It’s not that I’d never been there before. I’ve visited the place 2/3 times. Though I’m not of very religious kind, I like visiting the surroundings, the people, the Ganga etc.. The plan was quite instant. A friend called me up in the morning saying he’s leaving Kolkata in 2/3 days and haven’t visited any place here and asked me to suggest some place. And I couldn’t think of any, I said, “I’m not sure, you probably have visited the places I know like Dakshineswar, Victoria Palace and….”.
“No…I’ve not been to Dakshineswar”.
“All right, Let’s go then.”
“No…I’ve not been to Dakshineswar”.
“All right, Let’s go then.”
It was already a bit late, because staying out in the scorching heat that almost touches 46 degree in the peak hours is definitely not a good idea. But as the plan is made and decisions taken, there’s only one option: “Get ready and come to my place as soon as possible.” I shouted and disconnected my phone. Within half an hour we were out and reached the nearest railway station to catch the Dankuni local. We were late. The next train was after 45 minutes. So we took a bus to Dakshineswar and reached almost in 30-45 minutes. I was more interested in taking him to Belur Math rather than the Dakshineswar temple as I liked the place and the journey through the Ganga. So we took hardly 20 minutes to see the deity and the temple around and left for Belur in the next boat for it. By the time we reached it was almost time for the closure. There was less than one hour left but, that was enough for us to get a quick look around.
So far the experience was good if not very good because of the weather but, it was not the Experience I mean in the title. This was just the background to the story. The experience starts now. I mean not right now, soon.
We took a water bottle and rested in the shade of a tree for sometime looking around. Lots of people were moving around in groups of their own but still there was a comfortable noise level. Children in the groups didn’t seem to care about the heat. It was almost noon then and the temperature was still rising. We decided to go inside the main temple, spend some time there and then decide what to do next. It was a large hall with high walls. The idol of Ramkrishna Paramhamsa was placed at the furthest end of the hall. I asked my friend to go and have a look around and sat by the near by pillar. The temperature was considerably low there with large pedestal fans creating the feel of a smooth breeze inside. I felt relieved and sat leaning to the pillar and stretched out my legs. A small crouching child was playing with a ring besides his/her guardian. I smiled at the child and stretched my hand in an expression to come near me. The child looked at me and choose to stay away from the strangers.
I was just about to close my eyes to give rest to my eyelids when I saw a guard waving at me and hinting something. I couldn’t understand at first what he meant but soon realized that I was facing sideways to the idol. This was disrespectful and he wanted me to turn around. I was irritated a bit and remembered the story of a famous mystic who was sleeping in the stairs of a temple with his legs towards the deity. The temple priest came near him and asked him to turn his legs as this was very disrespectful to the God. The mystic answered, “Please turn my legs to a direction where there is no God”. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to answer the guard the same way and turned around still thinking of how to show the depth of my knowledge on philosophy to the guard and make him feel low. But then something happened. As I turned I felt surprisingly satisfied. The irritation moments ago was gone in an instant. I felt kind of impressed about the guard for being so alert in monitoring people inside. A smile came to my face without any reason while I continued to stare blankly at the idol. I was surprised by this change in mood.
As I said, I’m not of a religious sort but, something was there given away for free to everyone who faced it. You may call it blessings or pure positive energy. The guard actually suggested me the right thing to do inside. It’s not that Belur Math was special, I almost had nearly same feelings in almost every temple I visited but, never cared about these things or never thought like this before. I continued to sit in that posture while my friend came back and sat near me. I turned around and saw the child crouching towards me and urging me to play with him. I was feeling happy and smiled at him. He responded with a even broader smile. We played with the water bottle for sometime and then came out.
We took a round in the park, clicked some pictures(It was not allowed though), saw the 200 year old mango tree, visited the old shrine. We were feeling a bit hungry by then as we hadn’t our breakfast. We took the prasaad coupons and joined the queue for it. It was a simple meal but was good.
The main temple was already closed by the time we finished. We came out to the main road and took a bus to return.
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