Shri Shirdi Sai speaks-13th Jan/Karni Mata

Mandir [Rat Temple]

Om Sai Ram !Om Ganeshaya Namaha!
Jai Maata di!Om Nama Shivaya!
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After a break of about close to a month, I am back with the
teerth Yatra. So lets once again start our journey of visiting
all the temples all over the world. Today we will be visiting
an amazing temple of Rats--Yes, you read it right!! Rat
Temple!!

In Rajasthan state of India, there is a small village known

as Deshnoke, which is 30 miles south of city of Bikaner.
There is this temple known as Karni Mata Mandir, worldly
famous as ‘Rat Temple‘. This is simply the strangest
temples of India because 20,000 rats live in the temple on
regular basis making it their home. Not only they live on
the sides of the temple, but everywhere, even inside the
main entrance of temple, on steps, in the passage,
everywhere.
In the 14th century, Goddess Karni is said to have lived
and performed many miracles during her existence. Karni
Mata was a mystic, who led a virtuous life committed to
the service of the poor and the oppressed of all
communities. The goddess is said to have laid the
foundation of Deshnoke.
As per the stories, once when her youngest son drowned,
Goddess Karni asked Yama (the god of death) to bring him
back to life. Lord Yama replied that he could not return
her son's life. Thus, Karni Mata, being an incarnation of
Goddess Durga, restored the life of her son. At this point of
time, she announced that her family members would die
no longer; in fact they would incarnate in the form of rats
(kabas) and ultimately, these rats would come back as the
members of her family. In Deshnok, there are around 600
families that assert to be the descendants of Karni Mata.

This 600 year old temple is dedicated to Karni Mata, a

famous mystic of her times, believed to be an incarnation
of goddess Durga.It was built by Maharaja Ganga Singh of
Bikaner. The striking façade of the temple is wholly built
in marble. Inside the temple complex, one can see a pair of
silver doors before the main shrine of the Goddess. These
solid silver doors were donated by Maharaja Gaj Singh, on
his visit to this temple.
[Silver door on right side of main entrance (somewhat
distorted by the lens: the left side should be straight)]

[Karni Mata surrounded by rats and a pigeon,from silver

doors of shrine]
[Ganesh with rat feeding from dish, from silver doors of
shrine]
The temple has around 20,000 rats that are fed, protected
and worshipped. Many holes can be seen in the courtyard
of this temple. In the vicinity of these holes, one can see
rats engaged in different activities. The Rats can be seen
here eating from huge metal bowls of milk, sweets and
grains. To make the holy rats safe, wires and grills are
sited over the courtyard to avoid the birds of prey and
other animals.
Like any other temple in India, all the devotees entering
this temple have to be barefoot.
Visitors say that most of the time - in the heat of the day,
anyway - the temple compound isn't obviously heaving
with rats, except in the inner courtyard. At first glance you
see only a few: but the more you look the more there are,
and every shadow is full of eyes and tails.
[Charan priest with rat relatives, sitting in the left side of
the antechamber of the inner shrine]
It is regarded auspicious, if a rat (kaba) runs across one's
feet. Even, a glimpse of kaba (white rat) is considered
promising and fruitful. Twice a year, a festival is celebrated
in the honor of Karni Mata. A grand fair is organized
during this time and people come here to seek the
blessings of the Goddess

Catching a glimpse of a white or pale fawn rat is

particularly prized - said to be a good augury for spiritual
progress, and a promise of life-long luck. Some temple
guides say that the white rats are reincarnations of Karni
herself. It's difficult to see how this would work, since
there are several white rats at any one time: perhaps they
mean only one of these rats is Karni or, conversely, that
since she is believed to be an aspect of the goddess she can
be in several bodies at once.
Many devotees go to the temple hoping to see such a white
rat before undertaking some important project - perhaps a
reference to the rat's association with Ganesh, Lord of
Auspicious Beginnings, even though Lord Ganesh's own
rat-mount is portrayed as dark grey. Even just having a
normal-coloured rat scamper across your bare foot is
believed to be lucky - though some pilgrims get rather
more contact than that, as an on-heat doe and 15 ardent
suitors skid across the marble floor at breakneck speed
and swarm up and over them as if they were mobile trees.
The rats are fed milk and coconut (including the fibrous
husk, which they presumably use as bedding), fruit,
oatmeal and grain, sugar and Indian sweetmeats.

Pilgrims touch the ground where the rats have walked and
bring them offerings of food: and those whose prayers are
answered bring silver and gold.
They not only feed the rats, believing it lucky to have a rat
eat from their hand, but also themselves eat some of the
food which the rats have already nibbled, or sit down and
eat with them from the same dish - considering it blessed
to share a meal with the "little children" in this way.
They seem to do so with genuine affection: not just
because they hope Karni Mata will bless them. After all, if
the pilgims are from the local area then they believe not
only that the rats are their own dead relatives and
neighbours, their ancestors and their own children who
died in infancy, having a "holiday life" between human
incarnations; but that they themselves were rats before
they were born, and when they die they will come again to
spend a few years as a rat among their past and future
comrades, the "little children" of Shri Karni Mata.

At the shrine itself they are offered grain on the altar and,
in front of the altar, a plate of yellow, globular, garlic-pod
shaped sweets called laddus or modakas, the favourite
sweet of Lord Ganesh, and similar sweets made of white
paste. Rats being rats, they probably supplement this
purely vegetarian diet by knocking off the occasional
pigeon on the sly.
The sanctum sanctorum of the temple depicts Karni Mata
resplendent in her arrogance after slaying the buffalo-
demon Mahishasura. Her inverted trident depicts the head
of the demon impaled at one end."
This militant statue is elsewhere described as being the
work of a blind sculptor and being 2ft tall or a little over,
standing on a 3" platform. Actually a bas relief panel
rather than a free-standing figure, it is dark orange-red
and shows Karni Mata adorned with earrings, with a
garland round her neck and wearing a strange tall crown,
narrow at the forehead but with a wide brim around the
top, capped with gold. In her right hand she carries a
trident, points upwards, with the severed head of the
buffalo-demon impaled on the butt end; from her left hand
the severed head of a manlike demon dangles by the hair.
IN SHORT , A NORMAL HUMAN BEING WILL BE
ABSOLUTELY SCARED OVER THE THOUGHT OF THE
NUMBER OF RATS .(THEY LOOK LIKE A RAT, BUT
ACTUALLY THEY ARE NOT RATS) THAT EXIST BUT
THE OUTSTANDING FACT IS THAT THESE KABA’S
ARE HARMLESS AND PLAY AROUND IN THE TEMPLE
WITHOUT DISTURBING THE DEVOTEES, RATHER
THEY SIT ON THEIR LAPS, SHOULDERS, HEAD,
HANDS WHICH THE DEVOTEES THINK TO BE THE
DIVINE SPIRIT AND BLESSINGS OF THE
GODDESS.ONE WOULD SURELY WONDER WHEN HE
WILL COME TO KNOW THE FACT THAT WHEN THE
KILLER DISEASE PLAGUE SPREAD OUT IN SURAT
(GUJRAT) IN MID 90′S PEOPLE FROM SURAT AND
OTHER AFFECTED AREAS WENT TO THE TEMPLE TO
TAKE THE MILK AND WATER DRUNK BY THESE RATS
AS MEDICINES TO GET THEMSELVES CURED.
THE BEAUTY ABOUT THESE KABA’S IS THAT,
DESPITE BEING INNUMERABLE IN NUMBER, THEY
NEVER COME OUT OF THE TEMPLE BOUNDARIES.
MOREOVER WITH THE BLESSINGS OF SHRI KARNI
MATA THEY GET THEIR FOOD, SHELTER, LODGING
AND THEIR LIFE CYCLE CONTINUES INSIDE THE
TEMPLE ITSELF.
THE MIRACULOUS FACT IS THAT NO DISEASES
RELATED TO RATS HAVE BEEN FOUND TILL DATE.
NIETHER THE TEMPLE STINGS OF FOUL SMELLS
NOR IT IS DIRTY ANYWHERE. INFACT EVEN THE
OFFERINGS LIKE MILK, SWEET, CEREALS, WATER
AND GROUNDNUTS ARE FIRST OFFERED TO THESE
HOLY KABA’S AND THEN DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE
DEVOTEES, WHICH IS CONSUMED BY THEM AS A
HOLY PRASAD. ESPECIALLY, THE WATER WHICH
THESE KABA’S DRINK IS CONSIDERED VERY HOLY
AND AUSPICIOUS.
THERE HAS BEEN NO TRACE OF HOW THESE KABA’S
ARE REPRODUCED, INFACT IT IS BELIEVED THAT
THESE RATS HAVE THEIR OWN VIP MATERNITY
HOSPITAL WHICH TAKES CARE OF THEIR DELIVERY.
MOREOVER THERE HAS NEVER BEING A TRACE OF
BABY RATS. ALL THE KABA ARE OF A STANDARD SIZE
AND WEIGHT WITHOUT ANY CHANGES DOWN THE
AGES.
May Karni Mata bless us all and purify our souls
by showering her grace upon us.
Baba's Charity of Feeding the Hungry
Whenever Baba wanted to serve food to others, He himself
used to arrange for everything from the beginning to the
end. He would lit fire in the open space before the Masjid
and prepare food. He had two vessels. The bigger one was
meant for cooking food for a hundred, while the small
vessel was sufficient for fifty persons. Sometimes Baba
would cook sweet rice. At times, He would cook mutton
biryani. While preparing soup, He would drop flat bread of
wheat flour into it. He would grind all spicy items well
before adding them to food. He would make every effort to
cook and make the food tastier.Sometimes, Baba would
cook porridge. He would not hesitate to dip His hand into
the boiling cauldron to test whether it was properly cooked
or not. There would be no sign of fear in His face or scars
of any burns on His hand. As soon as the food was cooked,
Baba would bring it into the Masjid and ask the moulvi to
offer it to God. Only after sending some sanctified food to
Tatya and Mhalspathy, He would distribute the rest to the
satisfaction of the poor and hungry. Baba gets immense
pleasure in feeding His children. Those who were fed with
the food cooked and served by Baba's hand were indeed
virtuous and fortunate souls. Let us cherish in our memory
Baba's charity of feeding the hungry and the poor and
emulate Baba.
"Shri SaiSatCharita ---> Leads you in Sai's unique
Path"
Shree SatChidananda Sadguru Sainadh Maharaj
Ki Jai