Can man be blessed by offering sacrificed animals to god
Kal Bairo has its origins in the ancient Vedic scriptures. In the fight to take control of the universe, a tug-of-war ensued between the Dewtas [divine forces] and Rakshas [evil forces] in the story of the churning of the ocean of milk. To visualize the churning motion, think of the old fashioned way of churning butter using the ookrie [mortar] and moosar [pestle]. Lord Vishnu is the dominant God in this story and oversees the entire operation by providing two extensions of his own form. In one form , he is the cosmic turtle resting in the depths of the milky ocean [the ookrie] and mountain Mehru is the pestle [moosar] which rests on his back. In his other form, he becomes Vasuki, the cosmic serpent whose middle is wrapped around the churning stick. The Dewtas took hold of one end of Vasuki and the Rakshas took hold of the other end. As the tug-of-war began, the entire ocean churned. At first, all the poisons arose and were squirted out of the depths of the ocean, then Goddess Laxmi emerged and finally the elixir of immortality [amrita] was flushed out.
Lord Vishnu, adopting the form of the beautiful Mohini, began to share the amrita to the Dewtas. One of the rakshas disguised himself as a Dewta and received some of the amrita. The imposter was quickly recognized by the Sun and the Moon who immediately told Lord Vishnu. Before the raksha could drink the amrita, Lord Vishnu used his chakra weapon and cut the raksha in half. But the raksha had already swallowed the first few drops of the amrita and technically attained the higher status of a Dewta. The one half of the raksha’s body was flung to the North and became known as RAHU [the North Node] and the other half became known as KETU [the South Node]. This is why in the NAV-GRAHA PUJA, we continue to worship both Rahu and Ketu as two of the nine planets which influence our lives.
Rahu is like the drunken vagabond of the family of Dewtas who we continue to acknowledge during our puja ritual. But we do not want to invoke his influence into our lives. In other words, we do not want to do a puja directly to Rahu. He has the power to grant our requests but the price which we will have to pay is too high. Yet some pundits continue to do exactly this, while others unknowingly invoke Rahu into the lives of many by performing the Durga Puja incorrectly.
It is Rahu who has become known as Kal Bairo in the West Indies and is depicted as the dark deity in Hinduism. He has a demon-like face with red eyes. His female counterpart is referred to as Kateri. Worship of Kal Bhairo is performed because of material greed. In order to satisfy some material desire, usually to acquire wealth, a live sacrifice of an animal is made and rum and cigarettes are offered to this deity. While some differences may exist in the performance of the worship, the desire and the outcomes are substantially the same.
In the Indian Province of Madhya Pradesh, devotees built a temple dedicated to the dark DeityBhairav to whose idol, liquor is offered. African slaves who inhabited the British colonies in the West Indies brought Kal Bairo from Africa as a voodoo deity with a black dog. In Guyana Kal Bairo is also known as Landmaster and in Trinidad, he is called Dee. In the Muslim religion, the equivalent of the dark Deity is Qurbani; in Christianity, he is called Satan; in the Spanish community, he is known as SantaRina. Amongst West Indians, Kal Bhairo worship takes place in the form of a rum puja, in which a chicken, goat or pig is sacrificed, rum and cigarettes are offered and a black flag is raised. Material wealth is usually asked for by the persons performing the puja and documented cases show that Kal Bhairo often grant their wishes. Pleasant and inviting as all this may sound however, worship of this dark deity is not without its problems and consequences, for any debt which is incurred must be repaid.
Once the sacrifice is made for the first time, no matter how many generations ago, Kal Bairo demands continuance and current generation families who do not continue the tradition and who may not even know that their parents or grand-parents practiced Kal Bairo worship feel the negative effects in their lives. One may rightly ask why should I bear the consequences of the actions of my parents or fore-parents? Let us examine the scenario of borrowed money. Your parents borrowed a loan from a bank and built the house in which you grew up. You enjoyed the fruits from that debt and when your parents die, the unpaid debt falls to you, the children. All unpaid debt is transferred through the future generations.
Each life form on earth was given a certain value. When your grandfather killed the chickens, goats or pigs, they terminated that life before its time. That soul did not get to complete its karma in its present form and now must wait in purgatory until it can be reborn again. In other words, the spirit of that animal becomes very angry and as more animals are killed over the years, the number of angry spirits increase and the debt grows. When a person dies an untimely death, that person’s soul was not prepared for death and this soul may get lost and wander around in the astral dimension looking for a body to take re-birth. Similarly, when an animal is killed in ritual sacrifice, that defenseless animal has died an untimely death. The spirit of the animal is angry at the person who ended its life before its time. This angry spirit, in its effort to continue its karmic life on earth, has to possess a human body to continue the rest of the time it was supposed to live in the first place. The person most likely to be possessed by such an angry spirit is either the person who has taken the life of that animal, or all the people who have participated in the eating of the meat of the sacrificed animal. The possession of the person’s body can vary in intensity dependent upon the person’s karmic background, how religious the person was prior to the Kal Bairo worship and what kind of foods they eat.
Sometimes, persons with good intent unknowingly attract Kal Bairo into their lives due to a catastrophic mistake made by some pundits during a Durga Puja ritual. Mother Durga, the consort of Lord Shiva represents the procreative forces and family and devotees worship this Deity to receive her blessings. During the Puja ritual, nine plates of prasad offerings are made to worship the nine forms of Mother Durga. Some of the less knowledgeable pundits offer the tenth plate to Kal Bairo instead of to Lord Shiva. Now remember that Mother Durga is married to Lord Shiva and the symbolism of the tenth plate offering in the puja ritual is to recognize that union. Therefore, how can a pundit be correct in offering that tenth plate to Kal Bairo instead of to Lord Shiva? The devotee and their family, thinking all is well, continue their lives only to find problems and hardships begin to infest their lives and often, mysterious occurrences begin to manifest themselves such as the appearance of worms or black bugs in the house. Family members begin to have bad dreams; tempers flare and quarrels and fights happen frequently; health problems surface; job problems occur; a fire may destroy the house and other financial distress result.
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