It is exactly six months today, since we started staying in this remote village Mulanjur in Palakkad district of Kerala. Only today we could go to the village temple, a very old temple in the middle of forest. It is Mulanjur Bhagavati temple. I loved the ambiance there. Very calm and quiet; It’s just bhakti everywhere. No show offs; no sales of items; no noises around; no VIPs; traditional Kerala style temple, with absolutely no commercialism. As the Covid scare went down, regular pujas started in the temple. There was no big crowd, but people kept coming. It is Mahanavami day today.
Inside the ‘chuttambalam”, there was another Devi deity, and nothing was written there. When I checked with one temple employee, I was told that, the deity is disabled daughter of the main deity Bhagavathi. The main deity Bhagavathi has other daughters who have temples in the same and nearby villages. Whereas, this ‘disabled’ daughter was kept in the same temple as the Bhagavathi wants to keep this daughter with her, to take care of the ‘disabled’ daughter. And the villagers believe that the Mulanjur Bhagavathi is a ‘Supreme Care Giver’ to all persons with disabilities.
I was very surprised to learn this, as we landed in the same village (Mulanjur) with our ‘differently abled’ daughter. Also, we, the 100 families with children with ‘developmental / intellectual disabilities’ are going to stay in this village and take care of our children together, and the presiding deity of the village is considered as ‘supreme care giver’ to persons with disabilities.
I am Baffled with this coincidence.
