Witnessing Aarti and Shringar at Kolkata's famous Baba Bhootnath Mandir

              The sacred month of Savan in 2011 ended on Saturday, 13th August. As I told you earlier, I poured water in Baba bhootnath Mandir at Posta, Kolkata on all the 4 mondays of this month. Though I had my exams or morning classes during this period but I did not miss any of the Mondays.

Rare Pictures of Aarti & Shringar of Lord Shiva Idol at Posta's Bhootnath Temple, Courtesy- Image Source- http://dharmikraj.blogspot.in/

                We go there riding a bike on Sunday nights after 11pm, used to reach there at 1pm or so, and destined to come back home till morning 5am. There was no chance to get adequate sleep and proper rest for the body on that day. But none cares about these stuffs during these religiously sacred days as I never felt tired after returning back to home from the temple. It seems like the Lord Shiva is attracting you towards himself. It's real fun to go there in a group, stand in a queue for hours and hours, enjoy waiting for the right moment to come when you will rush to enter the temple gates.

We thought to revisit the temple consequently on the 5th Monday too as it was just a day of gap after the month of saawan ends. All of the five Mondays, we got the opportunity to spend a splendid amount of time in the feet of Lord Shiva as we got chances blessed by the almighty himself to pour holy Ganges water or milk directly on the Shivling while touching and rubbing it every time with our bare hands. We did not care about those pushing us from behind or about them who were pouring water or milk on our head as it used to be a huge rush of devotees to touch and rub the sacred Shivling. But It's not easy to get a chance to touch the Shivling in the month of saawan as the number of devotees are in thousands waiting outside the temple. The way the mob pushes, its also not easy to stand there to breathe or even to enter through the mob to get a look of the Shivling. Sometimes it can be harassing, brutal & fatal to get in there.

Hindu God Deity Lord Shiva's muscularly animated image, Photo found on internet

                 The 5th Monday, as on 15th August 2011 was much better than the other 4 Mondays. Since saawan was over, as usually the huge number of devotees and the long queue were not there. We arrived at the mandir 2 hours before the opening time of the temple's gate. We either sat there waiting outside the mandir or standing outside the locked gate, lucky enough that we got the opportunity to watch the first Aarti and Shringar along with other rituals performed by the Priest of the temple. As soon as the Aarti was over, the gates were unlocked and we ran so hard and quickly just to be among the firsts to touch and put mala(garlands) on Shivling. We achieved this with highest success rate, felt to be blessed by the God himself. I was the 3rd person to put mala around the shivling and then as usual started rubbing and caring Baba Bhoothnath's Shivling. Suddenly the mob of other devotees, men and women gathered around us. People started pushing us from behind just to get a look and touch the Shivling. But how can we leave Baba, we kept nourishing the Shivlinga for long time. Later we came out from there, performed Aarti in verandah, took our bike to way home. I am unable to explain the feeling in words to make the Shivlinga bathe with holy water of the Ganges. It was marvelously spiritual and encouraging enough to make me eager to revisit there again and again as I am used to do from Howrah side.