Goddess of the Week : Tara [ Bamakhepa / Vamakhepa ]

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One of the Bengali Saint who lived in 1843 – 1911. The name Vama

means left and Khepa = mad or crazy. Saint Bamakhepa worshipped the

Divine Mother in a form Tara and became a famous Tantaric saint

practicing sadhana at Tarapith. He behaved like a lunatic, which is

often said to be once of the marks of a saint.

 

His actual name was Bama, but since young he showed absolutely no

interest in worldly matters, people called him mad and added

`khepa"

to his name. Khepa is a term used mostly by Tantarics and Bauls and

is not an ordinary madness. One who is called Khepa is generally

considered a great soul.

 

Bamakhepa have a peculiar habit since young. He liked to steal his

neighbours' deity and carry them to a river bank. There he will

worshipped these dieities all night long. The villages discovered

eventually the culprit but no matter how severely his parents scolded

him, they could not prevent him from doing it again and again.

 

After his father's death, to support the family, his mother send

him

to their uncle house to work , by looking after cows, but Bamakhepa

proved unfit to do anything. All he wanted to do is to worship Mother

Tara. When he uttered ` Ma, Tara' he became unconscious of

his

surroundings. His mother so convinced that her son is mad put him

under house arrest, but Bamakhepa escaped and swam across the River

Dwaraka and walked all the way to Holy Tarapith.

 

Kailaspati Baba a well-known tantaric, heard about Bamakhepa's

potential for spiritual realization, accepted him as his disciple.

Thereafter under the guidance of Kailaspati Baba he began to practice

serious Tantaric Sadhana.

 

Meanwhile Bamakhepa mothers was searching for him and found him in

Kailaspati's cottage. When she realized that she couldn't

persuade

him to come with her, she asked one of her family members who was a

prominent man in town to help him. They managed to get Bamakhepa a

job in Tarapith : collecting flowers for the service in Tarapith

Temple. Nevertheless Bamakhepa couldn't perform any job, as he is

so

absorbed in thoughts of the Divine Mother. He became a forgetful

man : his physical comforts, the difference between day and night,

hot or cold, rain or sunshine. Smoking hemp, he lived in the Tarapith

cremation ground surrounded by snakes, dogs, cats and jackals.

 

Even though he had no contact of his mother for a long time, and had

cause trouble to his mother, he had great love for her. When he heard

of her death, and that her body couldn't be brought to Tarapith

because of the flooding, Bamakhepa swam across the flood swollen

river. With his dead mother's body in his arms, he returned to

Tarapith and asked his brother Ramcharan to perform the funeral

rites. They were poor and yet able to pay for the funeral because

somehow money and food flows in to feed all the guest. People in

Tarapith still tell the story about the dark clouds that appeared in

the sky as the body of Bamakhep's mother was burnt. Though all of

Tarapith was flooded by a sudden heavy downpour, not a single drop

fell on the funeral gathering.

 

Bamakhepa have a habit of walking around naked. When people asked him

as to why is he naked. He replied " My Father (Shiva) is naked;

my

mother ( Tara ) is also naked. So, I am practicing that. Moreover I

don't live in society. I live in the cremation ground with my

mother.

So I have no shame or fear !"

 

Under the guidance of his guru Kailaspati Baba and another Tantaric

master Mokshananda, Bamakhepa completed his Tantaric rites and

sadhana. They installed him as a spiritual leader of Tarapith.

Nevertheless Bamakhepa never followed the temple regulations and does

not obey social rules. He will sat with stray dogs, sharing his food

with them, sometimes he answered the call of nature with the holy

temple terrain. He was not concerned, and the thought of purity or

impurity did not enter his mind. He had practiced same-sightedness

for so long.

 

One day the temple priests caught Bamakhepa eating the temple food

before it was offered to Ma Tara. They were so angry with him that

they stopped supplying him with food. Four days after this incident,

the Maharani of Natore had a strange dream. Ma Tara appeared to her

and said "I am thinking of leaving this place. I asked my

favourite

son Bamakhepa to eat, and the priests have beaten him and taken away

his food. If my son does not eat first, how can I , his mother?"

 

When the Maharani woke up, she ordered that henceforth, Bamakhepa

should be fed before Ma Tara.

 

The mad saint of Tarapith became famous for his yogic powers and even

people from far away came to see him. Some sought nothing but his

blessings while others asked to be healed or helped in distress.

Bamakhepa healed many sicked people with his psychic power.

Bamakhepa was not learned but the Mother revealed everything to him,

as he used to say.

 

Theres a legend says that after Bamakhepa had been meditating on Tara

for a long time in the cremation ground, surrounded by corpses,

funeral pyre and jackals, Tara appeared to him in a burst of flames

in her dreadful form and then took him to her breast. A tradition in

Tarapith says that Bamakhepa was an incarnation of Tara fierce

husband, Siva, in his form as Bhairava. Like Bhairava, the legends

says, Bamakhepa was fierce and mad on the outside, but full of mercy

on the inside.

 

The saint of Tarapith lived a long life and through his holy presence

sanctified the place and the people who came in contact with him. He

entered mahasamadhi in 1911

 

Reference

 

Elizabeth U. Harding. Kali. The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar.

David Kinsley : The Ten Mahavidyas. Tantaric Vision of the Divine

Feminine.

 

 

Om ParaShaktiye Namaha