College girls pose as Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kali and Santoshi at the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishva Vidyalaya pandal in Ranchi on Tuesday. (Hardeep Singh)
They say young girls can't sit still for a minute. Imagine then, five young girls posing motionless for five hours as goddesses without batting an eyelid at a Ranchi pandal.
Disbelieving? Go to the pandal of Prajapita Brahmakumari Ishwariya Vidyalaya near the radio station on Ratu Road.
Here, college girls in the age group of 17 and 20 and attired as Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kali and Santoshi sit for 6pm to 11pm without any problem, albeit with intermittent gaps.
The girls, whose real identities cannot be disclosed for spiritual reasons, are all from Ranchi and associated with Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishva Vidyalaya.
Chief of Prajapita Brahmakumari Ishwariya Vishva Vidyalaya, Brahmakumari Nirmala said the girls were trained specially in yoga and meditation to act as idols.
'Any girl undergoing the same training can do this. These girls are regular practitioners of Raja Yoga that helps a person control his or her thought, speech and action. The training is given at our centre at Choudhary Bagan on Harmu Road in Ranchi,' Brahmakumari Nirmala said.
Asked if the girls keep sitting continuously from 6pm to 11pm, Nirmala said they took small breaks during gaps between one batch of pandal-hoppers and the next. When a batch of visitors are allowed inside the pandal, they come and have a look at idols on the stage and then leave through the exit. Then, for a minute or so, the curtains of the stage fall and the girls can relax their postures. Then, the curtain rises again for a new batch of visitors to marvel at these live goddesses.
Though the pandal looks modest in comparison with glitzy ones in the capital, visitors are amazed.
A resident of Lake Road, Rajendra Singh said he and his family members could not differentiate between these girls and idols kept at other pandals. 'They sit perfectly still as if they're made of clay. I am amazed at their self-control,' Singh, a transporter, said.
Asked, Nirmala said this self-control was achievable with regular practice of Raja Yoga, also called Ashtanga Yoga, with eight steps to discipline. At the pandal, functionaries associated with the spiritual outfit also explain the concepts with the help of pictorial displays and sell books on spiritualism.
Gautam Kumar, associated with the organisation, told this correspondent that the basic week-long training of Raja Yoga was imparted free of cost at their Harmu institution.
