My visit to Basistha Temple

May 25, 2017

Basistha or Vasistha Temple is located in Beltola, at the outskirts of the Guwahati city. It is located near Garbhanga Reserve Forest which is populated by elephants and is also a proposed butterfly reserve. The temple was constructed by Ahom king Rajeshwar Singha in 1751-1769. The king also gifted 835 bighas of land to the ashram to build this temple. The temple is situated on the Vasistha ashram, the abode of saint Basistha. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple stands on the bank of mountain streams which originates from the hills of Meghalaya which in turn becomes river Basistha and Bharalu that flows through the city.

WHO WAS BASISTHA

Guru Basistha was one of the original sapta-rishis, the 7 spiritual gurus described as authors of the Rigveda. He gave his name to the Basistha (Vashishtha) clan. These 7 gurus as supposed to be the 7 stars that make the Great Bear constellation that connects to the Pole star.

In north India, he is known as Guru Vashishtha. In the north-east of India, “v” is pronounced as “b” and “s” is pronounced as “sh”, leading to the apparent change in name.

There are many stories linked to Guru Basistha. The most well-known story has him as the teacher of young princes of Ayodhya in Ramayana, Ram and Lakshman.

Linked to his role as the teacher of Rama is his book “Vashishtha Yoga”, that deals mainly with the meditation part of Yoga. This book is supposed to contain his lessons to Rama about understanding the world reality, and the nature of consciousness and creation. This book explains the importance of achieving shanti (peace), proper vichar (thoughts), santosh (satisfaction) and satsang (good company).

He is also known for another book, “Vashishtha Samhita”, a treatise on “electoral astrology” dealing with the identification of the most auspicious time (mahurat) for carrying out different activities such as marriages and journeys.

Different stories credited to Basistha are probably about different persons from the Basistha clan over a period of time, each of whom had taken the title of Guru Basistha. I think that the apparent contradictions of these stories that show him in different periods of time and link him to stories in different parts of India are an example of “fractal nature” of Indian way of thinking (as explained by Harpreet Singh) and as explained by Professor Diane Ecke in her book “India: a sacred geography”.

For example, a story has him as the son of gods Mitra Varuna. Mitra and Varuna were two ancient Indo-European deities or perhaps two names of the same deity, that are mentioned in Rigveda. Ruins of ancient temples to Mitra from the Pre-Christian era, when his cult was associated with the figure of a bull, are found in Rome. Another story calls him the the Manas (human) son of god Brahma, the creator of universe for Hindus. His name also appears in some Buddhist texts such as Vinaya Pitaka.

However temples and cults to Guru Basistha are not very common in other parts of India and are certainly not as popular, as they are in Assam. For example, the popular folk theatre of Assam called Bhaona, practiced around the island of Majuli, gives a lot of importance to guru Basistha in enacting the story of Ramayana.