Filmmaker traces Guwahati yogini footprints in book dispelling gender stereotypes

Guwahati: Filmmaker and acclaimed painter Dr S. Beena Unnikrishnan in her maiden book on 64-yogini temples in the country has richly depicted the spiritual pathways in Guwahati. Dr. Beena recounts her experience of the Kamakhya Temple atop the Nilachal Hills while retracing the pathways shown by Adi Shankaracharya on Adi Shakti Peethas in the country.

Dr Beena in her book – Whispers of the Unseen: The Quest for Sixty-Four Yoginis – recalls her stay in Guwahati as she began searching the spiritual experiences from the Ugratara Devalaya. While stating the folklore associated with the temple, Dr Beena writes about Ugratara Devalaya in the book, saying, “It is the place where devotees adopt the Vamchara Sadhna, which is an extreme form of tantric practice. Interestingly, the idol in this temple was stolen, which was retrieved by the local Golaghat police six months later. Even though the temple was quite small, the deity was very powerful.”

Dr Beena further recalls going to the Navagraha temple, mentioning the folklore that “Brahma created the cosmos and the universe sitting in this place; hence, it is considered sacred”.

Dr. Beena, who has held exhibitions of her paintings at various international stages, is also a filmmaker, besides being Global Chair of G100 Arts Leadership Council and also a Curator of ‘Economically Independent Women Artists’. She has painted the 64-yoginis on the canvas, and as part of the exercise she visited several temples to gain the spiritual insight of the temples and the various facets of the yoginis.

Dr. Beena further describes the Bhimeshwar Dham Shiva Temple. She mentions in the book that the temple is “located in a beautiful and serene location inside the forests. The idol there was a jyotirlinga. The Bhimeshwar Dham does not have a typical temple structure. The sacred temple is in the depths of a forest, atop a hill, beside the Deepor Lake”.

The author is planning to hold exhibitions of her paintings of the 64-yoginis all across the country to bring a greater awareness of the significance of the “divine spiritual expressions who fulfilled specific tasks”. Dr. Beena argues in the book that the cult of the yoginis has the false misconception that they are only about “Yantra, Mantra, and Tantra”. She states in the book that Bhakti is also a powerful means to worship the yoginis.

Stressing on the significance of her visit to the world famous temple, Dr Beena writes: “I truly believe that today, in the constant race to do and achieve more, we often tend to suppress our innately feminine qualities, which include emotional sensitivity, nurturance, warmth, expressiveness, and even sexuality, which is often suppressed by the society and the expectation it sets on women. It felt as though my visit to Kamakhya Temple reignited my feminine spirit.”

Mr Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, has written the foreword to the book in which he has stated that “the primary thrust of the book is the journey of self-realisation”. Mr Debroy has also stated that the “book is remarkable in its conception and worth reading even if one is not interested in yoginis”.