Don’t Turn Back

Once, an old man promised a fellow traveller, a young man, his daughter’s hand in marriage. Days later, when the young man actually showed up at the village, the old man refused saying he promised no such thing. Bring a witness, demanded the old man. The young man, remembering that there was a Krishna temple near where the old man promised him his daughter, goes to the temple and innocently asks Krishna to come and be his witness. Krishna agrees on one condition, “Don’t ever turn around to confirm, if I am following you or not. Just believe that I am behind you!” Then, exactly as one would expect, while they are walking, Krishna behind the young man, the anklets of Krishna stop making a noise because they were travelling through soft mud. The young man in fear turns around, and it is at that moment that Krishna turns to stone. This is the story of Sakshi Gopal (witness Krishna) temple of Odisha.

This “piche-mudkar-mat-dekho” is a very common trope in India. When we turn around, God stops moving and is fixed to the spot. Ashapura temple in Gujarat has a similar story, where the goddess promises to protect a trader, provided he does not turn around to check if she is following him. So does Danteshwari Mata temple in Chhattisgarh, where the goddess promises to protect a king provided, he does not turn around to check on her. In both cases, the devotee turns around because the anklets cannot be heard and the goddess turns into a rock.

This theme is not limited to India. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice in Greek mythology comes to mind. Orpheus was a great musician whose music could make rocks move and trees bloom. One day, his wife Eurydice dies, and in grief he goes to the land of the dead, to get her back, and convinces the god of death with his music to let her go back with him to the land of the living. He is told not to look back until he reaches the land of the living, but he does. And she returns to the land of the dead forever.