In West Bengals’ Burdwan District, This Priest Prays to His Own Statue

Kolkata: In a curious practice, a sadhu, inspired by a dream, in West Bengal’s Burdwan district prays to his own statue.

The temple, ‘Shree Shree Singharay Baba Dham Aadi Shakti Shiv Mandir’, is located at West Burdwan’s Niyamatpur area, which is around 125 kilometers away from Kolkata.

The sadhu, popularly known as Singharay Baba, has been following this peculiar practice for several years now. The sadhu apparently had a dream where god asked him to pray to his own self for the well-being of the society.

“God is inside us and we should pray to our own self to clean our soul and thoughts. I have decided to pray to myself after god came in my dream and asked me to do so. I believe in myself and my service to the society and therefore I think there is no harm in praying to myself,” said Singharay Baba.

Singharay Baba has several followers who believe that he has the spiritual powers to save the society from evil forces and help them in happy and wealthy living.

Even former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren is reported to have visited this temple to seek blessing from Baba.

“I asked him why he decided to pray to himself. Then he told me that god came in his dream and asked him to concentrate on this practice so that he can serve the society better. Even former chief minister of Jharkhand Shibu Soren visited this temple to seek blessing from Baba,” said Rajesh Shaw, Trinamool Congress organising secretary of Kulti Block.

The temple has a couple of his statues in different avatars: one, where he is holding a gada (mace), while in another he is wielding a trident.

He wakes up every morning to perform puja in front of his own statue.