eknath's garden (space version)

original field recording of monsoon in goa when i was stuck there during the covid lockdown - june 2020 october 2026 - live audio & video experiment (generated ''simultaneously') based the original monsoon field recording pardon the glitches small story - i stayed in this area out side of Siolim Goa for five months during the initial Covid lockdown - in the neighborhood was a temple worshipped by both the Hindu and the Christians - which essentially was a temple about 'Space' and they worshipped 'Space' itself. I asked perplexity to explain more and this was the answer I got : The temple is almost certainly Shri *Zagreshwar* Devasthan, also spelled Jagreshwar, in the Gudem/Gudde area of Siolim. It is the shrine associated with the Siolim Zagor, a night-long ritual and folk performance shared by local Hindus and Catholics. The location and shared worship both match your description closely. What about worshipping “space”? That sounds like an explanation of the shrine’s formless deity rather than worship of “space” in the astronomical sense. The village protector is called Zagorio; accounts describe him as a formless deity, and the shrine is reported to have no idol. One account describes prayers before Zagorio that invoke the Christian Father, Son and Holy Ghost—an unusually direct example of the overlapping religious traditions there. So “a divine presence without a physical image” is the best-supported way to understand what you were told. I couldn’t verify that “space” itself is the precise local theological term. History and the shared tradition The best-documented history concerns the Zagor ritual rather than the date of the temple building. Local reporting describes the tradition as centuries old, but the sources I found don’t establish a reliable founding date for the shrine. Its roots are in protecting the village and its agricultural landscape. Zagor means a night vigil: villagers keep watch, perform and pray to the guardian believed to protect their settlement and crops. An account of Goa’s ecological traditions connects Siolim’s observance specifically with the embankments that keep the Chapora’s waters from inundating the fields. It records a local belief that neglecting the festival could bring breached bunds and flooding. That same account says the observance continued during Portuguese rule, despite being regarded as a pagan festival, with help from the Christian community. The result is not simply a Hindu temple that Christians occasionally visit, but a longstanding shared village ritual incorporating Hindu and Catholic prayers, saints, music and performance. This is a reported account of its survival, rather than a securely dated foundation history. What happens there The Siolim Zagor is normally held on the first Monday after Christmas, linked to the local feast of Nossa Senhora de Guia. Its main elements include: A late-night torch-lit procession called the suari, accompanied by ghumot drums and cymbals. Invocations asking the village protector for blessings, with ritual headgear bearing lit candles. Singing, dancing and folk theatre continuing after midnight, with Hindu and Christian villagers performing together. The dramatic portions resemble Goan tiatr and can include commentary on village life. A firsthand account of the 2007 celebration places it specifically at Gude-Vaddo’s Zagreshwar temple and describes people offering both candles and flower garlands at the small shrine—an especially tangible expression of the shared devotion you heard about.