I was going through a series of supernatural happenings when I chanced upon the famous Mehandipur Balaji Ji Temple in Rajasthan. While I am not a huge believer in religion and rituals, this one temple captivated me. All the stories revolving this temple were about the ghostly sightings and happenings that have been witnessed here. The stories largely talk about the exorcism that takes place here, and how ghostly occurrences are a frequent sight.

After researching a little more, I decided that it was time to visit this temple in person. The temple is dedicated to Lord Hanuman, who is also popularly called Balaji. The idol of Lord Hanuman which resides in this unique temple is also called the “Bal Hanuman”.

My trip to this supernatural temple started all alone on a Friday night. No friend of mine was ready to get on the wagon with me and go to the temple. While, this should have been a red flag for me as to what lies ahead of me, but I had already made up my mind to head over to this ghostly temple.

After reaching Delhi, I headed off the early morning by road to reach Mehandipur Balaji. The drive was about six hours and for the entire drive, I could hear my heart beating in excitement.

When I finally reached the temple, I was taken aback by the simplicity that stood in front of me. The temple resembled any other Hindi Temple, and it emanated the same feeling of divinity and serenity from with it.

My driver had already warned me that there were so different kinds of rituals which were mandatory to follow before I stepped foot in the sanctum of the temple.

He also proceeded to tell me, that this temple has a lot of devotees, who are popularly called Sanketvalas. This temple is a major pilgrimage site, and may even visit this temple to cure themselves of the ghosts or evil spirits that have taken shelter in their body. In other words, the ‘possessed’ is exorcised here. As terrifying as it may sound, this is actually a few of the temple in India that still do it, and you can also witness it. But, for the sake of my sanity, I decided to skip that part from my itinerary.

shri-balaji-maharaj

There is a popular legend that tried to explain the origin of this temple. It says that the image of Balaji and Pret Raja or the King of Spirits (ghosts) appeared at this place from the Aravalli hills. The area of those hills was once covered by a dense and eerie forest, which was filled with old untameable animals. There was a priest who had a vision, in which he saw Shri Balaji Maharaj. He saw that Balaji was indicating him towards three mystical deities and a magnificent temple. In his vision, he also heard Balaji ordering him to follow the vision and serve the Lord. After coming back to reality the priest was unable to see anyone, but after years of meditation and Sadhna, he saw Balaji once again. This time the Lord showed him the place to build the temple, where the three divine deities could rest.

After this occurrence, people who were suffering from black magic, evil spells, curses or evil spirits stared visiting this temple to get rid of all these things. The process to do so is simple- one has to appeal to the Pret Raj Sarkar- which is the court of the evil spirit, and also appeal to Bhairav Ji, who is the one who presides over the courts and decides what punishments needs to be awarded to the evil spirits so that they leave the bodies of the devotees and go back to their dark realm.

Rituals

I had to learn about the rituals beforehand so that I could follow them and gain entry. The rituals are extremely specific and one has to follow them in a proper sequence without making any mistakes. There are three parts to this

  • Durkhasta
  • Arzi
  • Savamani

The first thing that I had to do or anybody who visits this temple needs to do, is taking small durkhasta ladoos from any of the serval shops that are built outside. The shopkeepers provide two plates of this specific variety of ladoos, each plate contains about four to five ladoos. You have to make sure that your timing is on point. The timing for this ritual is after morning prayer and before evening prayer. The locals told me that one plate symbolised the fact that I had come to seek blessings from God, the other signified my request for his help in solving my main problem. One major requirement is that you must have a pure heart which is filled with respect. After that, you ova got go ahead and offer both these plates to the priests standing in front of the Balaji Hanuman Idol. The priest can pick up as much as he wants to put it in the fire that is burning like an eternal flame in front of the deity.

After this, I realised that there was too much of a crowd for me to traverse my way forward. At one point I felt like I was not even walking, the crowd took me with them as a go with a flow moment, and I found myself in front of the Pretraj Sarkar. Here too the process is the same, wherein you have to offer the priest your plate and he goes on to do the same. Finally, the process is repeated once again in front of Bhairav Ji. After finishing this, you have to eat two ladoos out of your plate. Even after you finish eating the two ladoos, you should have more left in the containers. Once I left the main area of the temple, I found few people who were encircling two containers around their heads about seven times anti-clockwise, and threw the contents of it back without even once looking behind and finally they walked out of the temple.

Keeping this scene aside, I went to follow the next ritual wherein I had to order the “Arzi”. I decided to go to the same shop to get the “Arzi”, and found that they had a fixed cost. I had to pay 270 rupees for- 1.25 kg Ladoo, 2.25 Kg of urad dal and 4.25 kg of boiled rice. This time too the steps were the same, the only difference was that this time I had to only the plates to Pretraj Sarkar and Bhairav Ji. I did not have to offer this to the Bal Hanuman.

The entry was different this time, and I finished it in a couple of minutes. Once again the containers had to be encircled around my head and then the contents had to be thrown.

After doing this I straight away went to the shopkeeper, returned his containers and ate my ladoos. After which I had to walk away and not look backward at the temple while doing so.

After this, I had to keep walking straight without looking back until I reached the parking. Once I located my car and my trusted driver, I had to leave the town immediately, and not even stop for food in the town.

It is said if I wait around in the town or eat anywhere in the area, or simply look back then the evil spirits might get hold of me or any visitor who does the opposite of these superstitions.

When I finally reached home, I thought hard about my experience to this supernatural temple. While I did not face anything untoward, there was certainly an eerie atmosphere around the temple. From the rituals to the superstitions to the stories of what some pilgrims and devotees go through during their exorcism was enough for me to visualize what might have happened or still happens in this temple. For now, I am more than content to have visited once and returned with my sanity in place. There are a few superstitions that are followed, and while I cannot be the judge of how true they are, but, they re strangle followed by the pilgrims and other visitors.

Some superstitions that are followed

  • Make sure you do not consume any food in the village from the moment you come into this village.
  • Ensure that you don’t talk to any person or even touch any person once you are inside the temple.
  • When you are going home after visiting the temple, make sure that you don’t carry any food item or Prasad.
  • Ensure that all your food packets and water bottles are emptied before you leave this place.

Sinchita is a student, who has always dabbled with a bit of writing here and there. She has always made herself look into things in a different way than others, which has allowed her to explore certain feelings and emotions which many cannot. She is a bold writer and believes in the saying, 'a pen is mightier than the sword'. She strongly believes that the writing should be so compelling that the writer feels that they are on a journey they read through the article. The writing must make the reader feel something, otherwise it pointless

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