Guru Harideva completed
all programs related to his pilgrimage at Hajo and was ready to leave that
place. But before his leaving, a new situation arose for him. At Madhava temple
of Hajo a person named Khagara became very much attracted towards him. It was
due to tender age, special appearance, polite behavior and uncommon style of
worship etc of Guru Harideva. Khagara Mali resided in a vilage not far away from
the temple. It is customary to decorate the deity of Hayagriva Madhava with a special
a type of garlands made of Tulsi leaves .The people of the village ,where
Khagara Mali lived, were engaged in gardening of Tulsi plants, making garlands of
Tulsi leaves and supplying those garlands for decoration of the deity of Lord Madhava since
ancient times. In Assamese language, a garland is called “Mala” and a person
who produces and supplies Mala to the temple is designated as a “Mali”. Khagara Mali was a member of that Mali
community and the name of the village where he lived was Malipara. This Khagara
Mali told to his family members and the people of his village about the specialties of Guru Harideva. Hearing that, his family members and the villagers
became very much interested to see the presence of such a Godly person as an honorable
guest in their place. They requested Khagara Mali to invite Guru Harideva to
their village. However, those people were aware of the fact that Guru Harideva
was from the Brahman community and a strict follower of the Vedic Brahmanical culture. So
in view of the social distance maintained by the people of that time on the
basis of cast, community etc, Khagara Mali and the villagers were not sure
about Guru Harideva’s response in this regard. Keeping these things in mind,
Khagara Mali brought the proposal of the people of his village to the notice of
Guru Harideva in a highly hesitant manner. But Guru Harideva was totally free
from cast and communal feelings. He noticed both the eagerness and hesitations
expressed by Khagara Mali while inviting him to their place. From his gesture
itself Guru Harideva understood that his refusal to visit Khagara’s village
might convey some harmful message of communal and social disharmony to the common
people from his side. Guru Harideva moved on pilgrimage as an initial step towards
fulfillment of his aim of realization of God Almighty in all beings in the
creation. So from his side he tried to avoid expression of any kind of discrimination based
on caste or community in contradiction to his own true nature and his aim of
life. Under these circumstances, Guru Harideva accepted the invitation
of Khagara Mali and decided to stay with those poor and down trodden villagers
of Malipara at least for one night. (to be continued)
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