Shri Shri Bama Khepa (Bam Dev) of Tarapith was born in 1837 in the village of Atla near Tarapith in Birbhum district of West Bengal. He was born to a poor Brahmin family. Since being from a Brahmin family, Bamacara was initiated by the family guru, and he received the sacred thread ceremony at age sixteen as was the tradition. This was in 1853. Bama’s father died not long after this. Bamakhepa as a child had not shown a great interest in studying, He much preferred to spend his time at Tarapith, at the shrine of his beloved goddess Maa Tara, and at the Mahasamshan burning grounds there. He is said to have spent his days and nights sitting before Tara’s image, singing songs of devotion to her. He had no regard for normal rules of purity, violating them by eating with the dogs and jackals at the cremation grounds. The villagers then began to refer to Bam Dev as one without caste; in their eyes he had lost his Brahmin status and became an outcaste. khepa meant, not mad in the ordinary sense, but was a term used by Tantrics to denote one who was divinely mad, one who was a great soul.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:01:43 +0000
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