#020 Were they temples or slaughter houses?

Keshab Babu says: Is it not possible in the household? What about Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore?

The Paramahansa Deva utters ‘Devendra Nath Thakur, Davendra, Davendra’ twice or thrice, offers him pranam and says, “You know this well that there was a person who used to celebrate the festival of Durga and from morning till evening goats were slaughtered there as sacrifice to the goddess. Many years later there was no festivity of sacrifice. Somebody asked, ‘Mahashay, how is it that there is no longer any hustle and bustle of sacrifice in your house?’ He replied, ‘I have lost my teeth, you see.’ Now Devendra also practises meditation and perception. Naturally he would do it now. But otherwise he is a good man.”

To the south of the Nata Mandir is the place of sacrifice.

The food prepared for Vishnu’s shrine is vegetarian. The kitchen for the food of Kali’s shrine is different. In front of the kitchen, the maid servants cut fish with big sickles. On Amavasya (the dark night of the month), a goat is sacrificed. The offering of the food is over before noon. In the mean time the beggars, the sadhus and the guests take plates made of sal leaves from the guesthouse and sit down in rows. The brahmins are allotted a separate corner. The brahmins working here have different seats. The prasad for the steward is sent to his room. The babus of Jaun Bazaar (descendants of Rani Rasmani) stay in the Kuthi when they visit the temple. They have their prasad carried to them in the Kuthi.

The gong in the left hand, pancha pradip (lamp with five wicks) in the right, an attendant with cymbal in his hand. The arati is being performed. Along with it, the sweet sound of the roshan chowki from the south-west corner of the shrine is being heard. The Nahabat Khana (drum room) is there. The evening raga ragini (the modes of Indian music) is being played. The perpetual festival of the All-Blissful Mother is as if reminding the jiva never to be unhappy.

All the above quotes are from Shri rAmakrishNa kathAmrita (the nectar of Shri rAmakrishNa's stories).

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What does the all-blissful Mother say to the fish cut with big sickles? to the goats killed on the amAvAsya (new-moon or moonless) night? Should they be happy or unhappy? What do all these artis (camphor burning), cymbals, roshan chowki shehnai tunes, the ripples of the Ganga river, tell the fish and goats? The night must have been butcherly and gory!
All these things have taken place at dakshINESvar temple, with rAmakrishNa the Great Swan's acquiescence.

Q: Why this fuss about a small thing like a mosquito net?.

✯.Ans: Will it be wrong for us to expect non-earthly and non-humanly qualities from those persons whom we attribute divinity and unmanly greatness?