Temples In India-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKApeethas in Sri-Chakra. She is Bhagavati inKerala, Kali and Lalitha in Tamilnadu,Kanakadurga in Andhra, Chamundeswari inKarnataka, Bhavani in Maharashtra, Ambikain Rajasthan and Gujarat, Kali and Durga inBengal and Kamakhya in Assam. She is Sitaand Radha too in Uttar Pradesh.Countless are the scholars, saints andspiritual men who have attained glory andimmortality by worshipping Her. Kalidasa,who worshipped Her at Ujjain, became agreat poet. The Tamil poet Kamban toowas Her devotee.Sankara showered hymns in praise of Herand Ramaprasad of Bengal burst intodevotional songs. Sri Ramakrishna, theadvocate of harmony of all religions, sawHer face to face and proclaimed: “My DivineMother is not only formless, She has formsas well the Mother reveals Herself to Herdevotees in different forms. I saw Heryesterday. She was clad in seamless, ochrecoloured garment and She talked with me.”With the Divine Grace ofMother Tulja Bhavani, Chhatrapati SivajiMaharaj rebuilt the Hindu Rashtra. SwamiVivekananda, who wrote his celebrated‘Hymn to Kali’ after worshipping the KsheerBhavani of Kashmir, had the grandrealisation of the mission of his life whenhe sat at the feet of the Goddess ofKanyakumari.During the Freedom Movement of thecountry, great patriots like SwamiVivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, BankimChandra, Sister Nivedita and SubramaniaBharati awakened the nationalconsciousness by reviving the worship ofthe Motherland in the form of the Mother-Bhavani Bharati. The new awakeningcreated by them was not confined to anyTEMPLE INDIAcreed or community. In the words of SisterNivedita, “The Mohammadan boatman ofEastern Bengal is not in his own person aworshipper of Durga and yet the words‘with folded hands before the Mother’ maycarry as much’ to him as to the Hinduheart.” She further says: “Every year thatgoes by, the images of the Mother becomemore and more deep, each in its turn,entwined with the thought of India to theIndian heart. Mother and Motherland-whereends the one and where begins the other?Before which does a man stand with foldedhands, when he bows his head still lowerand says with a new awe: ‘My salutationsto the Mother?’. The Sarvojanin Durga Poojaof Bengal inspired Bankim Chandra toconceive our Motherland in the image ofDurga and proclaim, “Twam hi Durgadasapraharana dharini”-’Verily Thou(Motherland) art Durga, the wielder of tenweapons’-in his celebrated national songBande Matararn.The origin of Durga Pooja for nine daysduring Navaratri is traced to Saradotsava,a season festival at the conjunction of thecessation of rains and the incoming ofautumn. Devi Bhagavatam says: Vasantaand Sarad-ritus are like two incisor teethof Yama, meaning, that during thesemonths the scourge of ill-health in the worldis at its highest. Consequently, Devi isworshipped to save mankind frompestilence. According to the Bengal schoolof Durga worshippers, the Mother visits theearth, Her parental home, every year forthree days in autumn and returns to Herhusband’s house over the Mount Kailasaon the Vijayadasami day. The Bhagavatamsays that Durga is eternally nine years oldand hence the nine-day worship. On the213