March 16, 2014:India is a land of diversity. India is a land of varied cultures. India is a land of festivals. And then India is a land of temples. From the hilly areas of Himalayas to the mountains of Ladakh to the forgotten villages of Tamil Nadu to the caves of Maharashtra and deserts of Rajasthan – Temples are everywhere. The stories, legends and beliefs associated with these places are all the more astounding. There are so many unexplained things related to these worship places that one can run short of explanations and ideas. Here’s a look…

For people, who don’t believe in ghosts, this is the place to come where evil spirits are exorcised. Mehandipur Balaji temple is located in Dausa district of Rajasthan, 255 km away from Delhi. There are three main deities of the temple – Lord Hanuman, Pret Raj (The King of spirits), Bhairav. Thousands of devotees flock to this temple to get cured and get evil spirits exorcised. As the legend goes, the images of Lord Balaji and that of Pret Raja (the king of spirits) appeared from ‘Mehandipur Dham’ around one thousand years ago in a valley, amidst the hills of the Aravali Range.

You can see devotees doing strange things like pouring a bucket of hot water on head and still not burning themselves. Heavy stones pelted on people. People are chained like animals for being cured. There are others who inhale the fumes out of the sweet patasas kept on smoldering cowpats. It is important that one should never look backwards after performing prayers and then walk out of the temple premises. The reason for not looking back is that if there are any evil spirits behind, it will not follow the devotee.

Kamakhya temple is a famous pilgrimage situated at Guwahati, Assam. Being one of the 108 Shakti Peeths, it has a very interesting story of its origin. When Lord Shiva’s wife Sati jumped into the fire and killed herself, Shiva went insane with rage. He placed Sati’s dead body on his shoulders and did the tandav or dance of destruction. Lord Vishnu started cutting parts of Sati’s body in order to calm Shiva down. The place where goddess Sati’s womb and vagina fell is the Kamakhya temple.

As the beautiful jewels are placed on the golden body of the Lord within the temple, the several hundred thousand devotees outside, crammed into any available free space, chant “Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa”. When the jewels are finally all adorned on the Lord, the Nakshatram in the sky miraculously disappears. Within moments after the Lord being adorned with the Thiruvabaranam, an effulgence (Divya Jyoti) appears in the opposite hills of Shabarimala, shining 3 times.

A truly amazing miracle occurred,in the holy temple of Tirumala,on the mid night of 7th November,1979. The huge Bronze bells that were hanging in front of the principal deity of Lord Sri Venkatewsara in the holy Bangaru Vaakili (Sanctum Sanctorum) of the Tirumala Tirupati temple started ringing on their own, without anyone touching them, sending waves of heavy metal sound across the whole of the Tirumala hill shrine.

Tatwani about 25 km from Dharamshala is known for its waterfalls and hot springs. There is a particularly famous hot spring pool built within an ancient Hindu temple complex. It is mandatory for the visitors of the temple to take a dip in the hot springs. The water of the spring is just adequately warm and is believed to possess healing properties.

Om Banna or Bullet Baba is a shrine near Jodhpur, India. It is located in Chotila village about 50km off of Jodhpur. Devotees numbering hundreds turn up each day to pray for a safe journey and make an offering of liquor. Shri Om Singh Rathore was the son of a village leader. In 1991, he was killed when he drove into a tree with his bike. The motorcycle was seized by local police and taken to the police station, but was found the next morning at the accident spot. The bike was taken back again and this time secured with chains, but it returned to the same spot next morning again.