Religious Harmony

Prophets or God’s messengers always fought against social malpractices ruining lives of ordinary people.  Their lives were threatened; they were ostracized or sometimes even killed.  In due course of time religions have come into existence following their school of thought.  Religion that has come into existence to teach people to love one another is becoming cause of conflict and wars.

As every religion teaches us to love, live, and let live is followed religiously by all and practiced as fundamental principle of life this earth will become heaven.

On 'Durgaashtami’ 2^nd of October, I visited Bhadrakali temple in Warangal.  Being auspicious day, many temple rituals were going on. Usually there will be temple musicians who play ‘dolu’ (drums) and ‘sannai’ (shahnai).  They will be playing instruments during the rituals.  The striking difference on Durgaashtami was a lady was playing shahnai.  First time in my life I have seen a woman playing shahnai.  I was surprised and happy to see a woman playing Shahnai. 

I took a short video of her performance.  On interacting with her I came to know that she learnt it from her father.  She gave me another jolt of pleasant surprise when I asked her name.

“May I know your name?” I asked

“Saira bee”

“What?  Saira Bee?”  I could not hold my expression of surprise with eyes wide and eyebrows raised.

“Yes”, she said with a smile looking into my face.

“You are a Muslim?” I wanted to confirm.  She having a regular ‘bottu’ and ‘vibhuthi’ (ash) lightly smeared on the forehead looked more like a Hindu woman.

She smiled, “Yes”.

“How come you are here?”  It was unbelievable.    

“I stay in Hyderabad.  My son brought me here for the occasion”.

“So nice to see you here.  Do you have any objection if I put your video on YouTube?”

“No”

“Thank you so much”.  I wanted to know more details but it was not possible.

It is generally thought that playing wind instruments like shahnai and bansuri (flute) requires good lung capacity and breath control and woman cannot do it.  It is exclusively male bastion.  Now this woman Mrs. Saira Bee has proved it wrong and is able to show her prowess in playing the instrument.  May be she may need more training and more exposure to the world.  Anyway this is one step forward in showing women strength.

On searching the net I found that there is another woman – the first woman shahnai player, Bageshwari Qamar.  She is crowned as “Shahnai Queen” at Chandigarh in 1983.  She also participated in some international concerts and played jugalbandi with other artists.  Bageshwari Qamar is the daughter of Jagdish Prasad Qamar who was a student of Ustad Bismallah Khan.  Jagdish Prasad Qamar had seen his daughter practicing shahnai at her grandmother’s place, recognised her passion for music, and got her trained under Ustad Bismallah Khan. 

Shahnai is played in India on auspicious occasions in temples and Hindu marriages.  Saira Bee playing shahnai at Bhadrakali temple is a perfect example of Hindu – Muslim harmony.

Sunset@Bhadrakali

I had a wish to take photographs of sunset at Bhadrakali. Many times I visited temple in the evenings. But I never had an opportunity as by the time I finished prayers and came out of the temple to take pictures the sun would disappear behind the rocks and it would be dark.

Today when I started to visit temple I had a doubt if the rituals at the temple would go out normally. The reason is that Shri Ganapathi Shastry, the man behind the temple development had his last breath the night before. He had come to this temple in 1940. Though the temple was built in year 625A.D. by Chalukyas and was to certain extent maintained by Kakatiya Kings, it was left in ruins. Shri B.S.Ganesh Rao, a devotee of Goddess Devi Matha, built himself a small house and stayed beside the temple and worshipped. He is the person behind the development of temple to present position. His demise at the age of 113 years is sad. I thought that suspending the temple rituals for a day will be a befitting tribute to the pious personality. Generally we do not hear such things happening. So I went to the temple today, but the temple was closed.

As it was sunset time I could take few pictures. As I had gone to the temple I just sat for a few minutes on the steps of the temple for a few minutes before returning home. Then when I saw there was no trace of sun. Shades of dusk disappeared and darkness set in.

Prayer

I am confident that sincere prayers are always answered. If they are not answered may be that is not good for us. We, as kids ask our parents so many things. They always give us what we need and what is good for us but not everything. Similarly even Almighty gives us what we need and deserve and what is good for us. I do feel bad when certain things go wrong but reconcile thinking that in due course I will realize how it was good or at least not that bad for me.
I have the habit of visiting Bhadrakali temple in Warangal as and when possible or feel troubled by the situation I am in. I feel comfortable after a visit to this temple. Most of the time I pray for others, my family members or patients as if they are happy and healthy I will also be happy and peaceful. I do pray for myself when in trouble to get out of it. Most of the times I feel my burden of the problem is lessened.
For more than a year I was suffering from menstrual disturbance which I attributed to my age. Just a few days ago I felt that the problem is causing lot of disturbance and during that period I was somehow had to accompany my siblings who had come to my place to visit the temple. First time I simply wished in front of deity – Bhadrakali Devi, to get rid off my menstrual problem. Today is the 4th Thursday since I visited the temple and made a wish. I am very much grateful to ‘Devi Maa’ for helping me to get rid of the problem forever. Within a week of my visit to the temple my condition is diagnosed and I had undergone surgery successfully. Now I am up and about trying to take part in daily chores day after day in graded way.
Probably next month some day I will go to the temple and offer special worship.