Kailash 2017 Day 4 : Kathmandu, Thursday Aug 17 2017

Main entrance, Guhyeshwari Devi temple

We left for Guhyeshwari Devi at 9am in buses. The Shaktipeeth is a couple of kilometers from the svayambhulingam of Pashupatinath Mahadev. The entrance to the temple has us walking across the Bhagmati in a narrow metallic bridge, surrounded by monkeys who stay alert for any food in the hands of the devotees.



metal bridge with monkeys



Guhyeshwari Devi temple complex, as seen from across the Baghmati



Guhyeshwari Devi is referred to as Guhyamba Guhyarupini in the Lalithasahasranaam that Anish got an opportunity to chant, sitting in the temple. The temple is below the ground and the main deity consists of the mother, and another rock protrusion covered in a gold shield - Bhairava. While popular lore has this as the anus of the mother - the secret part, the name is interpreted by Vedantins as the Mother having a secret form beyond the perception of the five senses. This temple is a seat of tantra, and is connected to the Shiva temple of Pashupatinath.


The local Newari Mahayana sect Buddhists call the deith as Gujeshwari, and believe the temple well to contain the amniotic fluid of the mother that sustains the lotus on which the Svayambhunath stupa is situated.


To me, the active worship itself of the mother by her devotees in an age where sceptics and non-believers abound, is the proof that as long as the world exists, Vedic worship will endure.


Next stop, Pashupatinath - a temple not in India, not included in the Jyotirlingams, and yet I am so familiar with this temple complex, it feels like I grew up visiting here.

Pashupatinath complex

 



Rudrabhishekam at the Rama Krishna Mission

washing the feet of my father



Aarti after Rudrabhishekam

a sadhu at the Ramakrishna mission

 The most convenient thing about Pashupatinath is that while photography is not allowed in the temple, the cameras are not confiscated, so you can roam around in comfort with the honors code. Outside the central temple complex, is the larger temple property where sadhus abound, pigeons and dogs and monkeys and cows feed themselves on devotee offerings - the usual sustaining ecosystem that surrounds a Hindu temple, and one is free to record its beauty.

to each, his own method of worship

Back to the hotel for frenetic packing into duffel bags, a long night of calls in the US to cover the work left behind, and a fitful sleep. Tomorrow, we fly to Lhasa - one step closer to my father's home on earth.


AUM Namaha Shivaaya