Durga Temple In Almora - A Miracle

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THIS IS A FOWARDED MESSAGE FROM ANOTHER

 

*MIRACLE IN ALMORA*

 

There is in Almora, at about 20 minutes walking from the Ramakrishna Kuthir

ashrama, a beautiful little Durga temple on the top of a small hill, amidst tall

pine trees and grassy slopes. This temple is called Sri Durga Siddha Pith, or so

it is painted on the front wall of the temple. The temple is not very old. It

may have been cnstructed sixty or seventy years ago. A great saint, unknown to

the world, one day appeared and sat on a big boulder on top of the hill. He used

to come every now and then from Kailash, which was his home since many years.

 

The local hill people started coming to the saint with their problems, and he

was very kind and compassionate to them. Extremely austere by nature, he kept a

strict routine of sadhana, three times a day for lengthy hours. The army used

the hill for its practices and had erected a small house-like structure for use

of the Officer in charge. The saint may have used that little hut during the

night.

 

The saint was actually a worshipper of Shiva, but he one day said to the

villagers that the Divine Mother had appeared before him. She had told him that

for many years She had been kept in a neglected shrine at the foot of the hill

in a dirty graveyard and she desired to be installed on the hill. The hill was

very suitable for Her worship.

 

The delighted villagers with the assistance of the army made a charming little

Durga temple. Behind and connected to the temple they build a nice kuthir for

the saint's use, where he installed a homa kunda and kept his massive Shiva

linga.

 

During the absence of the saint, when he would be moving in the higher Himalayan

regions, the village folks kept the place in good order and protected it waiting

for his return. It became soon obvious to everybody they need not have worried,

as the Mother herself would look after Her place. One day the army came again

for its practices and the officer in charge, an Englishman, installed himself in

his army hut on the hill. Mother was obviously not happy with his state of mind,

because the bewildered officer, on waking up the next morning, found himself and

his bed yards away somewhere down the hill. He never came back.

 

Another day a wandering sadhu, on seeing the beautiful temple and nice kuthir of

the sage, decided to make it his own and forcefully took control of the keys

with the intention to stay. That same night the entire forest around the hill

caught fire and the sadhu took to his heels in terror.

 

That Mother's power was highly manifesting in Her little shrine was

demonstrated again when a Naga Sadhu appeared and requested to stay for some

time in the sage's kuthir practicing a certain kind of intense sadhana.

Permission granted, he plunged himself in his practices and emerged some time

later in an ecstatic mood, telling to the villagers he had graciously received

the siddhi he had been struggling to attain.

 

Perhaps Mother's greatest miracle is the story of an old lady who has been

attending on the Mother in Her shrine for the last fifty years. She was a newly

wed young girl when her young husband told her to go and serve the sage and

Mother in the temple. She was at first very shy and nervous and would stealthily

do little things, carefully avoiding the sage. This was going on for some time

when one day her firstborn young child got terribly sick and the physicians

failed to cure him. She decided to go and visit the

saint accompanied by some other ladies, imploring his grace.

 

The sage however was never fond of having young ladies near him and when they

approached the hill he shouted loudly: 'Hare Hare bom bom.' It is said the

entire hill shook under his terrible power and all the other ladies ran away in

a state of shock. Only she stayed. Having thus passed the sage's admission test,

she carefully approached him with the child. After having received the sage's

blessing the child quickly recovered and the young lady, now emboldened, became

a regular attendant of the sage. Approaching him for initiation he instructed

her to first go to Badrinath to purify herself. On her return she received his

blessings, a mantra and further instructions on a regular bases. He told her

that all she had to do was look after the temple, the courtyard and room and

that through this service she would attain everything.

 

Though the villagers would every now and then come to the hill, the shrine was

nevertheless neglected to the great distress of the saint, who was most of the

time absorbed in his own Shiva sadhana. One day he became so upset with the

Deity that in great emotion he took his big Shiva linga and tuned it upside

down, shouting that if He wanted to look after the shrine in a decent fashion

he'd better send somebody to help.

 

The next day lots of people came with gifts offering assistance in

maintaining the temple. During this time the Mother again appeared to the sage

and told him that as She is always attended by female deities she here too

wished to be served by a lady only. In the absence of the young lady the sage

told the villagers that Mother had selected her to do Her service.

 

This now-old lady is still there today, coming every morning and only leaving at

night. She cleans the entire temple, maintains the sage's room as if he is still

alive (he gave up his body about 50 years ago), sweeps and mops the courtyard,

and applies purifying mud to the floor of her own room where she cooks the daily

offerings to Mother.

 

She has many wonderful anecdotes to tell and is delighted when devotees come to

see Mother. She regards it her duty to serve them and especially when sadhus

come she is pleased. She offers a glass of water, makes tea and distributes the

prasad offered to Mother.

 

She recounts many spiritual experiences she has had while serving Mother. One

day the entire temple disappeared and only Mother was seated there in a big

lotus surrounded by her female divine attendants. Everything around her was

consciousness alone. She has seen all the Gods and Goddesses and received many

instructions from Mother. When one day she was deeply distressed and complained

to Mother that she has never seen Her face after all of these years of dedicated

service, Mother appeared in a dream and told her that whenever a group of women

comes she should carefully see if there

is anybody wearing a white sari with a red border, that it is nobody but She in

that form.

 

Another day the lady became extremely upset with a sadhak who had made the

temple his temporary residence. He was not willing to do anything while she was

doing all the work, even the daily puja. She implored him again and again to do

at least the puja, but he refused. She became so annoyed with Mother she decided

to leave the hill once and for all and that in her old age she could not be

expected to do all work alone. That night Mother appeared to her in a dream and

scolded her telling: 'What, you stop doing my service? Shame on you! Go back

tomorrow and continue your work. Why do you

bother whether others help or not. Do it for me alone.' So she went back. The

sadhak left soon after and met with a deadly accident.

 

Once a Brahmacharini made the hill her home and was engaged in deep sadhana. As

the lady who attended on Mother never stayed at night she would hand over the

keys to whoever was staying there while she returned to her house to come early

next morning. It so happened one day she could not return due to heavy rain and

shared that night the room with the Brahmacharini. Suddenly at night she heard a

big procession approaching the hill and could distinctively hear the ringing of

bangles of a queen like person followed by Her many attendants. While she was

wondering how a marriage procession could

possibly come to the hill at the dead of night and wanted to open the door to

have a look, the Brahmacharini rushed to the door forbidding her to do so. When

the astonished lady asked why she should not go out and have a look, the

Brahmacharini told her that it is Mother Herself who comes every night and that

She disappears when you look directly at Her. When the amazed lady nevertheless

forced the door open to have a look the sound immediately disappeared and there

was no trace of any party.

 

Many have seen a huge tiger approaching the hill and prostrating itself before

the Mother. It never bothers anybody and moves on after its devotions are done.

It appears that this tiger, Mother's vahana or vehicle, is a protecting deity of

the hill as well. One day when the lady attendant of Mother had been sloppily

doing Mother's seva and was returning home at night, this tiger suddenly

appeared as out of nowhere and jumped at her. Though the tiger did not harm her

she intuitively understood that Mother was not happy with her halfhearted

service and that from now onwards she should

concentrate on doing the work with increased dedication and concentration. From

that day onwards she was extra careful in doing Mother's work.

 

The old lady has an unending stock of stories and while talking to her one can

not help recalling Anasuja and her unflinching faith for her Guru, and the years

she anxiously waited for Rama's coming. These things are not only stuff of

legend. They are happening even today. Infinite are Mother's ways and beautiful

Her incomprehensible lilas.

 

*Medhananda*

 

*Monk of Ramakrishna order*