die in the vicin-ity of Manikarnika, Taraka, a form of Shiva, isbelieved to whisper in his ear the Taraka mantra,which is of such power that it delivers him fromall further rebirth. There is a story that the greatBengali saint, Ramakrishna, while on a boatpassing Manikarnika ghat … was carried at onceinto visionary trance. He saw Parvati fill a shellwith nectar and hand it to Shiva, who bent downand poured it into the right ear of a dying manwhile whispering the Taraka mantra. (161)

In a comparable (but a more fascinatinglyinward) study of Varanasi—Banaras: City ofLight (Princeton: 1992)—Diana L Eck cites thesame episode, but with a variation. In his vision,according to this version, ‘The goddess Anna-purna held in her lap the body of a dead man,while Shiva knelt to whisper the Taraka mantrain his ear. It is little wonder that death is said tolose its terror in Kashi for Shiva will be presentand will speak into one’s ear all one needs toknow’ (332). And it is Shiva who provides thelink for our next contemplation on the radianteternity. �

The Many-splendoured Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Vedanta - II 429

53 PB - JULY 2006

� Reviews �

For review in PRABUDDHA BHARATApublishers need to send two copies of their latest publications.

PB - JULY 2006 54

In Search of Our Nationalist Roots for aPhilosophy of Education. RamakrishnaMission Institute of Culture, Gol Park,Kolkata 700 029. E-mail: [email protected]. 234 pp. Rs 50.

Our system of education usually comes in formuch discussion, debate, dissent and delibera-

tion—it is a topic which has temporality at all times.The colonizer’s impact on the system is often de-cried and nostalgia for the ancient systems surfaces.Much blame for the flaws in our system is laid at thedoor of Macaulay, who may have made a monu-mental mistake in his intent of mass-producingclerks, but who did bring about some positive resultby giving the ‘window’ of the English language tothe Indian people, through which we continue to in-teract with each other—as the seminar, the paperspresented at which form this volume, confirms.However, that is an old story when the presentthreat to establishing a more viable/meaningful sys-tem seems to come from the demands of MNCs andBPOs which insist on clones of a talking machine toserve as an extension of their telephones. But em-ployment being the logical culmination of any exer-cise in education, however idealistically one relatesthe process to the acquisition of knowledge and wis-dom, thinkers are constantly in search of that kind ofscheme which actualizes the best of the inherent po-tential in the human species, honed by the process ofan exceptional educational method.

The present volume is one such attempt at gen-erating ideas on what our nationalistic ideals can doto make the system acquire efficacy at a point whensome basic questions/doubts are being raised aboutthe finished product which this education bringsout. The volume is comprehensive in its sweep as itincludes some of the major nationalist thinkers whohave had a sizeable responsibility in formulating ide-als about education and some of whom have also hadthe opportunity to implement these in concreteform. Consisting of nine scholarly presentations, theessays include the educational philosophy of

Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Tagore, Gandhi, J Krish-namurti, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, and SatisChandra Mukherjee.

Beginning with Swami Prabhanandaji’s wel-come address, where he mentions the ‘need to con-sider the goals of education conceived in relation tosociety and the individual … [and] the relevance ofits contents as a set of principles and criteria’ andcontinuing in the inaugural address of Prof. D PChattopadhyay, who distinguishes between criterialike shiksha and vidya, the volume goes on to detailvarious philosophies of education propounded bythe above-mentioned nationalists. The first two es-says are on Swami Vivekananda’s insights into edu-cation: one by Swami Muktidananda on the variousprocesses that are actually carried out to make edu-cation according to Swamiji’s ideals a means of com-plete holistic development in Ramakrishna Mathand Mission institutions; and the other by SwamiAtmapriyananda, entitled ‘Swami Vivekananda’sEducational Thoughts’, which stresses the need fordevelopment of personality by making a scholarlythesis with relevant quotes, like this illuminatingone from Sister Nivedita: ‘Our conception of educa-tion must have a soul. It must form a unity. It musttake note of the child as a whole, as heart as well asmind, will as well as mind and heart.’

These are followed by essays on the other think-ers: Prof. Ananda Reddy, Founder Director of SriAurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, Pondi-cherry, speaks about the evolution of consciousnessas the cornerstone of Aurobindo’s philosophy whereeducation is a step towards supramental transforma-tion. Prof. Sisir Kumar Das speaks about Tagore’sconception of education and its concretizations inthe form of Shantiniketan and Vishwa-Bharati andhighlights the need for freedom: ‘What Tagore de-cries is the paraphernalia of the teaching system, thecomplete divorce between the world around and theworld of books and the total neglect of the sensibilityof the child.’

The second part of the volume begins with Prof.Satindranath Chakravarti’s essay entitled ‘Gandhiji

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Reviews 431

The Sterling Book of Buddha and HisTeachings. Kingsley Heendeniya. SterlingPublishers, A-59 Okhla Industrial Area,Phase II, New Delhi 110 020. E-mail:[email protected]. 2004. 128 pp. Rs 99.

Dr Kingsley Heendeniya’s book makes a very co-gent and moving presentation of the ideas of

the great ancient teacher Buddha. In the openingchapter Heendeniya states that his analysis and pre-sentation of Buddha’s ideas will depend on the writ-ings and explication of the Pali canon of Buddhisttexts provided by two English Buddhist monks,

Nyanavira Thera and Nyanamoli Thera, who jetti-soned much in this canon that they felt were not thedirect words of Buddha. Some of the most usefultexts according to Nyanavira Thera are the Vinaya-pitaka, Dhammapada, Suttavibhanga, Itivuttaka,Udana, and Thera-theri-gatha. Heendeniya statesthat the Buddhist teaching or Dhamma departs aftera certain stage from inferential thinking to ‘intuitionand insight’, and that the teaching is patisotagami or‘against the stream’ of conventional thinking (9). Healso emphasizes that, for Buddha, language was im-portant only insofar as it explicated ideas and not foritself, and that if he was interested in various phe-nomena, it was not for the sake of the phenomena,but for explicating his central concern: ‘dukkha andthe cessation of dukkha’ (10).

The most important section of the book is chap-ter four, entitled ‘The Buddha’s Concept of Duk-kha’, which offers the reader Buddha’s definition ofdukkha as ‘the five aggregates of form, feeling, per-ception, determinations and consciousness affectedby holding [upadana]’ (34). Heendeniya explainsthat these become dukkha because they are related tothe body. In other words, dukkha depends on the‘primordial ignorance’ that ‘this body is mine’ (34).Buddha’s antidote to dukkha is meditation.

In the chapter ‘The Concept of Self in the Dha-mma’, the author points to the statement ‘N’etammama, n’esoham asmi, n’eso me atta’, meaning ‘Notthis is mine; not this am I; not this is my self’, as therefrain that runs through the Buddhist Dhamma. Ithighlights Buddha’s repeated assertion that ‘form,feeling, perception, consciousness’ are not the selfand can never be the self. For the Buddhist arhat orseer, the ultimate moment of knowledge is anatta,which is perception of the not-self. However, asHeendeniya explains, this is not an easy moment tograsp either physically or mentally. At the momentof the arhat’s understanding the not-self, there is noself involved. There is simply presence, a ‘directknowledge—without the intervention of a subject,without a reference point—totally absolute’ (53).This I take, although the text doesn’t make it abso-lutely clear, is what the lay person understands bythe Buddhist concept of nirvana.

At the outset of this chapter, Heendeniya statesthat after the passing away of Buddha, it was the lackof clarity about anatta that led its brahmin critics todemolish it as a philosophical system. FollowingNyanavira Thera, he explicates anatta by citing LeMythe de Sisphe (The Myth of Sisyphus) by Albert

on Education’ in which, he says, ‘Realism, idealismand pragmatism fuse into a unity.’ Talking about‘Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray’s Ideas on Educa-tion and Nation-building’ Prof. Sushil KumarMukherjee highlights the need to abolish futile exer-cises such as compulsory lectures and fixed courses,and suggests that we aim to make ‘the universities …storehouse[s] of intellect’. Prof. Haridas Mukherjeespeaks about ‘Satis Chandra Mukherjee and Na-tional Education’, where he hails this educationist asan ‘idealist and epoch-maker in politics … and …educational benefactor’ who conceived of a nationaleducation thus: ‘It was a three-dimensional systemof education—literary combined with scientific andtechnical—on national lines and exclusively undernational control, not in opposition to, but standingapart from, the existing systems of Primary, Second-ary and University education.’ Prof. K Krishna,Trustee of Krishnamurti Foundation, speaks of ‘Ed-ucation for Transformation of Consciousness’,where he says: ‘The test of right education today iswhether it is producing good planetary citizens.’

These presentations are followed by an extensivesection on discussions which is very interesting. Ofcourse, there are certain points which need to be de-bated, like the mention of vernacular education,vocationalization and such others; but I am sure thata visionary of the stature of Prabhanandaji willsurely think of extending the scope of a seminar likethe present one by organizing a sequel to this ‘searchfor the philosophy of education’ in the form of‘Pragmatics of Education’, which can take the formof a workshop rather than a seminar—and I for onewould love to participate in it.

Dr Sumita RoyAssociate Professor, Department of English

Osmania University, Hyderabad

PB - JULY 2006 56


Camus: ‘For if I try to grasp this self of which I amassured, if I try to define it and to sum it up, it is nomore than a liquid that flows between my fingers. …This same heart which is mine will ever remain forme undefinable. Between the certainty that I have ofmy existence, and the content that I strive to givethis assurance, the gap will never be filled. Alwaysshall I be a stranger to myself …’ (54).

This chapter closes with Heendeniya striving toshow how Buddha, in not answering the ultimatequestion of Being, was in line with most modernphilosophers like Nietzsche and Heidegger.

The text, while spelling out some of the centralissues of Buddhist epistemology and ontology, re-veals the contemporaneity of Buddhism, with thespirit of philosophical skepticism that is prevalent inthe Western world today. However, the analyses ofthe impermanent nature of consciousness, feelingand perception, and the impermanence of all formsof life and action, indicate the value of Buddhism fordispassionate and serene conduct in the world of ev-eryday matters.

Dr Sreemati MukherjeeHead, Department of EnglishBasanti Devi College, Kolkata

The Healing Breath: Breathing Techniquesfor Better Health. Luis S R Vas. New AgeBooks, A-44 Naraina Phase I, New Delhi110 028. E-mail: nab@vsnl. com. 2004. v +112 pp. Rs150.

Proper breathing is essential for our overall physi-cal, mental, emotional and even spiritual health

and well-being. Unfortunately, modern lifestyle issometimes so hectic, stressful and demanding thatone has little time to pay attention to such simplethings. Air pollution, unhealthy eating and sleepinghabits, lack of physical exercise and the like have anadverse impact on health. Neglect and ignorance ofthe importance of proper breathing only makethings worse. The Healing Breath is a valuable bookfor such people as it describes the numerous benefitsof simple breathing techniques which can beadopted to promote general health as well as preventor cure various diseases. The breathing techniqueshave been discussed from the viewpoint of bothmedical science and traditional yoga.

The book begins with a discussion on the physi-ology of breathing describing the anatomical struc-tures involved, the stages and types, and the process

of breathing. It explains the importance of the fourstages of breathing—inhalation, full pause, exhala-tion and empty pause—from the perspectives ofyoga (pranayama) and medical science. The ill-ef-fects of improper breathing on the body and mindare discussed. Brief explanations of the techniquesand benefits of a few traditional yogic breathing ex-ercises are given. The author explains the impor-tance, benefits and techniques of deep, slow andrhythmic breathing in proper postures. While dis-cussing the yogic breathing exercises such as nostrilbreathing, loud breathing, teeth-hissing breathing,tongue-hissing breathing, bellows, etc. the authorhas taken the precaution of mentioning the eightgeneral principles to be followed in order to avoidthe dangers of overdoing the exercises in anticipa-tion of quick results. However, it is always advisableto do pranayama exercises under the guidance of acompetent teacher. The chapter on ‘correctivebreathing therapy’ with reference to respiration andvoice production is quite informative. The positiveeffect of proper breathing on the mind is explainedin the chapter on ‘meditative breathing’ and the au-thor supports this with the results of research on thesame subject at Harvard’s mind/body clinic.

The book is an informative and instructive guidefor anyone who is interested in improving his or herhealth through proper breathing techniques.

Swami TadanandaRamakrishna Math

Belur, Howrah

Books Received

Beyond Shirdi. K Venkataraman. Bhara-tiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati Munshi Marg,Mumbai 400 007. E-mail: [email protected]. 2004. xiv + 146 pp. Rs 135.

A collection of short stories based on incidents inthe lives of devotees testifying to the perpetual pres-ence of Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi.

The Legendary Glory of Hanuman. Comp.and trans. Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia. 36-ARajghat Colony, Parikrama Marg, POAyodhya, Faizabad 224 123. 2004. iii + 87pp. Rs 51.

A compilation of important scriptural texts per-taining to Mahavir Hanuman.

ReportsNew Math Centre

The Vedanta Center of St Petersburg,Florida, USA, has been made a branch centre ofthe Ramakrishna Math. Its address is: VedantaCenter of St Petersburg, 216 19th AvenueSoutheast, St Petersburg, Florida 33705, USA

(Phone: 727-896-9840; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.ramakrishna.org/florida.htm). Swami Yuktatmananda has beenappointed head of the centre.

News from Branch Centres

Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj, GeneralSecretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakri-shna Mission, opened the newly built dispen-sary building at Ramakrishna Mission Ash-rama, Chapra, on 1 April 2006.

Janab Ahmad Hassan, Uttar PradeshMinister for Family Welfare, visited Ramakri-shna Mission Sevashrama, Lucknow, on 6April and inaugurated a seminar on ‘Com-puter-navigated Surgery in Joint Replacement’at Vivekananda Polyclinic.

Swami Smarananandaji opened a new an-nexe to Shivananda Sadan (junior boys’ hostel)at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia,on 6 April. On the same day he also inaugu-rated a bathing ghat at the Vidyapith.

Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Chandi-

garh, observed its annual celebrations from 7 to11 April. Eminent persons who addressed thepublic meetings held on the occasion includedDr A R Kidwai, Governor of Haryana, Gen.(Retd) Rodrigues, Governor of Punjab, JusticeSmt. Ruma Pal, Judge, Supreme Court, DrAruna Goel, Head of the Department of San-skrit, Panjab University, and Dr A C Julka,Head of the Department of Economics, PanjabUniversity.

Sri H D Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister ofKarnataka, and his cabinet colleagues visitedRamakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum, on 8April and distributed 50 tricycles and 25 wheel-chairs to 75 physically challenged persons.

Achievements

Master Siddhartha Kuila, a Class 11 stu-dent of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Pur-ulia, won the gold medal at an all-India es-say-writing competition on ‘Wildlife and Envi-ronment’ conducted by the Indian Centre forWildlife and Environmental Studies.

Master Debanjan Basu, a Class 12 studentof Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar,was awarded the Krishi Vignan Pratibha YojanaFellowship by the Satyendra Nath Bose Centrefor Basic Sciences, Kolkata, an autonomousbody under the Ministry of Science and Tech-nology, Government of India.

Students from the schools run by Rama-krishna Mission Ashrama, Cherrapunji, se-cured the top seven positions in the 2005 upperprimary school scholarship examination con-ducted by the Meghalaya Board of SecondaryEducation.

Sri Arjun Munda, Chief Minister ofJharkhand, visited Ramakrishna Mission Ash-rama, Ranchi, on 11 April and attended thevaledictory function of a paramedical-entrepre-neurship training programme organized by thecentre. He also presented 42 trainees with cer-

57 PB - JULY 2006

tificates, bicycles and health kits.

Relief and Rehabilitation

Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Vrin-daban, distributed 125 packets of cooked food,30 loaves of bread, 1,175 kg of foodstuffs (in-cluding rice, flour, dal, potatoes, onions, oiland salt), 200 bananas, 25 blankets, 75 saris, 25chadars and 25 bars of soap to 25 families ofGantoli village near Govardhan in Mathuradistrict whose houses were gutted by a fire.

Ramakrishna Mission, Limbdi, com-pleted its project of dredging ponds in Rang-pur, Sejakpur, Mulbhavala and Devpara vil-lages of Surendranagar district.

Flood Rehabilitation in Maharashtra

During the torrential rains of July-Sep-tember 2005 many villages of Maharashtra lo-cated on the banks of the Godavari and theKrishna were flooded. Standing crops were ru-ined and people living in mud-brick houseswere faced with the problem of collapses.

After short primary-relief missions,Ramakrishna Math, Pune, extended its workin Kolhapur, Sangli and Raigad districts by dis-tributing food and clothing items. During theirvisits to the affected places, the monks and vol-unteers came across several villages which hadproved too inaccessible to other governmentand non-government agencies.

After a thorough investigation, the Punecentre’s relief team chose three villages—Peth-map, Ramoshiwadi and Kumbharwadi—inChiplun taluk of Ratnagiri district that neededhelp most. In Pethmap, the Marathi MiddleSchool was severely damaged: doors and win-dows had been torn apart and the furnitureswept away, causing the only school servingPethmap and the surrounding villages to stopfunctioning. Most of the economically back-

ward people of Ramoshiwadi and Kumbhar-wadi, who mainly worked as hired agriculturallabourers, had lost their homes and were livingin tents.

The centre appealed for funds from Indiaand abroad and, with help from headquarters,started reconstruction of the school and buildingnew houses for the victims. Under a ‘Build YourOwn House’ scheme it provided required build-ing material to the affected people and com-pleted construction of 41 houses (work is inprogress on 4 more), each covering an area of ap-proximately 300 square feet in, record time. Theschool was rebuilt and furnished even earlier.

On 12 May 2006 Swami Gautamananda-ji, President, Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, vis-ited the newly built school in Pethmap. Later,in Kumbharwadi, monks of the Pune centreplaced pictures of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri SaradaDevi and Swami Vivekananda and performedbrief pujas in each house. Swami Gautamanan-daji presided over a public function in Chiplunat which he handed over the keys to the familieswhose houses had been rebuilt.

For the monks and volunteers of Ramakri-shna Math, Pune, the happy faces of the recipi-ents and their blessings in the name of SriRamakrishna are mementos of the occasion. ~

PB - JULY 2006 58


Correction

In Swami Chetananandaji’s article ‘Ramakrishna: His Name and the Science of Japa’ (April

2006) Vijay Krishna Goswami was mentioned as the author of Ritambhara (271). The author of

Ritambhara is Bijoykrishna Chattopadhyay.

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