Karni Mata Temple

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACzWdSfZXmw

Karni Mata Temple, 30 miles south of Bikaner in the small village of Deshnoke is one of the strangest holy spots in India.
The entrance, featured, is lavishly decorated with beautifully sculptured marble paneling full of intricate patterns, and delicately worked doorways, colonnades, pavilions and balconies.
Thousands of rats dine with people and scamper over their feet - in India's small northwestern city of Deshnoke, this is a place of worship: Rajastan's famous Karni Mata Temple.
This isolated Hindu temple was constructed by Maharaja Ganga Singh in the early 1900s as a tribute to the rat goddess, Karni Mata.
The most intriguing aspect of the interior is about 20,000 rats that call this temple home. These holy animals are called kabbas.
The legend goes that Karni Mata, matriarch from the 14th century, was an incarnation of Durga, the goddess of power and victory. Goddess Durga is synonymous with Shakti, the cosmic power that wages an eternal war against the evil. Shri Karni-Mata once restored a dead child of her devotee back to life from Yama, the God of death, then Mata announced that no one from her tribe would fall into Yama's hands again. Instead, when they die all of them will temporarily inhabit the body of a rat (Kabba), before being reborn into the tribe.
The whole life of Shri Karni Mata was full of miracles and even after her disappearance from the earth, her innumerable devotees have experienced her merciful blessings. The word disappearance has been used, because it wasn’t a natural death of Shri Karni Mata, rather her human body disappeared in divine light at her desire.
In Hinduism, death marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one on the path to a soul's eventual oneness with the universe. This cycle of transmigration is known as samsara and is precisely why Karni Mata's rats are treated like royalty.
In Hinduism, many deities take animals forms. The main theological point is that there's no dividing line between what forms gods or goddesses can use: they can take form as a fish, a bird, or even a rat.
Shri Karni Mata was born on Friday, Ashwin Shukla Saptami 1444 i.e. October 2, 1387 AD in village Suwap near Phalodi in Jodhpur District, Rajasthan. She belonged to Charan caste. Her father was Mehaji and Deval Bai was her mother.At the time of birth Karni Mata was named “Ridhu Bai”. She was the sixth child of her parents. All the five children born before her were females. A night before her delivery, Deval Bai (Ridhu Bai’s mother), dreamt that a Goddess appears and blesses her with the words that the Goddess will be born to Deval Bai, as an incarnation of Goddess Durga. Deval Bai told her dream to everyone, but all the members of her family took it lightly. After the birth of Ridhu Bai, her aunt (sister of her father) being much disappointed, patted the head of Ridhu Bai with her hand and then with a fist said, “Again a stone has come”. To the astonishment of everyone, her fingers momentarily got stuck to each other. Later on, after few years her aunt came to see her from her-in-laws’ house. One day her aunt was combing Ridhu Bai’s hair with one hand. Ridhu Bai asked her the reason for not using the other hand. Her aunt told her the story of how her hand got defected. Ridhu Bai took her defective hand in her own hand and said “Where is the defect, it is all right”, and surprisingly, her hand got cured in a moment. Influenced by this miracle and recalling the past dream of Deval Bai, her aunt there and then renamed Ridhu Bai, “KARNI” (Meaning- She will do something miraculous on the earth). When Karniji was six years old a snake bit her father in the jungle. She put her hands on the effected limb and removed the poison. . Meantime, the stories of the miracles of Karniji had begun to spread far and wide. Rao Sekha of Pugal also heard about her. He wanted to take revenge on his enemy. So he went to Karniji to seek her blessings for victory. Rao Sekha met Karniji on the way while she was taking meal for her father towards the field. He begged for her blessings. Karniji welcomed him and asked him to visit her house. Sekhaji begged her pardon, due to paucity of time at his disposal and desired to leave, but Karniji would not let the guest go without having the meal. She offered him food, which she was taking for her father. Sekhaji knew that the food was not enough to be served to his army accompanying him. He therefore asked his men, to accept whatever she served and not to ask for more. Abiding by his orders, they forwarded their utensils to be served and Karniji served the breads and the curd from her pot one by one to every soldier. When she went from one soldier to other, her pot never emptied of curd and breads. Seeing this miracle all the soldiers were amazed. Rao Sekha achieved victory over his enemy and none of his soldiers died, except one, who did not eat the breads and curd treating it as a bad omen. By this time Karniji became over aged & her parents became anxious for her marriage. Seeing her parents anxious & worried, Karniji herself suggested her father to go to village Sathika and talk on her marriage with Depaji, son of Rao Kelu- a great Philosopher of that area during that time. According to history, the marriage took place in 1416 AD, in a quite simple manner. The groom Depaji went to Karniji’s doli (palanquin) and raised its curtains to thank her. He was amazed to see that, inside was a Goddess sitting beside a lion. After a few seconds Karniji transformed herself into human body. She told her husband to marry her sister Gulab Bai, mentioning that she was born on the earth only to serve people. . On the way to Sathika there was a village named Kaluja. The villagers already aware of her miracles requested her to solve their water problem. She blessed and told them to put her idol made of clay in the well and abstain from cutting trees. Soon the well was found to be full of water and still exists. Today this well is known as “Shri Karnisagar”.
Karniji lived at her-in-laws’ village for two years only. In 1418 AD, she left “Sathika” due to unnecessary disputes with the villagers. Being unhappy, she left for another place with all the members of her family and herd of cows. She decided to camp only at the place where she would reach at sunset. In the midst of journey, Karniji reached village Jangloo. There was only one well in the village and cows of Karniji were thirsty. The servants of Rao Kanha, ruler of Jangloo forbade her to draw water from the well because of its scarcity. Karniji did not care of their opposition and told Rao Ridmal of Chandasar, who was accompanying her, to draw water with the help of his horses. To the amazement of all the people, sufficient water was drawn to meet the requirements. Karniji there and then declared Rao Ridmal ruler of that area. She then resumed her journey and by the time of sunset she reached near the jungle of Deshnoke. Now again an issue of dispute arose between Karniji and the servants of Rao Kanha as the area fell under him. Karniji once again, did not care of his servants’ opposition. The servants complained to Rao Kanha. He asked two of his officers to get the jungle vacated. Karniji tried her best to pacify the officers, but the officers during their conversation with her, went beyond the limits of courtesy and insulted her. Being offended by their insulting behaviour she cursed them that their mouths will be like that of a jackal. Immediately their faces turned into that of a jackal. They returned to Rao and after listening to the story narrated by his men, he thought Karniji to be a wizard. He himself along with his army went to her, abused her and asked her to vacate the jungle immediately. Karniji, peacefully told him that, “I have come here with the blessings of Goddess Awad Mata. The image of Goddess is lying in that wooden box, if you put the box in my chariot, I will go away from here at once”. All the men of Rao tried to lift the box individually as well as collectively but couldn’t succeed. At last Rao Kanha himself tried to do so with the help of elephants but failed. During the attempts to lift the box one of the stands of the box broke. Karniji immediately remarked that, Rao Kanha had completed his life span. Rao Kanha being prejudiced, as she had declared Rao Ridmal, the ruler of that area, thought her to be a wizard. He asked her to foretell his death. Karniji drew a line on the ground at a certain distance and told him that, as soon as he oversteps and crosses the line he will die. Indeed the Rao died no sooner than he crossed the line. This Box of Karni Mata containing the idol of Goddess Awad Mata (whom Karniji worshiped during her lifetime) is presently situated in Temre Rai Temple in the middle of Deshnoke city. Karniji made her permanent residence in the jungle near Deshnoke, at a place which is now known as “Nehriji”. When she began to reside at Nehriji, she marked certain areas around that place upto two kilometres in radius. She then planted bushes of red berries all around. These green bushes on one hand served as fodder for the cattle and on the other presented fine natural scenery.
In order to churn the curd a supporting stick was required to be tied-up with the iron ring. A rope was required to rotate the apparatus called “Zerna” which is a long stick of wood, having three to four prongs at its lower end, to churn the curd. This stick is called “Nedi”. For this purpose, Karniji planted the stem of a tree to churn the curd. This Nedi stick in the long run became the tree of Khejri since drops of curd fell on the stick in the course of churning. This Khejri tree, which is presently inside the Nehriji Temple surprisingly, contains the marks of curd visible on its bark
While residing at Nehriji, one day while she was milking her cows, she saved the ship of Jagdooshaha, her devotee by spreading one of her arms. Amazingly, her arm got wet with seawater, which in order to dry, she put under the layer of soil. At present, as a result of her then taken action, the first layer of Deshnoke soil contains saline water like seawater. Besides this she blessed her devotees with many miraculous deeds.
In 1443 AD her father-in law Keluji died. Thereafter she went to Deshnoke where her husband Depaji died in 1454 AD. In Deshnoke she built a hut shaped cave by putting stones on one another, without using lime or sand. Its roof was made of Zal tree wood. She used the cave for meditation. Most of her time was spent in it. In 1463 AD one of her stepsons named Laxmanraj went to Kolayat fair where he drowned in a lake and died. His dead body was brought to Deshnoke. His mother Gulab Bai prayed to Karniji to grant his life. Karniji ordered to keep the body inside the cave. She closed its entrance for everyone and remained there for three days. On the fourth day Laxmanraj himself came out of the cave. Since then, the rats, known as “Kabas” started to be born in the Deshnoke temple. There is a saying as per poems composed by poets from time to time, that when Karniji brought Laxmanraj from Yama’s abode, she forbade Yama’s role in generation of her Depawat (falls under Charan Caste) and made her own law that any Depawat after death will be born as Kaba and Kaba would rebirth as Depawat. That is why the Kabas in Deshnoke temple are fully protected and cherished like her sons.

Inside teh Temple, where shoes are not permitted, tourists and worshippers alike hope to have rats run across their feet for good luck.
Eating food or drinking water that previously has been sampled by a rat is considered to be a supreme blessing. But there is one rare blessing that draws the most attention: the sighting of a white rat.
Out of all of the thousands of rats in the temple, there are said to be four or five white rats, which are considered to be especially holy. They are believed be the manifestations of Karni Mata herself and her kin. Sighting them is a special charm, and visitors put in extensive efforts to bring them forth, offering prasad - candylike food.
In this temple the rat residents are treated with sincere devotion.
For an animal that is commonly associated with pestilence and disease, it may seem strange, but during the century of this temple's existence, there has never been an outbreak of plague or other ratborne illness among the humans who have visited—which may be a miracle in itself.
When the killer disease plague spread out in Surat (Gudjarat) in mid 90's, people from Surat and other affected areas went to the temple to take the milk and water drunk drunk by these rats as medicine to get themselves cured.
Amazing about these Kabba's is that, despite being innumerable in number, they never come out of the Temple's boundaries. Miraculous fact is that no disease related to rats have been found till date, neither the temple stings of foul smells, nor it's dirty.
Offerings like milk, sweets, cereals, water and nuts are first offered to those holy kabbas, and then distributed among the devotees, and consumed by them as a holy prasad. Especially the water which these kabbas drink is considered holy.
There has been no trace of how these kabbas are reproduced - there has never been a trace of baby rats - all the kabbas are of a standard size and weight withou any significant change down the ages.
This miraculous Temple is looked after by a special caste called "Charan".
The Charans are the real heirs of Shri Karni-Mata since last 500 years. Sri Karni-Mata was married to Depaji in the year 1401. (per English calendar). Her mother's name was Dewal Bai and father's name was Meha Ji. She was born in a very ordinary family. Since she was the reincarnation of Durga, Shri Karnima advised her husband to marry Gulab Bai, her younger sister, to give him a heir. Depaji and Gulab Bai had 4 sons named: Naga, Puna, Shitha and Lakhan.
The first foundation stone of Jodhpur Fort in 1515. (per Hindi calendar) was kept by Sri Karni Mata herself.
Shri Karni museum is located opposite to the Temple - big hall 52x36 ft.
In 5th century Shree Karni Mata was the one who forced the King to stop the "NAVROJA" (The exploitation of women by the Mughal Emperors)In Hindu mythology the rat is considered the vehicle of Lord Ganesh, son of Durga.
The power of the Karni Mata can't be described by anyone in the whole universe, it can be experienced only by one oneself.