JAGANNATHA of PURI

SHUBHA RATRI 🕉️

Enchanting take of JAGANNATHA of PURI

16/9/23

Once Rohini mother of Balarama was telling the childhood stories of Krishna to Krishna's wives, and unknown to them, Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra were standing at the door with a smile listening to those stories. Narada then sees them and asks Krishna to bless the Earth with a temple for the three siblings. Krishna says that it would materialise in Kaliyuga.

INDRADYUMNA was a great Malava king, and son of Bharatha and Sunanda. He was a devout Vishnu bhakta. One day, a Brahmin describes to him about a secret idol of Vishnu worshipped in the Name of NEELAMADHAVA, in Odra Desha, by the tribal chief of Savara , VISHVAVASU.

Intrigued by this, INDRADYUMNA sends a priest VIDYAPATHI to find out more. VIDYAPATHI marries VISHVAVASU's daughter LALITHA, and then requests him to take him to see NEELAMADHAVA. Vishvavasu agrees on a condition that he would be bilndfolded.

VIDYAPATHI agrees but cleverly sprinkles mustard seeds on the way to the secret cave in the deep forests where NEELAMADHAVA was worshipped. He has the darshan of the most enchanting vigraha, and comes back to INDRADYUMNA. The king Overwhelmed by VIDYAPATHI, goes along with him following the path of germinated mustard seeds, and reaches the cave. But the idol of NEELAMADHAVA vanishes .

Disappointed with this, INDRADYUMNA leaves . And he gets a dream where Vishnu says, in the sea near PURI,he would find a log floating ,and that he should make idol of him from the log and build a temple for him.

As directed INDRADYUMNA finds the log of wood floating and all his attempts to pick the log fail. VISHVAVASU then comes and pick it up. With the descriptions given by VISHVAVASU.

When attempts to sculpt an idol are made, none of the sculptors tools worked. Then a old sculptor comes and says he can make th idols in 21 days but on the condition that he would do it all alone and in complete privacy. The king agrees and leaves him with the log.

But after 2 weeks The queen stops hearing the sounds of hammer and worried that the old man must have died, forces the king to open the doors and check. They both then open the doors and the next minute, the Oldman vanishes leaving behind 3 unfinished wooden idols.

With tears,when INDRADYUMNA prays, he hears a divine voice that the old man was Vishwakarma, and the idols are his will. INDRADYUMNA then builds a temple on the shores of PURI, It is said that Brahma did the Prana Pratishtapana of the three idols JAGANNATHA, SUBHADRA AND BHALABHADRA.

The temple Is the most powerful JAGANNATHA TEMPLE, OF MOKSHA KSHETRA PURI. The temple is one of the most mysterious temples in India The temple does not leave its shadow, and the reason is not known till today.

Another mystery about this temple is that sea can be heard outside of the temple.

Just one step into the temple, the sea cannot be heard. Why? And how? Are unsolved and this cannot even be attributed to architecture.

The next one is the flag on the top of the shikhara flies against the wind.

The temple kitchen here is most vast, and is an open kitchen. The Food is prepared from firewood and everyday new earthen pots are used. Elaborate prasadas are made here by 800 cooks who are continuously chanting bhagawan's name. The wood that is used is the wood from the dismantled Rathas after the Ratha Yatra . Food is prepared here by Placing the pots on top of other. Another mystery here is that the food in the top pot gets cooked first.

While taking the Prasad for nivedana to the deities, if either they hear a dog bark, or see a dog the whole food is discarded and prepared again.

One other astonishing fact Is that the Naivedya never gets less for devotees irrespective of how many ever come. It is said that if pinda pradaana is done with the prasada of JAGANNATHA, the pitrus attain Vishnu sangathya.

While the temple is a mystery, the most astonishing rituals in Jagannath temple is NABAKALEBARA where new idols are made for the 3 deities, and the old ones are Buried with Anthyeshti rituals. Bhagawan appears in the dream of certain Srotriya Brahmins and Dikshitas and gives them the location of the Neem tree from which the new idols need to be made.

They find the tree with Shankha Chakra symbols at the exact location given by JAGANNATHA in their dream. NABAKALEBARA ritual happens every 8, 12 or 19 years during the Adhika Ashada masa. When the idols are made and placed on the Ratna peetha inside the temple, the most mysterious and Astonishing ritual happens.

Exactly at 12.00pm, the whole of Puri plunges into darkness as the power is cut in the whole city, and no house lights a lamp. As it is an Amavasya, the entire temple premises plunges into pitch darkness. Then the DAITAPATI of the temple blindfolded, Hands covered with saffron cloth, removes something from the old idol of JAGANNATHA and places in the tiny chamber inside the new idol. What is this? Why the pitch darkness? It is said that what is removed from the old idol and placed in the new one is the BRAHMA PADARTHA or the Real heart of Srikrishna. The DAITAPATIS are on oath and no matter what will reveal anything about this.

It is said after Avatara Samapthi of Krishna, as per his instructions, when his body was burnt by the hunter, he finds the heart of Krishna which was shining bright. He hears a divine voice to leave it on a wooden plank into the sea. This was found by INDRADYUMNA and hence the Pranaprathisthapana was done by Brahma himself.

The fact remains that some mysterious object is placed inside the new idol after the NABAKALEBARA ritual

🙏🙏JAI JAGANNATH🙏🙏