Spirituality

64 Yogini Temple, Hirapur, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

Crowded streets of Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. A typical metropolitan City, buzzing with shops, malls,  buses, cars, autos, walkers, and sometimes even animals. Hirapur, a suburb of Bhubaneswar. Famous for a small structure, located on the banks of the Kuakhai river.

The structure is not bigger than a medium-sized house. Lacking grandeur like the other magnificent temples of Hampi, Chola, or Birla temples. Lacking intricacy like temples of Halebeedu. The architecture is not at all to be impressed with. But still, the temple successfully makes you feel its presence as you approach the premise. Locals rather avoid coming here. You will encounter a few curious tourists, or a few saffron wearing Tantra Sadhak, roaming around the small shrine.

A roofless granite structure, with such a small door, that only one person can walk in. Inside, you will find a square-shaped shrine of Mother Goddess Kali and Lord Bhairava. Surrounding this small shrine, there lies a circular boundary of hardly 2 meters tall, composed of 52 statues.

Standing on different animals, these feminine deities are almost unidentifiable. Originated from the powers of the different Gods, these 64 warriors helped Maa Durga to defeat demon Raktabeeja.   Every Avatar of Mother Goddess is delightfully posed, with a reassuring smile on their faces while holding weapons in one hand.  

This small temple is considered to be one of the most potent Tantra temples in India. Every year, on Magha Saptami, thousands of people gather here to celebrate the ultimate feminine power. The temple is mainly crowded with Tantra followers of the Yogini sect. As they worship Chakra with 64 spokes, hence, the temple is called 64 Yogini.

What is the significance of this Tiny temple?

Considered as emanations of Maa Kali, these 64 Yoginis rule over various dimensions of creation, have very distinct characters, each one offering a gateway to undifferentiated awareness. Kriya Yoga Tantra has a very profound association with number 64, and so is Indic Tantric literature and so is the mystical experiments of Sunyata and other types of Samadhis.

Tantra never tells you to leave everything behind, sell your Ferrari, and be a monk to meet God. Instead, Tantra teaches how to elevate your spirituality, despite the enjoyment of worldly pleasures. This concept is reflected powerfully in these Yogini statues. Instead of looking detached from the rest of the world, these Yoginis, representing a feminine power are depicted as full of vitality, vigor, and embracing life.

The circular corridor surrounding the main shrine represents the never-ending cycle of life and death. The only way to be free from it is to surrender yourself to the center of it, to the Mother Goddess Kali.

Yogini is a woman, who is in the union with herself. In Tibetian Tantra, she is termed as Dakini, a deity initiating the disciples on their way to achieve Nirvana.

Tantra teaches us, and science supports, that women are more intuitive in nature than men. They can take more pain and emotional suffering than a man. They are more harmonized with nature than man and only they have the power to procreate.

While awakening the Chakras, a woman can awake their third eye chakra more effortlessly than men. Because of their cycle of menstruation and ovulation, they transform biochemical energy more dynamically than men. Being constantly in the rhythm and tune with nature, her psyche is flexible, while the male psyche is considered to be very much linear and static.

This 64 Yogini Tantric temple is a celebration of that cosmic feminine power, which has a capacity to create the entire universe from within.

Swamiji says, temples are the symbols, which carry us to the Divine. At the same time, travel from outside to within. As the creator resides on the Third Eye Chakra, you can consider the place between your eyes as the temple and meditate with it to reach towards your almighty.

Tantra, underlines, the importance of balance between musculine and feminine energies within us. Balancing those, is the easy way to achieve your aspirations, goals and resolutions, by gaining the grace of Mother Goddess. Meditation and Mantra Chanting are the first steps towards balancing the energies. Once, ancient Kings used to practice Tantra in these sacred temples, we can benefit from it as well. 

Even though too far from us, this 64 Yogini temple near Bhubaneswar radiates pure Tantric energy, which gives hope, inspiration, warmth, direction, and resolves to the Tantra Sadhaks all over the world.

Jai Maa Kali.