Another Great Tantric who is not a Brahmin by Birth

Once, the right to perform tantric rituals was rested upon those who were Brahmins by birth. The time and history have already proved that the status of Brahmin, as mentioned in the Hindu epics cannot be attained by birth. Still, many people are reluctant to accept the truth. The effect of mesmerism, which kept generations under the Brahminical rule, maybe the reason for such a situation.

Here is a legend of Manakkadan Gurukkal, who was a great tantric and at the same time a great scholar. He was not a Brahmin by birth; still, he could master the art of tantra more than many Brahmins could. This great man lived in Karivalloor, in Kannur district in northern Kerala and was an Ayurvedic physician too.

Many stories of his greatness spread across Kerala and many people sincerely adored him as a personification of God. This created jealous in the minds of many people belonging to the upper cast, especially Brahmins. The king of Kolathiri, a princely state existed in Kerala before the independence of India, planned to test Manakkadan Gurukkal’s expertise in Tantra. King planned to put Gurukkal to a severe test. King and his cohorts believed that Gurukkal could not pass these tests and so he will get insulted and will run away from his country.

Actually, Gurukkal was undergoing some bad times in his life then; still, he could not reject the invitation of King as it was an order. He was sure that he will have to face many hurdles before reaching the palace and even after reaching there. He prayed to his family goddess and then started his journey along with his disciple Puthiyodan Nair.

On those days, traveling was not so easy and they had to travel by walk from Karivalloor and had to cross three rivers before reaching the king’s palace. They started their journey. When they reached near the first river, they could no see any boats to cross the river. Otherwise, there should be many boats to help travelers. Gurukkal understood that it was a test put up by the king. He did not speak anything, instead, hold the hands of his disciple and asked him to close his eyes. Then, Gurukkal performed a particular tantric ritual known as “Jalasthambham” by which the water in the river stood still. Both of them walked over it and reached the other bank. The same thing happened with the other two rivers, Pazhayangadi River and Valarpattanam River too. Finally, they reached the palace.

The doors were closed when they reached the Palace and there were no security persons too. It was another test. However, Gurukkal did not take aback. He caught hold of his disciple’s hand tightly and entered inside the palace with his tantric power. He went through the wall without breaking it. Once they reached inside the palace, Gurukkal saw many persons sitting on similar chairs with a similar royal dress. As he did not see the king before, everybody thought that he will get confused and will bow in front of someone among those. But Gurukkal identified the real king and bowed in front of him.

Then the king invited him for lunch. All others invited were belonging to upper casts and as per the system prevailed on those days, Gurukkal will have to take out the banana leaf which he used as the plate to have lunch. At the same time, those belong to the upper cast will not have to take it out as the servants will do for them. Sensing the insult well in advance, Gurukkal requested to serve the food on the leaf of cucumber and the same has been agreed. As the lunch is over, the leaf too disappeared. Thus, Gurukkal won all the tests.

On that evening King and his people enjoyed various performances done by Gurukkal. After finishing the performance, King gave him a list and asked to arrange all the forty “Theyyams” (A folk art form) by night. Nobody could arrange all those theyyams within a short period, still Gurukkal did it even without moving out of the palace. Here the most important thing is that there was no communication facility such as cell phones etc on those days. When Gurukkal won in that test, King expressed his desire to visit heaven and asked Gurukkal to help him. As they were talking, a rope came down from the sky just behind the king, and Gurukkal asked the king to hold it tightly. Slowly the rope went up as if someone is pulling it from up. Within a short time, everybody heard the loud cry of King saying that he could not withstand the sights and he wanted to come down. Then Gurukkal brought him down. With that test, King felt that if he continues, it will be he who will have to eat the pea, hence he stopped testing and send Gurukkal after honoring him with many awards.

Many years have passed and one day, Gurukkal called his favorite disciple Puthiyodan Nair and nephews and informed them that it was time for him to go from this world. He insisted they to constructed an underground cell with stone and leave a small hole for air circulation. He also instructed them to keep his books and pen inside the cell. After that, he entered the cell and asked them to close it. He also asked them to pour water over the cell for the forty-one days. Then the cell has been closed after he entered inside.

Nephews did according to his direction. On the thirtieth day, a nephew who was pouring water on the cell developed a curiosity to know what is happening inside the cell. He peeped through the hole meant for air circulation and at the same time, the pen of Gurukul, which has been kept inside the cell, came near and pierced his eyes. From that day onwards, no one dared to go near that cell which exists even today.  

Vayaskara Chathurvedi Bhattathiri

The concept of God, according to Hinduism is not of a powerful god staying somewhere away from the earth. Although there is mention about hell, heaven, etc in Hinduism, the core of Hinduism lies in the philosophy of ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ or ‘That is You, which means god is very much within us. All the rituals are aimed at enhancing the godly power within us. When the god is within us, certainly the devil too should be within us. Probably this concept might have played a lot in the creation of many myths and folklore where gods, devils, evil spirits, etc interact with human beings very closely. This may be the tendency of people to personify the divine power within themselves with all the human characters that resulted in a large number of myths. Here is an interesting myth where a Tantric falls in love with an evil spirit whom he had driven out of the body of a queen.

There is a tantric family, Vayaskara in the Kottayam District of Kerala, and the male members of the family used to be called Vayaskara Bhattathiri. Generations before there was a Bhattathiri in that family who has been called as ‘Vayaskara Chaturvedi Bhattathiri’ as he has mastered in all the four Vedas. He was a well known tantric too.

Once, Samorine, the king of the erstwhile princely state of Calicut invited Chathurvedi Bhattathiri to his palace. The queen has been suffering from a strange uneasiness for a quite long time and the king had tried many doctors and tantric to heal her ailment but went in vain. Then he heard about Vayaskara Chathurvedi Bhattathiri and decided to try him. That is why the king invited Bhattathiri to his palace.

Soon after his arrival Bhattathiri went to examine the queen and disguised the reason for her uneasiness. A yakshi (The word yakshi refers to a fairy woman who charms and finally drinks the blood of the victim) has entered in queen’s body and due to the negative energy created by her queen feels uneasiness. He decided to start the ritual immediately and all the materials required to perform the ritual made available by the king within no time.

The ritual started and sooner Battathiri could ward off from the queen’s body and she became normal. Happy with that the king presented many valuable gifts along with money to Bhattathiri. On the way back to his house he reached a village that was not familiar to him. By the time it has become dark too. Hence he enquired about any Brahmin household nearby and went to the one shown by a passerby. He asked permission to spend the night there and they allowed.

As he was walking all the way, Bhattathiri was really tired and he falls asleep fast. After a few hours, he woke up hearing a voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful lady in front of him and asked who she is. She told him that she was the one who entered the body of queen and she falls in love with Bhattathiri and would like to live the rest of her life with him. However, she was not able to come nearer to him as he was keeping a book of holy mantras beneath his pillow. She requested him to take it out and keep it far. After taking her pledge that she will not kill him, he removed the book and the yakshi came near to him. They spend the whole night together and when Bhattathiri started his journey home the next day morning, she also accompanied him.

Even after reaching Vayaskara, they continued living as husband and wife, but she was totally invisible for all except Bhattathiri. In due course of time, she got pregnant and delivered a girl child. As soon as she took birth, she grew up fast to become a beautiful yakshi. After living some more days with Bhattathiri, mother yakshi got bored with him. As he was turning old, was not able to satisfy her lust. So she left him. However, Bhattathiri requested his daughter not to leave the home and to stay back there. He promised her that his next generations will worship her too along with their family gods and goddesses. She agreed.

Days passed and Bhattathiri went sick and he was lying on the bed expecting his death. At that time he called his son in his first wife near to him and narrated his relation with the yakshi and about his daughter. He asked him to keep her also in their family temple and start worshiping her. Still, the practice is continuing and the Yakshi Temple in Vayaskara, in Kottayam district of Kerala is being visited by hundreds of people even now.

Kalloor Namboodiri, the Undisputed Tantric of Kerala

Kerala tantric rituals are widely known around the world for its effectiveness. They are not mere religious rituals but it involves a lot of science too. Driving out the negative energy and bringing in positive energy is being done in each tantric ritual. The power of rhymes lies in the way they are uttered. The energy generated with a high-level concentration of mind will be emitted through sounds. The energy will get converted into sound energy of different wavelengths and will produce the desired result.

A scene from Kerala Tantric Ritual

There was a person called Kalloor Namboodiri in Kerala who was an expert in tantric rituals. Actually, Kalloor is his family name and Namboodiri is his surname. Even now the members of the family continue the rituals performed by this Kalloor Namboodiri.

Kalloor family is basically from Kottackal, but later got settled in Pattambi in the present day Malappuram district of Kerala. The male population of this family is known as Kalloor Namboodiri and this particular Namboodiri in this story lived in the 17^th century. He decided to visit Vadakkumnatha Temple and to remain there for quite some time worshipping Lord Shiva. He used to enter the temple as soon as it opened in the early morning and sit there chanting different prayers of Lord Shiva and immersed in deep meditation. He leaves the temple premises in the evening for having taking bath and again he used to come back and sit in meditation till the temple is closed. He lived on a single meal all these days. Years have passed like this and there was no change in Namboodiri’s routine.

One day he sat in meditation and the temple priest did not notice him. As usual, the priest locked the doors of the temple and left for the day. Late in the night when Namboodiri woke up from the meditation, he found the temple doors locked and no way to go outside. There was nothing much to do, so he sat behind and started chanting prayers of Lord Shiva. Suddenly a book fell in front of him. He took it in his hand. Suddenly he heard a voice from nowhere which asked him to stop his worship and go back to his house. The voice also instructed him to practice tantric rituals as mentioned in that book.

Another scene from Kerala Tantric Ritual

Believing those as the words of Lord Shiva, Namboodiri left the temple the next day morning and reached his home. After being at the house for a year, he left for a pilgrimage. On the way, he reached Thiruvananthapuram, the present capital city of Kerala, and the capital of the erstwhile Travancore dynasty. By this time he has become very famous as a tantric and hence he received a special welcome by the then king. King arranged a room for him well inside the palace and invited him to dinner together.

After dinner, both were sitting talking about different things. Meanwhile, the king requested a favor from the tantric. He narrated the incident.

His predecessor King Marhtanda Varma has killed Ettuveettil Pillais, a group of warring lords who rebelled against the kingdom. Even after killing, the King could not control his anger. He made all the women folk of their families marry the fishermen, thus putting an end to their clan. When there is nobody to perform after death rituals, the souls of these warring lords could not rest in peace. They used to come to the city and started creating a lot of trouble to the citizens. They come out from the sea where their bodies were immersed after killing and used to wander on the streets till they reach the east fort. They cannot enter the east fort as there is the Padmanabha Swamy Temple. They are afraid of Lord Vishnu who has been worshipped inside the temple.

King told Namboodiri that many tantric have tried their best to remove these evil spirits but everything ends in vain. He requested Namboodiri to try something to get rid of these spirits.

Tantric Namboodiri asked King to send a brave soldier to him. By the time the soldier arrived, Namboodiri finished certain rituals. Then he wakes up from the ritual site and came near to the soldier. Handing over a letter written on palm leaves to the soldier, Namboodiri asked him to go to the West Fort through which the spirits enter inside the city. The soldier is instructed by the Namboodiri to throw the letter to those spirits when they come near to the gate.

The soldier did the same as instructed by the Namboodiri and to his great astonishment, he saw all the spirits weeping in pain as if somebody is beating them. After a few seconds, all of them turn back and started running towards the sea as if somebody is chasing them. They all disappeared inside the sea.

The soldier returned and narrated the entire incident to the King and Namboodiri. Then the Namboodiri assured that they will never come again to trouble the king and his subjects. King was totally happy and presented many valuable gifts to Namboodiri. And since then nobody has seen those evil spirits on the roads.