The Curse Of The Goddess Page 2

  Chapter 2: The Curse

  The sky was cloudy and the sun had not yet shown its face. Nil felt chilly at first but after a few minutes’ walk he felt warm and sweating inside the jacket. As he wanted to put off the jacket Doma forbade, ‘don’t do this, soon there would be chilly wind and you’ll catch cold.’ It was about ten but the clouds overhead had made the ambience semi dark. ‘It may start raining at any moment’, Nil expressed apprehension and Doma showed him two large umbrellas in reply. The fine layer of cloud climbing down the crest of the hills toward the valley downhill looked like a off-white smooth blanket and nothing below could be visible. After the initial uphill journey the downhill walk was now comfortable but Doma warned, ‘walk cautiously, lest you should step on pebbles or rock fragments and….’ she raised her fingers in a funny way toward the sky and made a peculiar gesture that made Nil laugh loudly. Doma giggled and started humming a sweet song in an unknown language. She looked very elated.

  As soon as they started climbing the causeway leading to the Lama’s cottage, the boy noticed them from above and informed the Lama and raced down the path to greet them, ‘daju, you’re now perfectly well.’ They waited there for some time and were entertained with spice tea. The Lama soon came down to business,

  ‘we are in a grave problem and we have been looking vainly for the right person, the lone pious Hindu with a trident mark on his forehead. Now by God’s grace you’re here. You yourself don’t know who you are, but your auspicious sign shows that you are the man sent on earth by Lord Shiva to rescue us. Now can you take a little trouble to help us out of a grave crisis?’

  ‘I myself don’t have any trust on my divinity, but accepting your conviction I’m ready to help you my best, but at present I’ve important preoccupations at Calcutta and I must return with the trekkers.’

  ‘You need not help us right now. Return to Calcutta now and our men would contact you in time.’

  ‘But what is the problem?’

  ‘You go with this girl down to the village. They have arranged for your accommodation there and you would learn in detail about the problem from this girl and her father and thereafter I’ll talk with you once again before you depart.’

  Nil proceed for the village with Doma and was obsessed with deep thought all the way. He was really puzzled to learn about his divine power which he himself was unaware of.

  As soon as they reached the village a large number of villagers including children came forward to welcome Nil. He was presented with flowers and garlands. All of them followed them up to the house of Doma. They had deep respect for Hindu Bengalis who rarely visited this village which was excluded from the map for the tourists and trekkers. Doma had already informed them that a Bengali globe trotter would visit the village and reside there for some time. The Lama had directed that none of the villagers except Doma and her parents should have any inkling of Nil’s real purpose of visit.

  Yalmo Lepcha, the father of Doma, a robust and short man around forty five with a large round face, small eyes and a curved goatee on the chin, cordially received Nil and took him right inside the house where Doma’s mother, greeted him with a simple smile. Doma’s lone brother Yaneda and two sisters, Risika and Susma assembled around him and the little girl of four Susma started examining his jacket and was rebuked by her mother. Nil told her not to chide the sweet child and lifted her right up to his lap. Her mother laughed and said, ‘you don’t know sir how naughty she is!’ He felt hungry and his meal, thupka and curry of beans was served soon and as he was not willing to take any alcoholic drinks, he was given fruit wine with mild alcoholic content and he relished the sweet-sour taste of the beverage. It was a two storey house and the upper floor opened up to the road above, the same road that had turned uphill from the door of the ground floor. He took some rest and fell asleep as he was very tired of the tedious journey.

  His sleep broke in the afternoon and it was now raining in cats and dogs. He was to put up at the vacant house of a businessman, but because of the rain they could not move out. Doma told her father, ‘if the rain do not subside soon we’ll have to arrange for his night halt in our house.’

  She turned toward Nil and said, ‘it may be uncomfortable for you to stay here with so many family members, but nothing else could be done if the rain continues.’

  Nil replied in an ecstatic tone, ‘that would be fine. I’d be happy to stay here with your family members. In fact I wanted to propose staying here at the very moment I’d arrived here as I felt uneasy to spend the night alone in a desolate house but hesitated to tell you considering problem of your family. How far is the vacant house, by the way?’

  ‘About half a mile uphill, a very beautiful place.’

  ‘Why do you take so much trouble to accommodate me there? You’ll have to carry food to that distance. I may go on staying here if you have no problems on your part.’

  At this both her parents said happily, ‘oh that would be very nice; we would have no problem at all. We were only thinking about your problem with the strangers.’

  ‘You are no longer strangers to me,’ Nil said seriously.

  The rain subsided in the evening and stars were visible in the clear sky. Being at a much lower altitude this place was not very cold. Doma went out to meet the Lama once again. Her brother and sisters took him out over to a point from where all the hills and valleys around could be seen, but now in the darkness only scattered dots of light were visible from all sides and above and the dark crests of the hills looked like gigantic heads of demons. The dots of lights, as though adorning the dark swaying pines, appeared like fire flies roaming around.

  They were eager to tell him ghost stories. The atmosphere, the dark canvas embroidered with dots of lights and the dark wood under the starry sky made the ambience appropriate for horror stories. The brother of the girl, a boy of fifteen, told that before their birth, his father was the first man to build his house here. He had a dispute with his parents about his marriage, their mother being a Hindu Nepali girl. So his parents married secretly and left the Rimbik town to get settled here. Then only a few residents lived in this Lepcha village and their house was then at an isolated place about two miles uphill from the cluster of houses of the twenty residents of the small village. His father had bought this plot very cheap from a Bhutia transport operator.

  Both his parents were very hardy and they did not interfere in the religious practices of each other – his father was a worshipper of Lord Buddha, and his mother of Shiva. They lived happily, with the earning from their grocery shop at the village downhill. Their mother also used to sew cotton bags at home and mostly remained home. Yalmo, their father looked after the shop with the help of two working hands from the village and every weekend he used to go to the nearest town to buy wares for his shop and sell the bags made by their mother. He used to return from the shop in the evening. That day he was late because there was a dance and music program in the house of a villager. He was returning home at about ten p.m. It was a new moon night and the sky was starry. Approaching near the house he stopped short to notice a tiny ball of green light dropping down from the sky. The light dot became larger and larger and it looked like a round craft. The craft slowly nestled on the hillock that rose from the gorge below and a side door opened up. He was utterly panicked and hastened into the house and knocked at the door heavily. Their mother opened the door and asked what had happened. He went inside and asked her to close the door. Going upstairs he showed her the craft through the glass window. Now a few humanoid figures, looking like robots, had come down on the hilltop and roaming leisurely around. They got panicked and started praying to their deities. The extra terrestrial men stayed there for a few minutes and then entered the vehicle which left after making a hissing noise and disappeared into the sky.

  The next day they found that all the trees on the hillock were charred. and the rock at the top had got flattened and polished like marble. When Yalmo related the incident to the villagers the elderly ones
told that the vehicle was from another planet far away from the earth and others too had seen it in earlier times. Nobody could tell what they landed there for. But each time they came some misfortune befell the locality. This time too there was an unknown disease in which all the poultry of the villagers were killed. Their mother had got panicked and asked his father to change their residence and get settled inside the village, but the elderly people said that these creatures never land to the same spot twice. The year after the incident their elder sister was born and she displayed supernatural power and everybody opined that the birth of the auspicious child had got something to do with the landing of the extra terrestrial creatures. These landings do not always bring misfortune alone. There were evidence of good luck accompanying their mysterious visits.

  Being asked to tell his story Nil started the Dracula story and he had to stop as Susma got panicked and insisted on returning home. Nil went back to the house with them and started telling them interesting animal stories. In the mean time Doma returned and was very glad to find Nil getting on well with the children. While he asked her about the landing of the vehicle, she and her father told that the story was true and their recent misfortune had something to do with the latest landing of it on the upper hill.

  ‘Have your dinner first and I’ll tell you about the entire incident,’ Yalmo insisted.

  Nil took his dinner with haste being eager to learn about the incident.

  The house had three rooms at the ground floor and two at the first, one bed room and the other for dining. After dinner all the family members except Yalmo were accommodated at the ground floor and the latter with Nil at the first floor. Doma’s mother and the children bade him goodnight. Yalmo and Doma entered his room and got seated on two stools close to Nil’s bed on which Nil, in a reclining position, waited patiently for the account of the mysterious incident. Yalmo pursed his lips, dropped some cloves in his mouth and started the story.

  ‘For a few years after I had seen the vehicle, nobody heard any incident of landing of any extra-terrestrial vehicle. Then it appeared again when Doma was about six year old and Yaneda was just born. Some new houses were then built in this place and the place was no longer lonely. One midnight I was awakened by the hollering of a neighboring boy and hearing the ‘bip bip’ sound I, Doma and her mother got on to the roof with palpitating hearts and noticed the uncanny vehicle with bluish glow slowly gliding down the sky toward the high hilltop to the north. Many of my neighbors were also watching the spectacle with awe stricken eyes. The vehicle had almost touched the ground when a sharp explosion deafened us and the rumbling sent tremors across the hills and vales as though by an earthquake. Then the forest, surrounding the hilltop, was ablaze, the flames rising high up into the sky. The conflagration continued for several days and when it subsided the entire forest at the crest was burnt to ashes.

  All the hill people fell silent and we waited for the misfortune to follow the horrible incident. Suddenly we were relieved as a sacred looking tantric, from Tarapith near Calcutta, visited the village and assured us that by his tantric power he would save us from the curse that was likely to befall us in no time.

  The tantric told us that he had learnt about the incident through meditation. He then unraveled the mystery of the heavenly vehicle which belonged to goddess Kali. Long ago, when nobody lived in these hills a Buddhist tantric from Tibet had selected this site for his occult practices and the goddess Kali used to communicate with him through the heavenly vehicle. He achieved the highest stage of meditation and Nirvana. But after his direct transportation to divine land, the vehicle still used to visit this place occasionally. The curse associated with the arrival of the vehicle began after some misguided hill youths made fun of the nudity of the goddess Kali. The conflagration indicated that the misfortune this time would be the greatest and might annihilate all of us unless preventive measures were taken.

  The tantric along with his disciples visited the burnt hilltop and assured us that he was capable of appeasing the goddess and rescuing us from the curse. He went back and returned after a few days with his Nepali disciples with some instruments that he told would be necessary to erect a statue of the goddess at the approach of the cursed hilltop and he, through worship of the goddess and mantras would create a protective barrier at the border so that no evil force could escape to take possession of our lives.

  Soon a vast statue of the goddess was erected at the approach of the burnt hilltop which was in fact a fat plateau. All the hill people were invited to the first gorgeous puza of the goddess.

  The tantric forbade us to trespass into the cursed land. This time nothing ominous happened and this increased our trust on the tantric. We offered goats for sacrifice at the altar of the goddess whenever the tantric asked for. We visited the image occasionally but never trespassed into the cursed plateau. One year passed without any trouble and in the mean time a beautiful temple was built around the image of the goddess. Trouble started because of the inadvertence of two naughty boys. Two boys of the village were missing and the tantric’s men informed us that the boys had inadvertently entered the cursed land and were killed by the dakinis (the female guards of goddess Kali). The tantric also expressed apprehensions that we too would not be spared this time as the entry of the boys had weakened the protective wall. He, however, did his best to repair the protective barrier but all in vain.

  The water of the perennial spring coming down from the northern hills dried up soon after the incident and we were in grave trouble. We could somehow manage to collect water for drinking and other domestic uses from a spring a few kilo meters downhill but shortage of irrigation water destroyed our vegetable cultivation during winter and spring and the families dependent on cultivation alone were in grave financial trouble.

  We then approached the tantric again and sought his help. The tantric told us that it was beyond is power to remove the curse fully at that moment but it could be temporarily removed if we abide by his directions. In between two rainy seasons when there is acute water crisis in the village we should send a few laborers for the service of the goddess and it is likely to lessen the curse temporarily and resume flow of water in the spring for a few hours. But he did not know yet if it would work but he might give a try.

  Since then during each dry season we have been sending laborers to the tantric. They have to perform some secret tasks for the tantric. The experience of all of them is the same. None could remember anything during their stay in the cursed land. The flow of water resumes during the stay of the laborers on the plateau, but the flow is intermittent and duration of each flow is very short. This is quite inadequate to meet the irrigation requirements during the dry seasons. When we related the problem to the tantric he informed us that anything more is beyond his power at the moment but he assured that he had learnt through meditation that the situation is likely to improve and the curse completely removed in a few years if we stick to our promise and never violate any norms set by him. But the poor cultivators could hardly wait that long. So we looked for some alternative although we still had trust on the power of the tantric.

  We soon learnt about a very old Hindu sage with supernatural power residing at a cave in Nepal. I and a few other elderly villagers met the sage. We had to wait for a few days as the sage remains silent except on Sundays. Finding us after opening his eyes, the sage told that he was already well aware of our problem, but unfortunately the solution was beyond his power and probably no one except a pious young Hindu with a trident mark on his forehead would be able to rescue us from the curse. Since then we have been frantically looking for the pious man at all conceivable places but all our efforts have so far been fruitless. Now by accident we have discovered you, the pious Hindu as described by the Nepali ascetic.’

  Nil felt embarrassed to hear all these and protested, ‘I’m an ordinary man without any religious practice and how can I remove the curse, where great tantrics and sages have failed?’

  Yalmo said calmly,
‘but you’re the right man although you yourself may not be aware of the dormant divine power in you.’

  ‘But I don’t know what I’m to do and moreover, I’m to leave for Calcutta on an urgent assignment the day after tomorrow.’

  ‘We too do not have any idea about the way you’re likely to help us. We are to learn this from the old sage at Nepal. You may now return to Calcutta and we’ll contact you in time.’

  After going to bed Nil’s head was filled with torrents of confusing thoughts. It seemed dubious to him if he had really any such divine power and he could be of any help at all to the villagers to save them from the curse. His trident mark was simply an accidental birth mark, like large moles and black patches on the body of a child. Suddenly from the very depth of his memory, an incident came alive. He was then about five years old. He had gone to visit Banaras with his parents. While they were coming out of the Viswanath temple a saffron clad elderly monk came forward and grabbing his hand started glancing at his forehead intently. At this his father burst into rage and ordered the monk in a grave voice, ‘let go of my son’s hand immediately.’

  The monk looked at Nil’s father calmly, ‘yes babu, I should have sought your permission before grabbing his hand, but noticing the auspicious mark on his forehead I got so much excited that I could not hold myself. Forgive me babu, but I must tell you that you’re lucky. Your son is not an ordinary person but has born with some divine power.’

  His father laughed out loudly and said ‘stop all nonsense’ and then in Hindi, ‘why are you wasting time by going the roundabout way? Tell me frankly if you need some money and I’d give it gladly.’

  The monk squinted and his face was filled with a charming smile and he said politely, ‘man, you have mistaken me to be a fake sadhu. I am a resident and teacher of a Vedanta ashram at Rishikesh. There is no exaggeration in what I’ve said about your son.’

  ‘Okay, thank you for your compliments’, Nil’s father said impatiently and pulling at Nil’s hand started away from the sadhu. Nil’s mother got infuriated and snatching out Nil from his father’s hand and led him again to the sadhu who was about to leave the place as a large number of curious people had gathered around him. She offered pranam to the sadhu and made Nil do so and said entreatingly, ‘Maharaj bless my son.’ The sadhu raised his hand for blessings and said, ‘Ma, I’m blessing him formally just for your satisfaction, but he has already been the blessed one of Lord Shiva who has left the mark of his trident on his forehead.’

  His father laughed away what the sadhu had said but his mother still believed that Nil had some supernatural power which would be revealed one day. Now was this the time for his power to blossom? Nil still felt doubtful about all these mysteries surrounding his trident mark.

  He fell asleep and soon got into the land of dreams.

  He dreamt of walking barefoot across a vast ground under the starry sky in the new moon night. On both sides of the dusty track were grotesque tantrics in red robes meditating with skulls on tiger skins in the mellow light of the sacred ovens. Some of the tantrics eyed him with curiosity but no body said him anything nor did anyone object to his trespassing into the territory meant for the tantrics alone. He now had gone far ahead where the place was lonely and no more tantrics were in sight. He heard some hushed voices from the undulating land ahead and he was terrified to see skulls and bony arms floating in the air only a few feet from him.. Someone called him from behind and looking back he noticed a group of tantrics running toward him. They came close to him and said, ‘don’t go any further ahead into the land of the ghosts and you’d fall dead the moment you step into the forbidden territory.’ A tantric came forward and extended his hand to grab him, but as soon as he reached near Nil a ray came out of his forehead and the tantric was thrown a few feet away. The eldest tantric now came close to him and looked closely at his forehead and said to his companions, ‘he’s not an ordinary man like us; he’s protected by Lord Shiva and no evil spirits can do him any harm.’ Then he told Nil, ‘you must be a divine man and go ahead with your mission.’ Then they offered him pranam with folded hands and vanished. Nil moved forward as though dragged by some force beyond his control and all of a sudden the sky became cloudy and nothing ahead could be visible. He could now hear only the hushed voices all around him and then he found him in front of a vast statue of goddess Kali. He soon realized it was not a statue but the live goddess herself. He fell at her feet and the goddess put her hand on his head and said affectionately, ‘son you’re the blessed one of my husband and you would be successful in your mission to help the hill people; but it would not be an easy task.. You would have to go through many hazards endangering your life, but through courage, patience, perseverance and intelligence you could be able to achieve your goal at the end and in your mission you should always keep with you the blessed Lepcha girl without whose help nothing could be achieved.’

  Nil’s sleep broke suddenly and he could not understand the meaning of the dream and thought it could be the reflections of his own confused thoughts. He fell asleep again and it was a deep sleep without any dreams.

  The next morning, his sleep broke as sunshine greeted him through the glass of the window and looking out he could not move his eyes from the fantastic view that was unfolding. He looked at the watch and leapt out of bed as it was about ten thirty. ‘Oh, I’ve slept for such a long time,’ he said to himself. He hastened to open the door and found the brother and sisters of Doma standing near the sill and smiling affably.

  ‘I was going to nock at the door right now,’ the brother said politely.

  ‘You could have done it earlier; it has already been late’, Nil said with worry.

  Their mother came forward and asked affectionately, ‘like to have your breakfast now?’.

  ‘Oh sure, I’m awfully hungry, but I’m to finish my toilet chores first. Okay I’m getting ready in a few minutes. But where is Doma?’

  ‘She has just gone out to talk with the Lama at his cottage and likely to return soon.’

  Yalmo who was listening to their talks standing in the garden said, ‘if you like to bathe I may get you warm water in a no time.’

  ‘No need right now. I’ll tell you if I need it tomorrow. In this cold weather I may as well go without baths for days’, Nil said smiling.

  Nil now went out with the tooth brush in his mouth and looked at the house from the hind side out of the ground floor and the house amidst the pines and rhododendrons looked picturesque. The sky was clear with small patches of cloud drifting across and the cluster of trees at the slopes of the distant hills looked like a chess board as sun rays could reach only the clusters projected outward, the inward ones remaining in the shadow.

  The breakfast was bread and butter along with locally made alubakra jelly and the sweetish peach wine again. Doma returned soon and told that the Lama had some important works now and he would talk with Nil in the afternoon. She asked Nil if he would like to visit the village now and Nil readily gave consent. Doma got ready in a few minutes and went out with him for a visit of the village. Her brother and sisters were gloomy as their mother did now permit them to accompany Nil and Doma lest they create troubles. Doma led Nil across the village and showed him various places of interest. The village, surrounded by hills on all sides, looked like a cauldron. The hills were thickly covered with green pines and cryptomarius. A rivulet had gone through the entire length of the village like a serpent, but its bed was dry and overgrown with grass and weeds.

  There were about hundred Buddhist Lepcha families in the village, most of whom were peasants and they used to grow all sorts of vegetables, cabbages, cauliflowers, beans, beets, gourds, cucumbers, peas, radishes, red potatoes, carrots etc. The lush green of the vegetable fields, adorning the lower slopes of the hills and the spaces between the huts, were enchanting in the past, Doma said with nostalgic recollections. Produces of the fields over and above family needs were sold to urban markets, and with this income, necessaries from the town
s were bought. But everything had changed now with the rivulet drying out by the curse of the goddess. The fields were dry now with sickly crops. She told that the tiny villages around were connected with each other by narrow hilly tracks cut at places by streams which had to be crossed along tree or rope bridges. The monastery was situated at a desolate valley beyond the hills to the south and they would have to cross a gorge over a rope bridge to reach the place.

  Doma asked, ‘do you like to visit the monastery?’

  ‘Not now. Better let’s go to the hilltop to the north and have glimpse of the cursed plateau.’

  ‘Okay, but I don’t like to stay there for a long time. The ominous plateau frightens me.’

  On their way many local villagers were looking at Nil with curiosity and children with smiling faces greeted Nil and Doma. If anyone asked about the purpose of Nil’s visit she told them that Nil was a tourist interested in visiting the remote hill villages. Doma once again cautioned Nil that his mission should be kept a strict secret; only she, her parents and the Lama would know it. If common villagers learnt about the mission this would soon reach the knowledge of the tantric who would think that the Lepchas had lost confidence in him and appointed someone else to resolve their problem and he might be aggrieved and leave them completely unprotected against the curse. At present, whatever help he was providing by his capability was necessary and if he refrained from his protective worships, the task of Nil would become more difficult.

  The track leading to the foothill had a gentle slope and Nil could not feel at all that he had already climbed about thousand feet. Now the village was visible like one in a satellite map. The dry water course further to the east was now clearly visible. It had come down like a snake and the lower reaches were overgrown with thick weeds that needed scanty water to live. The upper reach had turned behind a hill spreading eastward.

  The hill, about thousand feet in altitude, was very steep, but there were thick pinewoods all the way and they could climb up easily by holding the trunks and branches of the pines and taking rest whenever necessary. Anticipating that their tour would take time, Doma had brought along their lunch packets and they had their lunch at a flat place just beneath the crest of the hill.

  After lunch they started climbing the last twenty feet to the summit. This part was very steep and without any trees to hold on to. There were cracks on the rock body and Nil had to crawl to avert the risk of slipping down. Doma, however, was scaling the steep rise like a squirrel and finding Nil falling behind and struggling, she came down and extended her hand and caught hold of Nil’s hand firmly. The touch of her strong but soft hand sent tremors down his spine. Doma did not feel any difficulty to drag Nil along and reaching the summit she let go of Nil’s hand and burst into wild laughter that echoed back from the surrounding hills. She was now standing five feet from Nil, her body gesticulating with her laughter and the untied long hair floating wildly in the roaring wind. She now appeared like a heavenly nymph and Nil thought this too could be a dream. He was amazed and thrilled to think of being alone in an unknown land with a nymph. The barren hilltop was a circular space about fifteen feet in radius. All sides of the hill that stood like a pyramid were covered with forests and curved into the other hills around. The curve to the north was the largest and it had a flat bottom after which it had sloped gently into a larger hill with a barren plateau at the top and Nil could understand that this was the cursed plateau. To the south east corner of the plateau the dome of the Kali temple of the tantric was glistening in sunshine. Doma now looked a bit panicked and entreated Nil not to look much at the cursed place and whispered in his ears, ‘let’s leave the place at once.’

  While climbing down the barren part of the slope Nil took hold of Doma’s arm and again he felt thrilled and also nervous.

  Returning home they had snacks and tea and after an hour’s rest they proceeded for the Lama’s cottage. Now Yalmo too accompanied them. The Lama greeted them warmly and ushered them into the outer room. After tea, the Lama moved toward the door at the far corner of the room and signaled them to follow him. He instructed the boy to stand guard at the entrance of the cottage and to inform all visitors that the he was busy meditating and could not meet anyone before the next morning. The door opened into a flight of stairs climbing down into a stuffy room closed on all sides by stone walls except the door at the bottom of the staircase. The Lama closed the door and got seated on a blanket spread over a raised square platform of stone at the middle of the room and requested them to sit down.

  Nil guessed that the cellar was cut into the hill and was like a cave and in the semi darkness, with only a few dim candles at the feet of an antique Buddha statue cut into the stonewall, an eerie sensation coursed through Nil.

  The Lama broke the silence, ‘I’ve pondered over the matter very seriously and consulted some tantra books. No doubt Nil is the man to resolve our problem. But I’m still in the dark how he could be utilized.’

  He turned toward Nil and said, ‘you go back to Calcutta. I’ll soon visit the great Hindu sage at Nepal and consult him and in accordance with his advice chalk out the mission for you and you would be informed in time.’

  ‘After he comes to this place again and the mission explained to him’ the Lama continued, ‘we would have to wait for the auspicious moment to initiate the mission. Remember that this is a very secret mission. Only me, Nil, Yalmo and Doma would know it. The tantric should not get any inkling that we’ve lost confidence in his capabilities.’

  The Lama admitted that he had very little knowledge of the great mother goddess Kali revered by both the Hindus and the Bazrajan Buddhists and she is the goddess from which tantric power emerges. He asked Nil if he had any idea about the reason of her horrible appearance, her nudity, the garland of skulls entwining her neck and her blood thirsty protruding tongue.

  It was now too late to return to their home and they decided to spend the night at the cottage and accordingly the Lama instructed the boy to prepare meals for the three guests. Nil started his story and resumed it after dinner.

  ‘According to the Hindu puranas the ubiquitous, omnipotent, attribute-less Brahman desired to create the palpable universe and it was created by his will. As it was created out of nothingness it had to contain equal amounts of good and evil. These opposite attributes are present in every matter and particle of the universe. In the arena of the celestial beings, gods with nobler attributes and demons with baser attributes are opposed to each other, the gods living in the heaven and the demons in the Netherlands.

  But at times intelligent demons perform painstaking meditations and are rewarded by the supreme gods like Brahma and Shiva. This makes the blessed demons much powerful to vanquish heaven driving out the gods who are compelled to take shelter with Lord Vishnu and Shiva. In such adverse circumstances Lord Vishnu advises the minor gods to invoke the root of all power, the mother goddess Parvati who alone is capable of killing the demons. Parvati, the supreme goddess and source of all powers is also the cohort of Lord Shiva.

  In her mission once Parvati was confronted with a demon called Raktabiz. The demon had the blessings of the supreme gods that if a single drop of his blood fell on the ground, hundred such demons would emerge out of it. So, Parvati was in serious trouble in course of her war with Raktabiz. Within a short time thousands of demons emerged out of the blood drops of the demons that were killed by the goddess. She then invoked the goddess Kali who resided within her and Kali emerged from her forehead. Kali, being the most terrible aspect of the supreme mother power, went into a mad spree, slaughtering demons and drinking their blood which could not go beyond her protruding large tongue. She went on dancing and rejoicing the slaughter of the demons and made merriment by garlanding herself with the cut off heads of the demons.

  Soon all the demons were killed but the goddess had gone into frenzy, even unaware that her garments had fallen down from her body making her completely nude. She still went on with her horrible cosmic dance shaking t
he entire universe. Realizing that the universe would soon collapse unless the goddess was restrained, every one in the universe prayed to Lord Shiva who alone could restrain the crazy goddess. Shiva knew that no words or prayers would be able to restore her to senses. So he cunningly devised a way out. He lay on his back on her path and she being in a state of frenzy stepped on his chest and her instinct made her look down and being extremely perturbed to find herself setting feet on her husband’s body which was a sin according to Hindu religion. She stopped her dance and was in a fix what to do and then she discovered that she was completely nude. Out of utter embarrassment she ran away and the universe was saved from being crumbling by her horrible cosmic dance.

  This mother goddess is now mostly worshipped by the Hindu Bengalis, but she has devotees all over India and also in some foreign countries. In Malaysia she is known as Mariamma. Origin of this goddess may be traced back to the pre-Vedic age. The devout Hindus consider it as a grave sin to look at her nude image. So in most of the temples symbol or her bust is worshipped. In the great festival of the Bengalis known as Kali Puza her full image is adorned with a sari. Real tantrics, free from all vices, however, may worship her nude image.

  She is both a benevolent and destructive goddess. Her worship is to be performed with proper devotion and perfect rituals. The priests are very careful to avoid minor irregularities which may invite her wrath. Honest and ethical devotees of this goddess are guarded against all evil forces outside and the vices inside. Tantric worship gives one magic power but these should never be misused or used to harm others or fulfill vile desires like lust. The fake tantrics who misuse the power acquired by tantric cult are punished by the goddess. In earlier times the robbers in Bengal used to worship her to acquire power for performing their mischief and ultimately they were punished by the goddess.’

  After relating the account of the goddess Nil assured them that notwithstanding her apparently angry disposition, the goddess is basically an affectionate mother and forgives all mischief if atonement is made in the proper way and Nil would try his best to appease the goddess so that she forgave the hill people whatever be their fault in the past.

  Nil went into bed late at night and dreamt that he was inside a dense forest at the feet of goddess Kali adorned with a red sari and golden ornaments scintillating with jewels. He prayed to her to forgive the innocent hill people whose ancestors might have committed some sin of which they were unaware. The goddess smiled affectionately and assured Nil that she would heed to his prayer but only after he had gone through the difficult tastes she would put him to. She would test his honesty, character, perseverance, patience, tolerance and dedication. He would be subjected to hazards and temptations which he would have to overcome. The goddess said that the Lepcha girl was a divine entity but she was completely unaware of it. She had strong fascinations for Nil but Nil should be careful not to indulge in any physical relation with her.

  He woke late and assured the Lama that he was now confident that he would be able to appease the goddess and persuade her to forgive the hill people. He took complete rest for the day and left for Siliguri the next day to meet his trekkers at New Jalpaiguri railway station. Doma bade him good bye and said in tearful eyes, ‘I’ll be looking for your return.’