Monalisa Dash Dwibedy
After two and a half decades I went to my village in January this year. The main reason for going there was to attend Lord Gopinath’s new temple consecration ceremony which brought many of the villagers to their ancestral homes. Meeting my extended family members, relatives and friends after many years was soulful.
After the cyclone “Phani” destroyed our lord Gopinath’s home, it took quite a few years for the villagers to come together with resources to rebuild the temple for the Lord. My childhood memories of Lord Gopinath is not very vivid, except that as a kid I used to go to the temple during evenings to get my share of “prasad”(blessed food).
If anyone does not understand what blessed food is, then please note that in Hinduism, flowers, food and water are offered to deities during worship (puja). It is believed that the deity partakes of and then returns the offering, thereby consecrating it. The offering becomes “prasad/bhoga” (blessed food) .It is then distributed and eaten by the worshippers.
When we were kids, I and my siblings used to go to the village in summer and during Durga puja vacations. After my high school started, there was no time for village trips. My parents did regular visits though, but we could not make it owing to our studies. After college, it was a kind of whirlwind to get into a professional degree and then find a job. If you come from a middle class economic background, you can relate how important it is after college/university studies, to be in a good job.
And once life starts going as per your terms, suddenly you are more hungry; hungry to earn more and succeed in your career and explore the world. By this time, you have already placed your childhood memories on the back rack of your brain-shelf and forgotten that you left them there unattended for many years. You meet your village people on very rare occasions and often find it difficult to relate those faces to your childhood. And they also cannot recognize you for sure.
Life goes on. You had your experiences of sunny and rainy days. Years pass by and you are no longer the same person. One fine day, while going for a long walk or grabbing a coffee, you realize that you do not want to fit yourself into a routine and you don’t want to try hard for anything anymore. You want to slow down and be with life. You do not have to be anyone’s cup of tea and you do not have to be anything or anyone that you don’t want to be. You want to be you and want to do everything with a smile.
Then you summon back all your memories. You want to understand your roots and now there is a desire to stay connected with it. You want to know why your village is “Biranchidashpur “and not anywhere else on the earth. You want to know your life, your rise and fall from different dimensions and beyond. Slowly you realize that you can’t know anything by ignoring whatever universe has already given you. You have to start working with what is there with you right now.
There is so much to reflect on and so much to learn if you want to establish a connection with all that is around you .There will be times when you have to anchor your heart in the stillness and wait until the universe speaks to you.
Until my next village trip….
(The author is an IT Consultant living in Toronto. Views are personal)