Kalibhavananda by Jay Mazo © 2004

 

A small dark woman moved swiftly through the fields cutting down the rice stalks with her sickle. Behind her there followed her six small children. The children laughed and played, while their mother did the work. Finally in the evening, they were joined by her husband who was a cattle herder. Their mud hut was small, but clean. The family was very poor and survived by working for the landlord. Of the six children, the mother loved her youngest child the most. Although Kalibhavananda was small, he was devoted to his parents and very fearless. One evening his father took him to the riverbank to show the deity that he worshipped. The father put a bowl of milk next to an anthill and told Kalibhavananda to bow down. Then the father called out to Nagaraja. Suddenly a loud hissing sound slowly emerged out of the anthill. A giant six foot king cobra with glowing eyes appeared. He was followed by two smaller female snakes on each side. The king cobra came closer to the bowed down father and son. Then he stopped and slowly drank the milk. Afterwards the two female snakes also drank the milk. Then they slowly disappeared back down into the anthill. The father explained that this Nagaraja protected the village of Kotapuri where they lived.

Years passed and nothing ever changed for the poor peasant family. Gradually five of the children got married and started their own families living in poverty. One day the mother called Kalibhavananda. She told her youngest son that she did not want him to live a life of poverty and servitude. She made her son promise to remain a bachelor and become a Tantric yogi who would live a life of wandering freedom. The mother made her son sit next to her at the village cremation grounds. Kalibhavananda held his breath while his mother whispered the Kali mahamantra into his right ear. Krim Krim Krim Hum Hum Hum Hrim Hrim Hrim Dakshina Kalika Parameshwari Svaha. The mother promised her son that the goddess Kali would always look after him with love. Kalibhavananda followed his mother’s wishes and traveled to the jungle near some old temple ruins to meditate on the Kali mahamantra until the goddess Kali would appear and bless him. His mother also told Kalibhavananda to meditate sitting on a fresh human corpse. Deeper and deeper Kalibhavananda moved through the dark jungles of Assam. Suddenly he came upon a dead lady who had been bitten by a snake twelve hours ago. With faith in his mother’s words, Kalibhavananda sat upon the corpse and began to chant the Kali mahamantra. He had absolute certainty that goddess Kali would come to him and bless his spiritual practices.

Years passed and meanwhile the Nagaraja who protected Kotapuri village had died. Now misfortune began to spread in the village. First the rains ceased. Then the famine came. Rats ran around searching for any scarce food. Then the plague began to kill the people of Kotapuri. The plague now threatened to spread to other surrounding villages. The raja called for a meeting of his council of ministers to solve the problem. After two days of debate, the council of ministers recommended to the king that the only way to prevent the plague from spreading from Kotapuri to the rest of the kingdom was to destroy the village. The raja was not happy about this advice, but saw it as the only way to save his kingdom from the spreading plague. The next night the raja’s army surrounded Kotapuri. The soldiers were all armed with arrows dipped with kerosene. Then the general ordered his soldiers to light their arrows and begin firing at the huts inside Kotapuri. Amid screams and death, the village of Kotapuri was wiped off Assam. There were no survivors left to tell the story of how the village met its ghastly end. The plague had been stopped even though hundreds of innocent peasants went to their death.

Meanwhile Kalibhavananda continued his spiritual practices year after year in the dense jungles of Assam. Suddenly flames shot up from the ground all around where he was meditating. A blue ball of light manifested. Out of the light emerged the goddess Kali. Kalibhavananda opened his eyes upon the radiant form of the great goddess. Kali told him that after years of hard penance she was now blessing his efforts with psychic powers. Kali called upon two ancient spirits to come out of the earth. Two giant spirits appeared with long white hair. Their names were Anima Asura and Vishwa Asura. Kali told Anima Asura to give Kalibhavananda the power to become small as an atom and travel invisibly under the earth. The great goddess told Vishwa Asura to give Kalibhavananda the power to come back up from the earth and assume any size he wanted. Kalibhavanananda promised to always love and serve the goddess Kali. Then Kali and her two spirits vanished just as quickly as they had appeared. Kalibhavananda now decided to return home to his native village. He invoked the Kali mahamantra to become as small as an atom and quickly travel underground. Then he used the mantra to come up out of the earth and assume his normal size. But to his amazement there were only burnt empty spaces where the village of Kotapuri had once been. With rage in his heart, he decided to find out the cause of this catastrophe.

After many weeks of searching and questioning, he found out that the raja had ordered Kotapuri to be destroyed. No more would Kalibhavananda see his beloved mother and father. Now he decided that the raja would pay for his crime. The first man to pay was the raja’s general who ordered his soldiers to burn the village. Kalibhavananda strode unannounced into the king’s palace. He pointed at the army minister and invoked the Kali mantra. Blood came out of the army minister who collapsed dead on the floor. Then one by one, Kalibhavananda invoked the Kali mantra to kill all the remaining council of ministers who advised the raja to burn down Kotapuri village. Only the raja remained alive in the palace of corpses. But Kalibhavananda thought his revenge was finished and decided not to kill the raja. That was his big mistake. A wounded tiger must never be underestimated for treachery. Forgetting about the humiliated raja, Kalibhavananda decided to go on pilgrimage to Kamaroop where there was a very powerful temple of the great goddess. So he joined hundreds of other happy pilgrims in walking through the jungle while chanting hymns to the goddess Kali. All Kalibhavananda could think of was reaching the temple and securing blessings from his beloved mother Kali. But the surviving raja could not forget how a peasant turned Tantric yogi had successfully challenged his authority.

There was only one hope left for the defeated raja. He remembered that twenty years ago when his kingdom was about to be overrun by an invading enemy army, the royal priest had used his psychic powers to advise the king where to attack the enemy at its weakest points. So removing his crown as a gesture of humility, the raja approached his old priest named Artharva Brahmana. The king told his priest how a peasant turned Tantric had used his powers to kill all his ministers. The old priest quietly listened and promised to protect the kingdom just as he had done for the raja’s father. But Artharva Brahmana made the raja swear to follow all his orders for a great sacrifice that would guarantee the death of the king’s enemy, Kalibhavananda. One week later, the raja brought in 108 buffalos and tied them to individual stakes in a newly constructed sacrificial hall. As soon as Artharva Brahmana raised his right hand, the king’s servants swung their swords down upon the necks of every buffalo. Their blood was immediately collected and poured into the sacrificial fire altar maintained by Artharva Brahmana. A strange noise was heard from within the fire pit. A huge ghostlike tiger appeared and disappeared and finally walked towards the old royal priest. The ghost astral tiger looked into the eyes of the priest and breathed on his face. But a light shot out of Artharva Brahmana’s eyes which commanded the huge monster to obey his will. The old priest pointed in the direction of Kamaroop and ordered the tiger of death to kill Kalibhavananda.

The giant beast leaped into action and disappeared into the sky. Suddenly the pilgrims going to Kamaroop felt the presence of a sinister agent of death coming closer out of nowhere. They all began to run off in all directions. Kalibhavananda looked up into the sky and realized that the king’s priest had sent this creature to kill him. He cursed the old priest and tried to use the Kali mahamantra to protect himself. But he was mentally paralyzed and the mantra was forgotten. It was all over in an instant. All that remained of Kalibhavananda was some drops of blood on the ground. A week later, some of the pilgrims told the raja that a mysterious tiger came out of the sky and killed his enemy Kalibhavananda. The raja was so happy that he sent his soldiers into every village to distribute sweets and coins to celebrate his victory of revenge over the upstart former peasant. The next day the king ordered that upon pain of death, nobody was ever again to mention the name of Kalibhavananda or Kotapuri village. Then the raja visited his old priest to boast about their victory. But the raja got an unexpected reply from Artharva Brahmana. The priest told the raja that their victory was only temporary. He foresaw that in the future a new India would arise where the common man would rule and the rajas and priests would have no more power. Artharva Brahmana also told the raja that Kalibhavananda would be reborn far away and would come back to India seeking Devi darshan, but would return married to a Shiva devotee. The priest told the raja that it was now time for him to retire to the Himalayas and seek his soul’s ultimate release. The raja was shocked to learn that his priest was actually over 1700 years old and had served all the past kings of Assam.

So the raja had to accept the day when his trusted old priest left the kingdom and walked towards the Himalayas. The land changed from that of jungle to plains. The altitude began to slowly increase. The snows began to daily fall. Finally after months of wandering, Artharva Brahmana had reached his final destination high upon the Himalayas. The old priest sat down in the lotus posture. Memories of all the past kings of Assam passed and disappeared within his memory. On the cosmic level all this was a passing illusion. Artharva Brahmana focused his consciousness upon the top of his head. A flame of light rose from his heart to the top of his head. He felt his human consciousness expanding into a cosmic infinity. His soul merged into the unending light. Everywhere the world was pervaded by an effulgent light. The light then manifested as bliss. God was everywhere. His individuality ceased. The old Brahmana was liberated. He merged in God. His body was no more needed. His chains of karma had been broken. The next spring some shepherds found the dead Brahmana. They cremated his mortal remains. But a continuous rose scent manifested. So the local people decided to make a small shrine over the old Brahamana’s ashes. Gradually many people came to that shrine high in the Himalayas to have their wishes granted.