Bhadra KaLi Temple, Gokarna

Gokarna is a village in the Uttara Kannada district of the Karnataka state, India. It is a Hindu pilgrimage center as well as a tourist destination. Gokarna is a temple town and is referred to in a number of Hindu historical literature pieces. The main deity is Lord Mahabhaleshwara, a form of Hindu god, Shiva. There are other quite famous temples like Lord Mahaganapathi temple, Godess Bhadra KaLi temple etc. 

The Bhadra KaLi temple is quite famous with many living examples of miracles happened to the devotees who worship her. The temple is situated on the way to Mahabaleshwara temple, just after the OM beach road cross, on the main road. Its very calm, lovely place to meditate. Its one of the power full temple with a strong mythological importance. Lord Shiva got pleased after the dedicated tapasya by the devotee Ravan and granted him 2 wishes, i.e., Atmalinga & beautiful wife (he had to give his wife, Uma) which is ethically wrong for entire mankind. Vishnu disguised as Brahmin, met him on the way of his journey towards Lanka at Gokarna, enquires about the things he is carrying at his shoulders, Ravana shows him his beautiful wife, Uma; Vishnu with his God power, makes her as a very old aged looking woman. By seeing this, Ravana leaves her & Atmalinga there itself and returns back to meet Lord Shiva again. Vishnu tells Uma to settle here in Gokarna and she is worshipped as BhadraKaLi by the people till now. 

Around a month back my father called me up on the phone from Gokarna, to decide on the Chandika Homa to be arranged at the BhadraKaLi temple on 06, September, 2011. Since it was a week day, i.e., Tuesday, i had to reluctantly agree as the day was supposed to be holy day to worship Godess Chandike. As per Hindu calendar, that day is Navami (Thithi), Moola (Nakshatra), Mangalavaara of Bhadrapada Maasa. These attributes i.e., Thithi, Nakshatra, Maasa of 06, September, 2011 is very auspicious to worship Godess Chandike. 

There are couple of privately run buses from Bangalore to Gokarna, hardly 2 buses from KSRTC depot. I boarded the VRL bus at Gandhi Nagar, Bangalore at around 9-15 pm. It was moving slowly puzzling out the traffic on Tumkur road. Slept normally as in home, it was sleeper bus where in we can stretch the legs casually. At 7-30 am in the morning the next day, i was in Gokarna, near Maruti temple (last stop of private buses). Got freshened up in the near by lodge - Shiva Prasad, where in my parents had booked the room. It was pathetic. Please do not ever you go to that place. Shabbily maintained lodge with no cleanliness maintained, yet they charge 500 INR per day. I went to the temple, Bhadra KaLi where in the preparation for the "Homa" or "Yaaga" was going on at the Yajna Shaala. After having Darshan of Goddess BhadraKali, we had our breakfast at the Bhat's house and helped them in the preparation for the "Homa".

Krishna Devathe family does the Pooja & the management of the temple; during his tenure of paryaya (turn to look after the temple), he arranges Yaaga's and Poojas at the temple with the pricing as mentioned in the temple chart. All the arrangements will be done by him and we can stay at his house if the number of people are less. Even the food arrangements will done at his house. 

Homa started a bit late by 11-00 am after the initial Mandala Pooja, Ganapathi Pooja, Devi Pooja and parallel Devi Paarayana also started. Everything was set and moving on smoothly. At around 12-00 pm, rain started pouring heavily causing the water to enter inside the Yagna Shaala which forced us to close the windows.  The situation worsened, as the smoke of Yaaga completely covered the room blinding the eyes temporarily. I rushed outside to relax but parents had to sit inside with a move as they are not supposed to move out once the Yaaga started. In half an hour, things were back to normal. The Homa went on till 3-00 pm and the entire worship ended after the special pooja at the temple with the Bali of Kumabalakai at the temple entrance. Its a kind of thanks giving to God for all the good things happened until the entire day and protected us from all the Vignas that could have happened otherwise. We had our lunch at 4-15 pm after winding up everything (except Mantra Akshathe). Soon after the lunch, Mantra Akshathe happened with a informative speech by the Agnihotri who conducted the Yaga on our behalf. 

After bidding bye to the Krishna Devathe family, we checked out from our hotel at 5-45 pm and visited Agnihotri's house. Amazed to see the 3 Agnikunda's at their house. Agnihotri means "one who carries out rituals in fire" and thus they are called Agnihotri's. 'Agnihotri' is also an epithet on for the god Agni, the god of fire. At the same time he's also the lord of the sacrifices that have been carried out in fire. One of the translations of Agnihotri is the lord of the sacrifices in fire. Every day they have to worship Agni and the Fire should not extinguish for ever. It will be covered with "Boodi" so that it can be aggravated the next day morning with the rituals. 

Surprised to see such things even for today. It was a nice visit to their house to experience such things at this time ....