Mahapurusha Achyutananda Pitha at Nemalo, about 40 kilometres away from Cuttack city is one of the best known pilgrimages in Cuttack district. Every day devotees make beelines at the pitha to seek the blessings of the presiding deities. However, the shrine now wears a deserted look as the visitors are having darshan of the deities from the barricades, which have been erected by the local administration to sprinkle medicines to deworm the mahakalpabrukhya and other kalpabrukhyas at the pitha as leaves are falling off the trees.
Apart from leaving the mahakalpabrukhya and other kalpabrukhyas leafless, the unseasonal falling of leaves from the famous banyan trees has both surprised the devotees and raised many questions in their minds. This has forced them to wonder and find out the truth behind the rare happenings.
While some of the devotees think that this (the falling of leaves during the off-season) is the handy work of the Mahapurusha, others assume it to be the end of the ‘kalikala’ (the age of darkness). “I had never seen this kind of incident since my childhood. It feels like the end of the ‘kalikala,’ said one of the lady devotees.
Adding to her, Saraswati Naya, another devotee, said, “This is the first time I am seeing such thing and it makes me feel sad. I think god is planning something. A bad incident might occur.”
The banyan trees at Mahapurusha Achyutananda Pitha had never witnessed such a thing and the falling of leaves from the trees all of a sudden is not a good sign, said Mohant Gaganananda, head of the shrine. “Flying of the eagle over the Jagannath Temple in Puri and falling of stones from the temple and now falling of leaves from the mahakalpabrukhya are bad signs and it may destroy the mahakalpabrukhyas,” he said.
On the other hand, the local Tehsildar and officials of Horticulture Department rushed to the spot and took stoke of the situation. They also sprinkled deworming medicines on the trees and are planning to repeat it in future so that the banyan trees would return to their normal state. “There is nothing to worry about. The trees are witnessing falling of trees now because they have been attacked by some worms. This would not affect the trees. Measurements are being taken and new leaves would sprout soon,” said one of the horticulturists.
The unseasonal falling of leaves from the famous banyan tree at Mahapurusha Achyutananda Pitha has stunned the devotees. But they are of hopeful that those banyan trees at the pitha will get back to normalcy.
Ms Kalinga