Bhirava Puja

Bahirava is the deity looking after earth. He does not like people digging into earth because it hurts him! An homage to Bairava is done before beginning any major construction project and it is expected to prevent accidents in the construction site.

In late seventies I was the engineer in charge of a large project. Rodney, one of our workers, was fatally injured in a site accident. We closed the site for a few days. I returned to the site to reopen hoping to find a demoralized crew. My foreman told me that crew is relived that Bairava took Rodney hence they were spared, tacitly blaming me for not performing a Bairava Puja.

Having learned the lesson the hardest way, we gladly took part in Bihirava puja. It is a short ritual conducted after 10 in the night when Bahirava wakes up to look for diggers. Food was offered, incense was lighted and a manthra was chanted. All this under a starlit sky was kind of eerie!