PDA

View Full Version : Dakshineshwar temple--heralding the hindu rennaisance



sambya
27 January 2010, 01:03 AM
Towards the middle of 19th century a highly respected wealthy but pious young widow of Calcutta by the name of Rani Raasmani was on her way to pilgrimage to Varanasi to have a darshan of Annapurna of Kashi . On her voyage aboard her fleet of ships through Ganges she had a most wonderful dream in which the mother of the universe appeared to her and instructed her to built a temple on the banks of Ganges . Rani accepted her command and enthusiastically started the constructed of what would become Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and eventually become the divine playbed of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa , Swami Vivekananda and a host of other characters .

After the temple was completed the Rani faced a obstructive problem . Being born in Shudra caste she was not entitled to offer cooked food items to the goddess , that being the sole privilege of Brahmins . But the Rani's heart was not satisfied with ordinary offerings of cut fruits and sweets . She wanted to feed her divine mother with proper lunch of cooked rice and other items , as one feeds her loved and honoured guest . Rani sent out for the Brahmins of Bengal and beyond to give a way out from this dilemma . But alll Brahmins of the day refused to grant Rani the permission to offer cooked food .
At this time Ramkumar Chattapadhyay , the elder brother of Sri Ramakrishna , who was running a sanskrit school in Calcutta at that time offered a way out . He said that if Rani ceremonially donate the temple to any Brahmin and then carry on services of the temple in his name then cooked food can be offered and no sentiments would be hurt .
Rani was delighted and appointed Ramkumar the high preist of the new temple which was formally consecrated on snanayatra day of 1855 . it was with Ramkumar that Sri Ramakrishna fist stepped in the courtyards of this huge temple .
The main shrine is dedicated to Kali who is named Bhavatarini--the reedemer of the world . The second shrine is dedicated to Radha and Krishna named Radhakanta . Then there are additional twleve Shiva temples each having their own distinct names . The whole courtyard is garlanded by a facade of rooms to be used as ktichen , grocery , stores , guest house etc . On the two corners of the compound stand the concert towers or Nahavat from where Sehnai and other musical instruments are played every day to awaken their lord and ladyships from sleep . Three water tanks , a flower orchard , a forested tract of land and a pine grove surrounded the temple . A fleet of stairs leads devotees to the Ganga which flows near the temple .

It was here that Sri Ramakrishna was later appointed the priest and he spent almost 30 years of his divine life in communion with god . He could see Bhavatarini standing up on the balcony on the first floor of the temple . He heard the sound of her ankle bells resounding in the temple stairs . He felt her breath in her stone image ! Most of his intense sadhanas were practised in the forested area of the temple . Later his realizations created a group of his admirers from Calcutta many of whom were leaders , reformers and dignitaries .

Swami Vevekananda joined with Ramakrishna and became instrumental in spreading Hinduism and Vedantic values in the west . His ideals electrified the entire nation and ushered in the new age of our Sanatana Dharma . Later his footsteps were follwed by many other leaders and today Hinduism is ever growing in the west .

If Rani Raasmani hadnt built the this temple , perhaps , Ramakrishna would have never been formed or a Vivekananda never appeard and the most needed revolution of our then dying faith never have taken place !!

all from this sacred land of Dakshineshwar .

shian
27 January 2010, 03:45 AM
Om Mahasriye Svaha

very sweet story ^_^

sambya
27 January 2010, 09:55 AM
thank you .:)

Eastern Mind
27 January 2010, 10:27 AM
Vannakkam Sambya: Beautiful. Absolutely. I looked it up elsewhere on the net too. It looks so clean.

The problem (sort of) with this thread will be the building of desire to see all these beautiful spots. Now I have a seed planted for this one. I already had a seed for Kolkata anyways. I once promised my now-deceased Mother to visit my uncle's grave in the British enclave Fort William in Kolkata. He passed away during WW2 there. However, I never fulfilled the promise. So who knows. Pardon the himsa expression, but I could kill two birds with one stone.

Aum Namasivaya

sambya
28 January 2010, 03:04 AM
Vannakkam Sambya: Beautiful. Absolutely. I looked it up elsewhere on the net too. It looks so clean.

The problem (sort of) with this thread will be the building of desire to see all these beautiful spots. Now I have a seed planted for this one. I already had a seed for Kolkata anyways. I once promised my now-deceased Mother to visit my uncle's grave in the British enclave Fort William in Kolkata. He passed away during WW2 there. However, I never fulfilled the promise. So who knows. Pardon the himsa expression, but I could kill two birds with one stone.

Aum Namasivaya

thanks eastern mind for appreciating it . yeah , this one could be a real problem ! haha ...

oh , so you have indian connection already ! in quite recent years a few group of british and other european tourists came searching for their deceased ancestors in the graveyards of calcutta . it was in the newspapers .

theres another very clean and oderly temple in the calcutta suburbs that is also a prominent tourist destination . its the belur math temple . the temple is dedicated to sri ramakrishna , whose relics it presrves in its shrine . he is regarded as an incarnation by many of his followers and hence the deity in this temple is ramakrishna himself and not any puranic hindu god .
i shall provide the details of this temple in another seperate thread ..

jai bhagavan....