Village Women as Priestesses: Breaking Caste and Gender Barriers at Devipuram

 

Performing the mṛgi mudra, representing the guru’s feet upon one’s head and, through this, one’s connection with the guru lineage. Guruji and Amma are sitting behind.

(from "The Goddess and the Guru"):

Some years later, after the building tasks at Devipuram wound down, he also taught some of the women who helped construct the temple. “He trained so many village girls to perform pujas and recite the mantras with perfect pronunciation,” daughter Rama noted. “Lalita Navavarana, Lalita Sahasranama, Trishati Ashtottaram, Khadgamala, the Panch Suktas, including the Rudram, the Kalavahana and Triveni Kalpam, as well as Varahi, Syama and Ganapati rituals, Bala Puja and more…”

Once again, Guruji came away impressed by their natural aptitude. “These girls came from poor, traditionally low-caste backgrounds,” he explained. “But if you went and saw how they did the pujas, how they dressed the goddess, you could see the love and fun with which they did everything, always giggling and laughing, really enjoying the process. This is precisely the sort of energy she loves. Nothing made Devi happier than having these girls as her priestesses.”

In 2013, American documentary filmmaker Julianne Reynolds profiled one of these village girls, named Leela, “loving her simplicity, innocence and absence of pride.” In the process, Reynolds learned that Leela had originally “wanted to live a much simpler life. She never set out to learn Sri Vidya pujas, but her mother got her the job at Devipuram, and she found that it gave her a sense of purpose and ownership. Guruji himself taught her this ancient wisdom, and she took to it with a butterfly’s grace.”