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| Manually raising the 1,400-pound Sahasrakshi murti to the peak of the Sri Meru temple. |
(from "The Goddess and the Guru"):
In fact, shortly before the Prathista, Guruji personally transported the massive sculpture to Devipuram on a marathon pickup-and-delivery adventure with his son-in-law Prabhakar, husband of youngest daughter Rama.
“We drove her all the way from Tirupati in a Maruti van,” Guruji recalled. The precarious drive back to Devipuram took an entire sweltering day that taxed the vehicle’s engine, suspension system, and human occupants to the limit. “The tires were getting hot, too,” he said. “We were worried whether one might burst, because we had no usable spare.”
Sahasrakshi finally did arrive safely in Devipuram with van and drivers intact, but a larger task still lay ahead—to raise the six-foot, 650-kilogram (1,433-pound) sculpture some 50 feet to the peak of the Sri Meru without the aid of a crane or other motorized assistance, luxuries that still remained beyond the reach and means of the remote temple complex. This arduous lift was carried out manually on Wednesday, May 9, 1990, a full-moon day just weeks before the formal Prathista ceremony.
“We built chain lifts to take her up the first two floors,” Guruji said—and that was the easy part. “The third and final floors were the most difficult,” he continued. “She had to be lifted by hand by six people. I was worried that somebody would be mortally hurt!”
The stairway, which had been designed—like the rest of the temple—by Guruji alone, was precisely wide enough to accommodate the statue’s base. However, the structure’s capacity to bear the weight of the statue was still strictly theoretical. “Keep in mind, I wasn’t a civil engineer,” Guruji said. “We simply didn’t know whether the stairs would take the load.”
They did, though the job was massive. It took three grueling hours for the six laborers to carry the sculpture up the final 10 feet. When they reached the narrow top floor, a dozen more workers joined them in lifting the sculpture onto the concrete plinth that had been prepared to receive it. “That was the final test,” Guruji said. “Would the slab I built take the load of the sculpture plus about 18 people?”
Again, it did. “When we had finally placed her in position, everyone heaved a sigh of relief!” he said.
As the sun sank toward the western horizon, Guruji performed a brief laghu prathista—a simplified, “light” consecration prayer in advance of the elaborate formal ritual to come—and as the full moon rose at dusk, the gathered devotees were rewarded with a view that seemed to clearly express divine pleasure with their efforts.
“It was the perfect time—6 p.m. exactly,” Guruji said. “The sun was setting in the west; the full moon was rising in the east: sun, moon, and Devi were all exactly aligned.”
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The formal Prathista ceremony began a couple of weeks later on the new moon day of Thursday, May 24, and continued for 11 days until Monday, June 4, 1990. The spring weather was typically hot and dry and the sun was relentless, with temperatures hovering around 100°F (38°C).
Sundhara Arasaratnam, who traveled from Toronto with Haran Aiya to take part in the festivities, remembers his impression upon seeing Devipuram for the first time.
“I knew that it was still under development, but I was taken aback,” he said. “It was very desolate, dry, and bushy. There were no proper roads, just dirt footpaths strewn with thorns, shrubs, and sharp stones. But there were also birds singing, cows lowing, cashew and palm leaves rustling in the hot breeze.”
And of course there were humans.
“Everywhere around me people were working, readying the temple for the Prathista—I could hear work instructions being called out, carpenters thudding hammers, women walking elegantly by with building materials balanced on their heads. Everywhere I was met with welcoming smiles—all Guruji’s golden influence, I think. Everyone seemed happy and harmonious. And as I settled in, a sense of absolute contentment sank into me as well.”
Soon after his arrival, Sundhara climbed alone to the peak of the Meru temple.
“I could see the mountains to the west and the Sivalaya temple and Kamakhya Peetam to the north,” he said. “Beyond Sivalaya were more cashew plantations and coconut groves. To the south there were teak plantations and, just past them, some small village dwellings. And yet this remote area was gradually being transformed into a spiritual teaching establishment!”
By this time, the all-purpose thatched hut once known as Devipuram Circus had been replaced by the ground floor of the Ashram where Guruji and Amma resided.
“There was a concrete roof in place with plans to build more flats on top,” Sundhara said. “Guruji occupied the first flat on the north side of the building and the other three rooms were for people permanently residing there and helping him.”
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| The Prana Prathista of Sahasrakshi. |
As the sun rose on the first day of the Prathista, loudspeakers broadcast the Gayatri mantra and hymns of praise as Gurugaru patrolled the edges of the property, reciting mantras to ward away poisonous snakes and insects. A new homa kunda had been constructed in an open, thatched-roofed structure directly under the eastward-facing visage of Sahasrakshi at the top of the Meru.
The master of ceremonies was once again Krishnayaji—the same priest who had, more than a decade earlier, presided over the grand Devi Yagna in Visakhapatnam. He was accompanied by five trained Vedic priests, or ritwiks.
“They took their place in the ceremonial hut and commenced the preliminaries,” Sundhara recalled. “Sahasrakshi’s eyes were covered with a soft cloth, the idea being that, over the course of the Prathista ceremony, the energy from her eyes would become too intense. Then Guruji and Amma arrived and took their seats as well, both of them emanating a strong golden aura—it was as if Shiva and Shakti themselves had come to preside in person.”
The kalasa pots were installed and the initial rituals began—Maha Nyasa, followed by the Pancha Sukta and other pujas. And as the Vedic ceremonies proceeded in the homa kunda shed, Tantric pujas were conducted at Sivalaya and Kamakhya Peetam. Activities paused at 2 p.m., allowing for lunch and a nap in the heat of the day. At six in the evening, participants reconvened around the homa kunda to chant the Lalita Sahasranama, followed by devotional singing and then a philosophical talk by Guruji. The ritwiks assembled a Maha-lingam from 1,008 smaller lingams and performed additional rounds of pujas. Each day’s events were capped by classical dance and music performances. Variations of this routine were repeated over all 11 days of the event, as more and more people poured in from surrounding villages and towns.
The event’s grand finale took place on Monday, June 4, 1990.
“By then the strength of the crowd was a good 5,000,” Sundhara said. “People came in waves despite the limited transportation facilities and the intense sun and heat.”
The Prathista culminated with the abhishekam, or ritual bathing of Sahasrakshi in the waters of the kalasa, fully energized after 11 days of prayer and chanting.
“The prana was invoked into her by Guruji,” Sundhara recounted. “She was dressed like a bride and all the upacharas were offered to her. The cloth covering her eyes was removed, and the full aarti was offered to her with naivedhya. The bali was cooked rice and pumpkin, broken in front of her, then red kumkum spattered over on top of it.”
It is said that if all the rituals of a Prathista are performed correctly, then at their conclusion some envoy of the five elements—earth, water, fire, air, or ether—will appear and forcefully make their presence known.
“And that’s exactly what happened,” Sundhara said. “The scorching noontime sun was suddenly obscured by dark clouds, and a huge thunderstorm rolled in with gale-force winds and torrential rains soaking the parched earth to mud.
“A group of us were standing on the second floor of the Meru temple, listening to the loud croaking of frogs and chirping of birds and letting the drenching rain cool us off from the heat of the previous few days. And that’s when I noticed Guruji standing outside the Ashram, smiling up at us all. He looked so happy! It was a memory for a lifetime.”
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