A Sunday Outing in Gaya

“Ma-jee, paisa dedo, ma-jee, paisa…” “Mother, please give us money,” was the pleading, out of habit and necessity at the same time, of the children and the elderly on the way up to the temple. The children had the energy to follow me up the 400 plus stairs, so halfway up in the scorching heat, when their pleading became an added weight, I succumbed and gave them a 10 rupee note, demanding that the recipient evenly share the money with the second boy, 5 rupees for himself and 5 rupees for the other. I was drenched in sweat as I reached the very top of the hill to the place where Buddha gave his third sermon after attaining enlightenment in Bodh Gaya. The sermon at Brahmayoni is referred to as the Adittapariraya Sutta or the Fire Sermon and was preached to a thousand former fire-worshipping ascetics on the subject of liberation from suffering through the detachment from the five senses and the mind. However, the temple there existed much before this sermon and derived its name from a natural fissure on the mountaintop, giving the appearance of a yoni, symbolic of the female energy. Believed to be the yoni or the female force of Lord Brahma, the temple became known as Brahmayoni. The main deity worshipped is a 5-headed goddess, Savitri, and before the shrine is the synthetic footprint of Brahma. The view of Gaya town, the sacred Falgu River, and the many other religiously significant sites of the area from atop the temple is marvelous.

Earlier this Sunday morning, after passing through several paddy fields in my somewhat flashy, white Amabssador, the glorious car of India’s past, we reached the Mangala Gouri temple, atop another of the many hills that pepper Gaya’s landscape. The temple is believed to have been constructed in the 15th century, but the location is believed to be the same mentioned in several puranas and various tantric texts dated much older. Many believe that this is another Upa-Shakthi Pitha, or one of the places where a body part of Shakthi fell to the earth. I had visited another Pitha in Kathmandu last year, dedicated to the yoni, so while a strange concept, it was not foreign to me. Here, Shakthi is worshipped in the form of a breast, a symbol of nourishment.

The Ambassador

In my 7 visits this past year, this is the first time I've seen the cursed Falgu River with water

Women clearing the paddy fields for sowing

Vimanam of the Mangala Gouri temple

A hazy view of Brahmayoni from below

Savitri temple

The 5-headed goddess

'Matha Yoni' shrine along the way up

After only a half a day’s outing, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted from the heat and hiking up to the hilltops. After picking up pomegranates and mangoes at the tail end of their season, I headed home for a nice shower, lunch, and preparations for the week ahead. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on this week’s “field trip” planned for some of our members, where they’ll be observing and learning about the techniques and benefits of kitchen gardening, an easy, low cost way to grow vegetables at home to enhance food security and even make a small income from selling excess produce.

Lady clearing the paddy fields

Preparing for sowing the fields