Yagyaseni (Prologue)
Lying there, all cold, tired and satiated, it felt like any moment now, she’ll see him. A shadow of him at least, wearing the pitambar dhoti, morpankh and mukut that shines brighter that suryadev himself. That divine aura was what she was perhaps seeking. But he has left his mortal body quite a while back she remembered. Has he though? She thought.
Jaanbai’s last day in the Himalayas was epic. She went to the last place a human being should go before death. The land on the Himalay where it is said that Yuddhishthir went to heaven from.
Jaanbai had already been to the final places of the rest of the pandav, places where they said to have befallen to leave their mortal bodies. Still she had to, just one more time go to the place where one of her favourite women had befallen –
Yagyaseni.
—
“Krishnaa!” she heard a faint yell.
“Krushn?” she barely could muster up the energy to speak, she fought with every bit to speak just this much. She saw a yellow light, that divine aura she was searching or had imagined would look like.
—
Jaanbai was shook by the herd boy. She was put back into reality, oh what a waste. She realized that she had passed out from exhaustion. It was evening now. She should have climbed down to her rest house by now. The little herd boy looked worried for her. She sat up, ate her energy bar, drank some water from her thermos and was now stable enough to move. She thanked the little boy, gave him her
homemade snacks and was on her way.
It was Akshay Tritiya. The village temple was all decorated with orange and yellow marigold flowers. The stone temple looked aesthetically beautiful with the splashes of abil and gulal all over its walls and arches. Pooja preparations were going on. Jaanbai was just entering, when in the hallway, she saw DadiBaa walking towards the door she right now was sort of blocking. DadiBaa seemed to be tensed about something but just as she saw Jaanbai her face melted into a beautiful motherly smile.
“Aavi gayi dikra? Kevi rahi taari yatra?” she gently asked
“Jai Shree Krushn Baa. Bov saras rahi maari yaatra Baa!”
“I bet we’d all hear about it my dear!” said DadiBaa.
“Probably in a different way this time Baa. Why were you tensed before baa? You were sort of rushing out of here.”
DadiBaa suddenly remembered and said, “Oh yes! The trouble my child is that we’ve organized a yagna on this occasion of Akshay Tritiya. But the pandit who was supposed to come to help us perform the yagna fell down the stairs and has broken his leg. He can’t come. Can you help in anyway baccha ? Do you know any pandit scholar who can help us last minute with this yagna? We can’t cancel our manorath like this now.”
“I know someone who can perform the yagna Baa. But I should tell you this, the person is neither a Brahmin, nor a scholar.” replied Jaanbai, smiling like she had a secret concoction boiling.
“Okay….” DadiBaa thought for a moment and said “Who is he?”
“Baa, it is a she and she is me!” DadiBaa looked perplexed.
She gained a little balance and said, “Okay beta. You’ll help us with this yagna now. Sure you’re comfortable with this task baccha?”
“Yes Baa. I’ll get to work.”
Jaanbai went inside the temple, finished her prayer and went straight towards her home. She loved doing yagnas and havans and she was very particular even, in the practices and their concerning stuff.
She owned a pair of brand new, unwashed clothes, a couple of them actually. She knew religious practiced needed these kinds of clothes. She bathed one more time, from head to toe and changed into her kurti and salwar reserved for practices like this. She even checked the choghadiyu. There were 2 back to back choghadiyas that were really good.
She reached the temple where a bunch of people were in an argument with DadiBaa. She overheard some of it.
“Why can’t she do it? She is much more learned than us in these matters. She does yagnas herself, she’s clean every which way. About the caste, wasn’t Maharishi Vishwamitra a kshatriya by birth? But in spirit he was a Brahmin and went on to become the most learned scholar of his time. Caste isn’t everything! So now, the only argument you’re left with is that she’s a woman, and I dare you, if you go
there it’s not gonna end well.” DadiBaa was on fire.
Jaanbai went to the lorri cart nearby and bought a couple of mangoes for hom in the yagna. When she returned, DadiBaa was now almost scolding the group of people.
“Remember, this religion, faith and practices all are forwarded to us from a yug where matriarchy existed, a time where the men would proudly take the names of their wives/mothers’ names before their name and were addressed in this fashion. We have a very progressive lineage. This faith, religion, practices and traditions etc. are still existent and concrete still is all thanks to all the women in our world. It might not have been as strong if the roles were interchanged. Imagine, men don’t even know your own family’s customs. Your wives know them well enough to pass it to the next generation, all the while remembering the traditions of their maternal lineage as well. Don’t forget we have had a good enough sansaar because Draupadi – Yagyaseni had had made Mahabharat a world benefitting event and not just a personal revenge (which she could’ve made). Ask Ashwatthama if you wish.”
“Whatever you deem fit Baa. You surely know better than us. Whatever Thakorji has planned for us will be for our own good.” Someone from the group said.
DadiBaa looked at Jaanbai; she immediately knew that she fought for the correct side. She signaled Jaanbai to enter the temple. Jaanbai almost frolicked and ran inside the temple. Everything was set for her in there. The gulabjal and ittra were sprinkled in every corner of the temple, incense sticks were lit. The yagya kund was beautifully decorated with organi c colours. Jaanbai took her seat on her pink
aasan after offering her pooja to Shivling and secretly wishing that her Baba, Mahadev will make this new endeavor of hers a successful one. She prepped the yagya kund and did the shubhaarambh. The villagers that were sizing her up, were wowed by her. The mantras progressed, the samagris were offered and at last the main hom of mango, kheer and bidu were offered. A great scent spread in that little hall of the little temple. Despite the smoke, it was felt as if a fresh breeze came from the middle of the yagna. The slow effect of the mantras, the incense spread among the villagers and everyone had a different experience of this practice. But it was a divine one for sure. Jaanbai did Namaskar to the yagna, offered mantras to request the deities to return to their respective abodes. She then did pradakshina like when we do in holika dahan and then did dandvat as per the Vaishnav norms. Everyone followed her form while she went and offered pooja to Shivji as a thank you for a successful yagna, this was a common practice, she knew.
Everyone removed themselves from the temple to meet at the paadar to discuss about the Satyanarayan Katha to be held in the evening. Jaanbai waited for everyone to empty the temple. The yagna was still live. She sat on her seat again and meditated there. She does this at her home too. After 15 minutes or so, she woke from her meditative state and found little Nandini sitting beside her. Her act of meditating was quite cute. Nandini opened one eye to see if Jaanbai had woken up from her meditation. She giggl ed when she found she was caught in the act. Jaanbai chuckled softly.
“Didi, DadiBaa is waiting for you outside at the Otlo. She told me to not disturb you in your meditation. “
Jaanbai stood up, did namaskar one more time and picked up her aasan. The yagna had died out now. Nandini took Jaanbai’s finger in her fist and practically dragged her out of the temple. They both sat by DadiBaa.
“Yes Baa.” said Jaanbai politely.
“Beta, the yagna was a divine one indeed. Much more amazing than I had imagined.” DadiBaa had a way of smiling that’d make you feel like your mother was smiling on you lovingly.
Jaanbai said nothing but reciprocated in smile and bowed her head a little.
“We all have made another decision baccha. We would love it if from now onwards, you do all the poojas and religious practices in our village. On the occasions for whatever reasons you can’t perform, the village won’t conduct those practices either. We are joining ourselves to you now. Like a family. Also you’re going to perform the Satyanarayan Katha this evening as well. Will this be alright with you diku?”
Jaanbai was a little overwhelmed. Somehow she had a little trouble with this kind of intimacy. She subconsciously had managed to keep people at a safe distance.
She could just smile.
DadiBaa somehow sensed her discomfort; Nandini even looked at her, perplexed.
“You should change into your normal clothes for now and maybe get some rest for a little while. Will you then join us in the preparations for this evening’s Katha?” DadiBaa said with utmost lightness in her tone.
Jaanbai smiled and nodded. She took leave of DadiBaa and said bye to Nandini.
DadiBaa was sure that once Jaanbai hears what the village ladies think of today’s yagna and the decision the feminist in her would love it. Jaanbai was as progressive as it gets, her resistance to all this was her own problems, something that needed healing in her.
She went to Mukhi Baapu’s home in search for the whole party. They were all there and elated to see Jaanbai. They all welcomed Jaanbai with their experiences about the morning yagna and they cheered her on. Since most of these women were elder than Jaanbai, this validation made her feel good. Her lunch was at Mukhi Maa’s kitchen, with the other ladies. They parted at about 2 in the
afternoon.
It was 5pm now. Thanks to the summer heat, the time had to be shifted for the katha.
The preparations were almost done when Jaanbai arrived at the Otlo. The gents had done the heavy lifting and even the decorations as well. The kids helped and women bewildered at the whole sight.
Jaanbai spread her pink aasan and started the sthapna vidhi. Everyone took their places. Laxminarayan poojan was done by Mukhi Maa and Baapu, Jaanbai instructed them, Ganesh Poojan was done as well. DadiBaa sat silently seeing everything that went on. Jaanbai started the Katha. She knew it by heart. Back home when her parents allowed her to have Ganpatiji during the Ganesh Chaturthi, she’d to this Katha every time, as is the norm.
After the Katha, she started the Vishnu Sahastranaam and gave the villagers an even potent mantra to chant all the while she was done with the 1000 names of Vishnu.
The villagers chanted, in chorus :
राम राम रामेति रमे रामे मनोरमे ।
सहस्रनाम तत्तुल्यं रामनाम वरानने ॥
The utthapan vidhi followed and the Satyanarayan Katha was successfully taken to the purnahuti by Jaanbai.
The Prasad was distributed by men and the women sang some evening bhajans. Someone from the crowd said, “Now that Jaanbai is back, maybe we can have a story telling session tonight?”
“Lakhman, she must be tired today. We can have the bethaks from tomorrow.”Mukhi Maa said.
“Mukhi Maa, it is fine. We’ll have a short session today if that’s alright with everyone.” Jaanbai replied.
Everyone happily agreed. It was almost dinner time now, so everyone cleared everything out and rushed to their homes to have dinner and come back here quickly. Jaanbai had prepared a Dudh Pava kheer of sorts before coming at Paadar for the Katha. She happily ate this satvik food. Just so it happened, she had had only satvik and cool foods today, which made it easy for her to step up to the challenge of channelizing the human devi she admired so much.
Fin.