KHEER BHAVANI (TULMULLA)

 

ON THE AUSPICIOUS OCCASION OF JYESTHA SUKLA ASHTAMI

 DIVINE COLOURS OF DIVINE HOLY SPRING AT KHEER BHAVANI (TULMULLA)   

   

          The shrine of Raginya Bhagwati, also known as the shrine of Kheer Bhavani, at TulmulIa, is one of the most revered Hindu Spring Temple of Kashmir. The shrine is dedicated to the worship of Bhavani, the Divine Mother. Tulmulla is situated at a distance of twenty four kilometers from Srinagar, towards the north of the city. During the Hindu era, Tulmulla was a place of great learning. The holy spring in the middle of which the temple of Maharajni is placed, is situated on the bank of a branch of the river Sindh. In Nilmat Purana, the river is mentioned as ‘Tsandara Baga’. There are many references of Tulmulla in the Rajatarangni. The Ragina Kavach---a psalm in praise of the Divine Mother included in Sanskrit work of Rudrya Mala Tantra substantiates that Tulamulla is an ancient and popular place of pilgrimage among Kashmiri Hindus. Dr. Bhullar traced some sixteen manuscripts from Brngisha Samhita, related to the holy places of Kashmir. One of them is about Tulmulla. The Samhita mentions in detail about the sacred shrine of Bhavani.

             Shri Parmananda Research Institute, Srinagar, in their publication Shri Shri Maha—Rajni Pradurbhavah, ‘A leaf from Brngisha Samhita ‘has given detailed description of the shrine. The origin of this temple has been described in the last chapter of Brngisha Samhita. It is noted that Pulastya the father of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, was originally from Kashmir. Ravana worshiped the Maharajni but in the form of Shyama. The Divine Mother bestowed Ravana, many boons. At the time of the war with Sri Ram, Ravana tried to invoke the blessing of Goddess by offering her various kinds of sacrifices. There-upon the Goddess cursed him and ordered Hanuman to take her on the back of Anant serpent to Satisar, Kashmir. Thus the Goddess came to Kashmir with 360 serpents, Nags. The night when the Divine Mother came to Kashmir, came to be called Rajni-Ratri. The Goddess is worshipped as Maharajni.’

              “For more than three centuries people knew nothing of this sacred spring which was subsequently discovered by Pandit Govind Joo Gadroo of Bohri-Kadal of Srinagar. Goddess appeared to him in a dream and he was ordered to visit the place. He arranged a boat and went to the Tulla-Mulla village--the abode of Goddess with a number of earthern vessels filled with milk, and when he reached the spring he poured milk into it.” (Kashmir Sentinel)

Another version is that a pious Brahman, Shri Krishna Pandit, found mention of the holy spring in a book called ‘Brihad Katha.’ Latter he had a vision in which he was informed by an angel that the holy spring of Mata Maharajni lay among the swamps of Tulmulla village. He was further advised to move towards the North East direction following a serpent from Shadipor and this actually happened. Shri Krishna Pandit marked the place where the snake stopped. Then he moved in an oddly rectangular direction. The space thus covered, was also demarcated. The swamp around the holy spring was filled up. Thereafter, a stone temple was constructed. One day Krishna Pandit was performing Puja, a Boj Patra, birch-bark leaf appeared floating in the spring. A Shaloka was written on the leaf. The Shaloka read; “I, prostrate to Supreme Goddess Maharajni who is lustrous having around twelve Suns and seated on lion’s throne, wrapped by the serpents, not visible to the material eyes but realized by spiritualist”. Shri Krishna Pandit composed a poem of as many stanzas as there were letters in the ‘Shaloka’ and this poem ‘Rajani Sotra’ are still existent. Although it is recorded that the discovery of the holy spring was made on Ashara Sapthami, 7th day of bright fortnight in June-July, but devotees throng this place on every 8th day Ashtami, and an annual festival is held on every Jyestha Sukla Ashtami. Maharajni is the Isht Devi of Kashmiri Hindus.                  For a long time the Tirtha at Tulmulla remained under flood-waters.  The holy spring has an irregular heptagonal shape with the apex called Paad situated to the East. The Northern and Southern sides are longer than the Western side, which is called Sher or head. It is shaped like AUM in the Sharada script. In the centre of the Holy Spring the Maharajni temple stands. The spring is situated in the centre of an island round which the Gang Khai, a canal from Sindh makes a circuit. The spring is said to be surrounded by 360 springs. Most of these are covered with bushes and silted up. In 1902, Pandit Ved Lal Dhar cleared the sedimentation of the main spring. The digging unearthed an ancient temple in the center built of large sculptured white stone with superb artistic features and marvelous images of deities. The whole shrine was repaired by Maharaja Partap Singh, the Dogra ruler in 1907.                   According to Hindu scriptures, Hindu deities are expressed in three manifestations; (1) ionic form, wooden, stone or metal (2) Mantra, sound form (3) Yantra, a mystic symbol. The deities are usually worshiped in ionic forms. In Tantric culture, the devotees concentrate on mystic symbol or Yantra, geometrical abode of the deity and are supposed to acquire super-physical powers. The Yantra is drawn by using the dot, Bindu, the straight lines, the triangle and the circle. Tantrikism is a way of worship. In Tantra Shastra, Maharajni has a prescribed diagram, Chakram with Her Shaktis. Mantra is a sound form of the deity. It is chanted to invoke the deity in the mind, generally known as Dyanam. According to Maharajni Pradurbhavah the Mantra of Maharajni is a 15-worded Mantra. An appropriate ritual has to be followed while reciting the sacred Mantra. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S EXPERIENCE: “The Swami retired abruptly on September 30, 1898 to the Coloured Springs of Kshir-Bhavani, leaving strict injunctions that no one was to follow him. It was not until October 6, that he returned. Before this famous shrine of the Mother he daily performed Homa and worshipped Her with the offerings of Kshira. or thickened milk, made from one maund of milk, rice and almonds, and told his beads like the humblest pilgrim. And. as a special Sadhana, he worshipped every morning a Brahmin Pandit’s little daughter as Uma Kuinari, the Divine Virgin. He began to practise terrible austerities. It seemed as if he would tear off all the veils that covered his soul through years of work and relative thought and again be the child before the Divine Mother. Even though Her caresses might prove pain to the body, they would give illumination and freedom to his soul. All thought of Leader, Worker, or Teacher was gone. He was now only the monk, in all the nakedness of pure Sannyasa. He was transfigured when he returned to Srinagar. He entered the house-boat, his hands raised in benediction; then he placed some marigolds which he had offered to the Mother on the head of every one of his disciples. ”No more ‘Hari Ora! ’ It is all ‘Mother’ now!” he said, sitting down. “All my patriotism is gone. Everything is gone. Now it is only ‘Mother! Mother!’ I have been very wrong. Mother said to me. ‘What, even if unbelievers should enter My temples, and defile My images! What is that to you? Do you protect Me? Or do 1 protect you?’ So there is no more patriotism. I am only a little child!” One day he had been pondering over the ism of the Mohammedan invaders. Distressed at heart he thought, “How could the people have permitted such sacrilege without offering strenuous resistance! If I were here then I would never have allowed such things. I would have laid down my life to protect the Mother.” It was then that he had heard the Mother speaking as above. The disciples sat silent, awe-inspired. They could not speak, “so tense was the spot with something that stilled thoughts”. “I may not tell you more now,” he said addressing his disciples before leaving, “it is not in order. But spiritually, spiritually, I was not bound down!” Though again with his disciples, they saw little of him. For hours he would walk beside the river in the secluded woods, absorbed within himself so much so that he would not even see his companions on the roof of their house-boat. One day he appeared before them with shaven head, dressed as the simplest Sannyisin, and with a look of unapproachable austerity on his face. Quoting from his own poem, Kdli the Mother, he interrupted himself to say, “It all came true, every word of it; and I have proved it, for I have hugged the Form of Death!” And here and there, the details of that austerity and fasting and self-renunciation he had practised at Kshir-Bhavani, and the revelations that had come to him were touched upon in his remarks. In his meditation on the Terrible in the dark hours of the nights at Kshir-Bhavani, there were other visions which he confided only to one or two of his Gurubhais, and which are too sacred to reveal to the public. It seemed, indeed, as if the Swami’s whole nature rose in a supreme effort in a final struggle to rise above all worldly Samskaras. At this same shrine, in the course of worship, one day, the Swami brooding with pain on the dilapidated condition of the temple, wished in his heart that he were able to build a new one there in its place, just as he wished to build his monasteries elsewhere, especially the temple to Shri Ramakrishna in the new Math at Belur. He was startled from his reveries by the voice of the Mother Herself saying to him, “My child! If I so wish I can have innumerable temples and magnificent monastic  centres. I can even this moment raise a seven-storied golden temple on this very spot’ “Since I heard that Divine Voice,” said the Swami to a disciple in Calcutta much later, “I have ceased making any more plans. Let these things be as Mother wills! ” (https://www.swamivivekananda.guru/2017/12/23/kashmir-amarnath-kshirbhavani/) MELA KHEER BHAVANI:             The Shrine of Maharagini Raginya Bhagwati, or Kheer Bhavani temple and holy spring are a permanent Shakti Sthal with cosmic powers, where Bhagwati is omnipotent and omnipresent, blessing the devotees. Maharagini is the form of Durga Bhagvati. The Hindus of Kashmir worship the Spring Temple and pilgrims from every comer of the country visit to have the Darshan of the place. Thousands of devotees of the Goddess fast and gather here on the eighth day of the full moon in the month of May/ June during annual Mela. Puja at the holy shrine is conducted amid chants of religious hymns and ringing of temple bells, walking barefoot, the devotees carrying rose petals, milk and kheer (pudding) to be offered at the sacred spring temple. Usually, before entering the shrine premises, devotees take a dip in the stream close to shrine.               Around the temple is an area covered with smooth and beautiful stones. In it is large, old-growth Chinar trees beneath which the pilgrims sit or sleep on mats of grass. A miracle is often observed here that the water of the holy spring changes its colours from time to time. It takes on various hues like red, pink, orange, green, blue and has often light green, red rosy and milky white shades. While most of the colours do not have any particular significance, but when black or darkish, it is believed to be an indication of inauspicious times for Kashmir. In 1886, Walter Lawrence, the then British settlement commissioner for land, during his visit to the spring, reported the water of the spring to have a violet tinge.  According to Kashmiri Pandit priests, looking after the shrine, the shade of black colour is considered to be inauspicious for the inhabitants of the valley. (Compiled by CHAMAN LAL GADOO)