Mehandipur Balaji Temple

Long ago the image of Lord Balaji and that of Pret Raja (the King of spirits) appeared from the Arawali hills. Now people suffering from malignant spirits and black magic or spell get their relief when they make an appeal for relief to Shri Bhairavji and Shri Pret Raj Sarkar who holds his court and awards punishment to the malignant spirits, ghosts, goblins, ghouls, evil eyed witches etc.Shrine of Balaji, Court of Pret Raja, Pooja griha, Bhairavji temple and Ram Darbar are some of the spots worth seeing here.

Balaji temple at Mehandipur in Rajasthan is very powerful place. It is believed that the deity in this temple has divine power to cure a person possessed with evil spirit.Hundreds of ‘Sankatwalas’, as the possessed people are referred to in local lingo, throng to the temple everyday to offer prayers and have ‘darshan’. The temple has also become a home and the last respite for the victims.The ‘Mahant’ of the temple, Shri KishorPuri Ji, prescribes the treatment. It can include reading holy texts, following a strict vegetarian and simple diet, and even afflicts physical pain to one’s body.

One can witness people going through various physical therapies like keeping heavy stones on their body, on arms, legs and chest, to ease their pain. There are others who inhale the smoke that fumes out of the sweet Patasa’s kept on smoldering cowpats. The ones with serious case of spirit possession, who tends to get violent, are even shackled in chains within the temple premises.

This may appear a bit anachronistic at the first glance, but thousands of people are believed to have been cured in this way. Festival time (Holi, Hanuman Jayanti and Dussheraetc) are regarded as the most auspicious time to emancipate from the evil spirit. Medical science may discard such approach to the ailment as self-deceptions based on blind faith, but for the believers, the power of Balaji is something supernatural, something beyond metaphysics.

It has small pillared balconies in the tradition of Rajput architecture. In fact it is an amazing masterpiece. The superb architectural style and beauty of this temple attracts thousands of tourists all through the year. It displays the uniqueness, richness, royalty, culture as well as heritage of Rajasthan. Thousands of devotees visit the temple to get cured of evil spirits by the divine power. Devotees have faith that they will get saved from unfavorable configurations of the planets on visiting the temple.