Jai Jagannatha - The Lord Who Never Disappoints!

It’s been a year with the Gods, I spent time with them more than I spent time with people. I lived with them, thought about them, loved them, prayed to them, adored them, sang to them... it has been so fulfilling and they didn’t disappoint. Lord Shiva, Ma Tara, Ma Kamakshi, Ma Kali are real in my head, more real than you and me. But recently circumstances presented themselves, events unfolded and I found myself heading to the temple of Puri more often than I had planned for. 

The larger picture is starting to get clear, the play of fate is a game am slowly getting to understand. There is a way to control things and not let it unfold as it feeds on our temperament. That’s when we rise towards being higher than just human. In this subtle reality, the mind has to work harder but if the heart is in the right place, it’s completely doable. Astrology helps to give direction, lets you know what’s coming but doesn’t get down to the depth of it...it lets you figure it out. And when the Daksha of fate comes to challenge us, hang on...face him with the army of Gods to support. Lord Shiva will come, or he will send someone. In my case, he sent Lord Jagannatha... and he didn't disappoint. 

I speak of a subtle reality, which has now become very loud. In my consciousness everyone around me now has become an actor, of a larger play and I am in it. Life has started to look up, people hardly matter for now my enemy is within, it’s me, it’s my fate... can I change it? I believe I can.

When we keep faith, when we surrender completely, I mean completely without doubts the Lord will act on it. And it’s an intoxication, the mind hardly wants to come back and live in this world. The other world is just more beautiful. Am I hallucinating, I wasn’t sure but when Lord Jagannatha just kept coming back I was certain, this is for real. Yes the heart has to be in love with him, the mind has to be persuasive and the magic of living can bring all the difference. Its deep, it’s fulfilling and it’s beyond human frivolousness. We are capable, more capable than we thought. 

The calling is strong, very strong and I just end up following my heart. Puri, land of the great Lord, a bustling temple swarming with people and with monkeys. Lord Rama is there with his Vanar sena, Lord Shiva has descended from Kasi, Lord Hanuman has come from the east gate and Goddess Mahalakshmi is seated on her throne. This dham, one among four, is the great seat of Lord Jagannatha, Neela Madhava... oh the bhava of surrender is just so amazing as we make our way into the sacred sanctum of the Lord who stands with Subhadra and Balarama. 

It’s a quiet chamber with a bit of day light streaming in and the lamp lights brighten up the interior. Ignore the sounds of the people and then you can feel the silence. Jagannatha stands there, with his hands spread out, with his eyes that don’t ever close, with his heart that is ever open to receive if we are willing to give. HE is my Jagannatha, my dear Lord, who called me again and again to visit him, to be with him, to surrender to him and to leave my heart behind with him for safe keeping. In this world of divinity, full of energy and divine secrets, its his home and its my home, my Hrydaya Kamalam where he resides, where Lord Shiva resides, where I have chosen to merge with him. 

Lord Jagannatha never disappoints, if we let go He will come to protect. Jai Jagannath!

Om Na Mo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Vaital Deul - The art of conquering fear

Vaital Deul temple stands silent along the bustling streets of Bhubaneshwar, it is a contrast from the world we are in today and the world that once was. The landscape of the day has completely changed with buildings rising around this quaint ambiance but the image of this quiet locality must have been quite different during the old days. Vaital Deul, sharing its compound with Sisireshwar temple, would have been shrouded among dense forests with a possible pathway leading up to this shrine.

Tantrik cults have ruled this temple for long and their main deity of worship has been Chamunda devi. While the exteriors of this temple are covered with innocent looking kanyas luring the passerby to these temples, what lies inside looks far more fearsome.

In Indian spiritualism, there is no room for feelings of fear or attachment. In fact our scriptures repeatedly advice us to get over these emotions over a period of time. These forms of Devi and Shiva, of Kali, Bhairava and Chamunda bring in feelings of fear when viewed by the ignorant eye, but to the aspirant who loves and views them in bhakti, the emotions reach a state of sublime that supersedes the average emotions that rule us. Its similar to the emotion of indescribable love a mother feels towards her potentially ugly baby as compare to the judgemental view an onlooker takes towards the same child. We have innumerable examples of Shiva and Shakti in Ghora rupa, displaying actions of gore like consumption of blood and mutilating the body of the sacrificed, living in formidable locations like the shamshan ghat and waking up in the night to be worshiped by their devotees. There must have been a meaning to all this.

Vaital Deul is one such potent example of a Shakti sthal converted to a hard core location for strict, deep rooted tantrik practices for the worship of the Mother, in one of her many forms. The temple itself has a silent aura of mysticism with a luring exterior of the most ravishing Kanyas. But when we step inside, the view changes everything. Shiva, the Durgas, Sapta Matrikas, Varaha, Ganesha form the pantheon that welcomes us, but with a difference. They appear far more scary than what we in "civilized society" are used to. It is almost a reflection of the Jewish Sabbat - the dance with Satan. While the imagery is dangerously close involving sexuality and potential blood rituals, the rules and beliefs are completely different.  

Hinduism depicts the vanquishing of evil in this imagery, where killing is incidental, but the method is explicit. These emaciated sculptures of Chamunda and Bhairava dance around with fire bowls, holding decapitated heads and a sickle for more blood coupled with scenes of copulation all in the name of victory. They scream out not just the destruction of evil but the path to higher super bliss through what appears to be bizarre rituals. But why are they bizarre? Its a method, like any other strong school of thought with its own set of beliefs, just more daring in areas sparingly visited.

Pure spiritualism has no room for bias, lack of bhakti, easy nirvana or just the mechanical art of worshiping a wish fulfilling tree to bear fruit. We have strong contradictions, seriously controversial rules that fight the battle of what pure faith really is. Conquest of fear, of attachment, of temptations and of discipline is the bottom line of all the rituals that build up Hindu spiritual art of worship. Be it the worship of Chamunda and Kala Bhairava or be it the worship of Shiva and Parvati, the mind has to be tamed and the methods could be varied to cross this ocean. To some the path is acceptable within the realm of society and to others the path blatantly addresses human nature in its many aspects.

Vaital Deul temple depicts Chamunda in her gory best, with dancing ghosts and goblins hitting the drums of victory around her. In the darkness of this small temple, with hardly any windows to bring in daylight, the appearance of the Goddess in the lamp light can trigger the emotion of fear and echo the thought of death in our heads for longer than we ever felt it. The thought here is not about death as much as it is about the eeriness of the ambiance that calls death upon us. Vaital Deul has been active in history with blood sacrifices more in the order of humans than lambs and other creatures. The aura of this temple can brings shivers to the mind and the only way a person can beat this creeping eeriness is vanquish the very emotion that encourages weakness out of its presence. Vaital Deul is a good example of a temple that creates the aura of gore and fear to make the onlooker realize their emotions and not fall prey to them. Its a classical test towards attaining higher bliss by inducing contemplation to conquer our mortal emotions.

The thought of contemplation now should ideally change from the fear and shock of the unknown to peace and bliss over the surprises the Supreme forces throw on us to make us realize how inadequate we are to proceed on our spiritual journey.

Photo courtesy: Indira Gandhi National Center of the Arts

Related blogs:
Shakti Peetha, Chamundeshwari - Chamundi Hill, Mysore 
A night with Nava Shakti - Chamunda.
Chaunsath Yogini temple

64 Yoginis dance with Bhairava

Please click on the photographs to enlarge them
64 Yoginis come into focus when references are made to the dark side of Tantricism. The cult of tantrics profusely flourished in the 8th century where it reached its peak. Today we have just 4 of these temples scattered across our indian landscape. Two of these are located in Orissa at Hirapur and Ranipur Jharial, one is in Madhya Pradesh in Bheraghat temple and one supposedly in Tamil Nadu.

64 Yoginis appear like they are in a wild trance with Lord Shiva. Here the rhythms are quite different, the music is stranger and the flavour is wild. Bhavabhuti once expressed in the Malathi Madhava, the very same beauty of these Kanyas in the rituals of tantricism associated with the Mother Goddess, though the tantric played a villainous role of attempting human sacrifice. This is not a celebration of the infamous ritual practice but a poetic peep into this world of Gods and Goddesses, a part of our better known Shiva and Kali.
The focus is on the cosmic truth, the only truth that lies in front of us that we run away from - Death. The form of the Lord here is Bhairava who brings us face to face with this truth. Truth is indigestible and this probably needs a different kind of understanding. Bhairava is charming and wild as a thought but coming face to face with Bhairava means playing with fire. Bhairava, popularly depicted as a naked mendicant, like Bhikshatana with a dog on his side and jatas in flames, a face with fangs and a fierce expression, one we would barely call charming. Bhairava teaches the art of Mrithyunjaya, or the conquest of death, which is our only redemption.


The chaunsat yogini temple of Hirapur is roofless and gives the impression of a womb. 64 goddesses circle its sacred enclosure within whose center stands a platform for ancient Tantric sacrifices or may once have hosted Lord Bhairava who is now missing. Here feminine beauty is not just depicted with care but is worshipped with as much ferver. The Goddess is depicted with her assets enhanced, her power and strength, her attributes completely sculpted to perfection emphasize the miracle of life and procreation. Ajaikapada Bhairava or the one legged Bhairava is depicted in one of the niches of this temple.

At the Chaunsat Yogini temple of Ranipur its a little different. These 64 yoginis are sensuous maidens who dance with the Lord in Odissi, a wilder and more terrifying form is depicted as compare to the familiar sweeter Krishna Leela. Here is passion of a different kind that celebrates procreation in a different form, far more raw and probably indigestible to our minds today.

Here too there is life, there is pleasure and warmth with the Lord and the Goddesses. It gives a feeling of awe, of something mysterious and sacred. Bhairava takes center stage at the Chaunsat Yogini temple in Ranipur. He stands within his mandapa, in a fierce fiery dance revealing the truth of procreation and death.

In the crackling flames that light up this deserted temple we witness 64 maidens almost naked dance the Odissi, like Kanyas, with complete grace around Bhairava. As the smoke rises and transforms this roofless temple into a magical theater, 64 dancing damsels create life with the Lord. With sentuality in the air, red bangles cling creating music so wild, so powerful and so potent, this is a different world of the living. This is a wild world of Shiva Leela, a little beyond our conditioned imagination! These powers came alive as human blood once flowed through in offering.

To the great Lord Mrithyunjaya, O Bhairava
Who holds the truth to us so clear
That we crumble before His burning eyes
As he lifts the curtain of illusion
The stark truth of death
O warrior fight and conquer it
The 64 mothers worship
Mrityunjaya Rudra Bhiarava Shiva.

Please click on the heading to download more information on ancient tantric cults in Orissa.