THE MOKSHA TEMPLE
"I have had enough of pain in this life. I need moksha. I want to go to heaven." The sad and dejected King Suryavarman II of Khmer empire was complaining to the sage. The sage, Maharshi Bhrigu looked calm and poised. The tranquil face had not a single wrinkle of disturbance or pain. His bright skin glowed overshadowing the sparkle gems studded in King's crown and throne. He listened silently the King's grief. King Suryavarman continued, "My forefathers spent their life endlessly conquering the enemy lands, building up the empire, but no one had peace at heart. I am fed up of this life. I wish I could get rid of this body and dwell in swarga..." and the King broke down to tears at Maharshi Bhrigu's feet. Maharshi Bhrigu touched his shoulders and raised him up.
"My dear child, you are Kshatriya. You are born to live this life. You are meant to fight the battles, win them and bring glory to your empire. To achieve peace you don't have to abandon your karma. All you need to is follow what I tell you. If you do what I ask you to, you can have inner peace and leave this world peacefully and reach swarga" Maharshi Bhrigu advised the King.
The king was listening attentively to the sage. He readily agreed to the sage's word. The sage further told, "Son the way of attaining Moksha is by doing good deeds, doing your duty faithfully, being steadfast to your karma. Since you, through all these years have loyally followed your duties its time I tell you about the next step" Maharshi Bhrigu continued, "The soul enters your body through a process when you are born. In the same manner as your body dies, the soul should be able to escape the body through a specific way. The way for doing it is to worship your Creator and offer him everything you own, even your body when you die." The confounded king asked "How can we do this Maharshi?" The sage replied," Our Creator is Vishnu. And all you own is this whole empire, everything in it and at last your body. If you bring down the dwelling of Lord Vishnu here, HE will rule the empire and you can serve HIM. In this way you can offer both the things!"
"But Maharshi ji, Lord Vishnu is believed to stay at Mount Meru beyond the Himalayas. How am I going to bring it all here?"
The sage smiled and said, "My Son, you need not bring the Mount Meru or Lord Vishnu exactly. But you can create a replica of them and seek HIS blessings. When the time comes for you to leave this world, you can die at HIS feet and attain MOKSHA!!" He further added, "The way for your soul to leave this material world is through West and so you need to align the Mount Meru along the west. The great scripts by our forefathers state it to be the exit of the human soul just like the sun sets everyday and revives as a new soul each following day"
King Suryavarman kept collecting the knowledge coming off the mouth of the sage Bhrigu. He was seeping the thoughts as much as he could like a thirsty wanderer on the way to his doom. Just the thought of attaining solitude after all this years of haste and dreadful wars was so compelling for him. The lost gleam in his eyes had begun to return!
The king called a servant and whispered something in his ears. The servant went and soon reappeared with a plate full of gold ornaments and a plate of fruits for the sage. Bhrigu turned towards the king and said," Your highness, I am a secluded poor sage. These materialistic things don't mean anything to me. And I gave you the way to attain moksha is because that's what my forefathers wanted us to do. We are meant to share the knowledge we have and help the mankind to be happy and peaceful!"
The king had the fruit meal with the sage and requested to stay with him in the palace as the Moksha temple would be built under his guidance. The place for temple was set at the outskirts of the city from where it would be easy to control the gargantuan Khmer empire,
As the months passed the construction of the temple went on at great pace. The king was in high spirits as he would finally be able to leave the worldly possessions and let go of all the anger within, he would be able to achieve moksha!
The temple was about to complete and the day for the auspicious ceremony for the sanctity of the temple was to be decided. Maharshi Bhrigu decided on the day and time which was quite unusual as the time decided was a bit later than midnight. On the ceremony night King Suryavarman II along with his family gathered at the temple. T o his awe, the temple was surrounded by a moat and a narrow bridge joined the rest of the land to the temple. As he entered through the gigantic façade, the temple presented itself extending to the skies, gleaming with the burning torches!! The vastness of the bas-reliefs, the gopurams simply amazed the king. The whole city had already gathered around the centre temple awaiting their beloved king. King Suryavarman entered the centre temple where the ceremony was to be held. Maharshi Bhrigu stood there in his usual composed manner smiling at the awestruck king.
"This is really HUGE!" exclaimed the king. "But before we proceed I have few questions regarding the temple and this odd time for the ceremony."
"I understand your inquisitiveness Your Highness. But pardon me I shall be able to answer them after the ceremony as the auspicious time is nearing and we need to offer our prayers a t the right time" explained the sage.
King Suryavarman along with his better half sat in front of the life-sized statue of Lord Vishnu . The ceremony started at exact midnight and as it progressed through the silent night the chanting of mantras echoed through the temple. When the sacred ceremony was reaching its climax, a little murmur emerged amidst the crowd and it further increased. As the ceremony ended, the murmur had turned into talks and the whole temple gleamed in a serene white light. Maharshi Bhrigu, King Suryavarman and his family came outside to see what had happened.
The crowd was staring up the sky and discussing something amongst them. Maharshi Bhrigu just smiled contently and looked up at the sky. The stars had aligned along the quincunx towers with moon at the centre, above the gopura of the hall where the ceremony was conducted. Shortly thereafter a flimsy glowing line seemed to appear between the gopura and the moon and in the next moment before a blink of an eye it vanished. The king saw the whole scenic beauty in awe, gradually realizing the answer for his query of the odd time for ceremony. He looked at the sage who just smiled in return. The prayer was offered successfully and reached the Lord Vishnu.
"It was quite aesthetic view!"King said as he entered the temple with the sage."Now I understand why you did choose this time for the ceremony, but can you please enlighten me what happened out there? And the stories carved on the bas-reliefs or their arrangements seem to be in counterclockwise direction. May I know the reason behind this?"
"Your highness, what we saw outside was the result of our offerings and prayers. Today, being the mid of Uttarayan the stars arrange themselves in a peculiar way and it resembles the abode of Gods. Our temple is built depicting these stars with the 'Vishnuvarahlok', where we are standing right now, being the epicenter and where Lord Vishnu would dwell to rule this holy empire from now onwards!" Maharshi Bhrigu answered.
"According to our scriptures, the process for soul to enter this Bhulok or earth is also the way for it to exit just in the reverse order. As this temple is supposed for you or any further kings of Khmer to gain Moksha, the bas-reliefs are built in anticlockwise direction - Prasavya!"The sage continued, "Your highness, when the soul enters our body through birth, it gains impurity as we grow. All sort of greed, anger, lust pollute the soul. So, when the time comes for the soul to leave the body, it would move in the reverse direction here and starts getting purified. Then on its way to the Parlok, it crosses the huge moat filled with pure water enchanted with my mantras thereby leaving behind any memories attached with this world."
The king could feel lighter now as if a huge burden of pain and anguish had been lifted up. The ceremony was over and all the people left to their homes. For many years then King Suryavarman II ruled the Khmer empire through this new place, while the Lord Vishnu guided him in his reign. When years layer King Suryavarman II died he had a contented smile on his face and just like the ceremony day, people beheld a flimsy layer of air vanishing in the heaven.
EPILOGUE-
The successors of King Suryavarman II ruled the Khmer empire, glorified the empire and similarly left for Parlok when the time came. As the time passed people forgot the significance of the temple and the wisdom of Maharsh I Bhrigu was lost. But, the sanctity of the Moksha temple still endures. People who would dwell there for a short while before dying are sure to attain moksha from this worldly virtue and sins! Even today the temple waits for relieving the humanity from the greed-love-lust cycle, the cycle of life and death! The temple awaits..... The Angkor Wat awaits!!!