(6/9) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part One)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Mejhiari, temple inauguration programme,
21 April 2019, noon, part 6
Translated from Bengali

When we go to Sri Puri Dham, we can see there the Deities of Sri Jagannath, Sri Baladev and Sri Subhadra. Lord Jagannath is originally a Deity of Lord Vishnu, Narayan who was worshipped by sabara devotees. That Deity is still there, served by sabaras (there is a sabara class in that area and a panda class in Puri). The descendants of sabaras are daitapatis – they are present during the Ratha-yatra, when the chariots return to the temple after having spent seven days at the Gundicha temple (you often call it 'Masi Badi' [auntie's house] or 'Gundicha Bari' [Gundicha's house]). Gundicha Devi is the wife of King Indradyumna who built the temple of Lord Jagannath in Puri. During the seven days that the chariot stays at her house, descendants of the sabara class serve the Deities. They get this opportunity at this time.

King Indradyumna was very devoted to Lord Krishna. Although he was a materialistic king, he had much devotion and faith for the Lord. One day, the Lord appeared to King Indradyumna in a dream and said, 'I live right in your kingdom, but I am struggling very much at the place where I am at present. I am fed roots and bark every day...'

They still eat such things there – if you go to the temple of Nil-Madhav, you can get this kind of prasad there. We have been there a few times and I actually want to go there every year, but because the local priests create much disturbance and cannot provide proper prasad, we do not go there anymore. Nil-Madhav's temple is the place where Lord Jagannath comes from originally. I want to tell you how this happened. Nil-Madhav is a Deity of Lord Narayan or Vishnu. Lord Vishnu granted His darshan to King Indradyumna, saying, 'I am staying in your kingdom, but I am struggling so much. Come and serve Me. I have wanted to eat nicely for a long time now but I cannot do it here because they are only feeding Me roots.'

When the dream finished and the king woke up, he called his ministers and told them, 'My Lord is staying in my kingdom, He has showed Himself to me. He did not say where exactly He was staying, but we must find Him!' He sent his people in all directions – to the south, north, west – they had searched all jungles and forests, but they could not find the Lord anywhere. Then, the king called his chief minister, Vidyapati, and told him, 'Vidyapati, can you do me a favour? Nobody has been able to accomplish this, but I know that you will. My people have searched in all directions, only the east side remains unsearched – go to the east and try to find the Lord.' So, Vidyapati set out alone to search for the Lord.

As he walked and walked, he finally came to a very dense jungle forest one late evening. There he found a small thatched house. When he came to the house, a girl came out of it. Seeing her, Vidyapati thought, 'I must not stay here. The girl is alone, nobody is here, so I had better leave.' He turned to leave, but then the girl spoke.

'You probably think that we belong to a lower caste and you belong to a higher, rich kulin brahman caste, so you should not even take a glass of water from my hands...'

'Look, if I stay here and your father comes, he will be angry and think bad.'

'Sir, if you do not stay, he will be even angrier because a guest came and I did not offer him to sit, did not even give him a glass of water.'

As they spoke in this way, the girl's father came home. 'Why do you want to leave?' he asked Vidyapati. 'It is evening now, where will you go? Stay at my house tonight; you can continue your way tomorrow.'

So, Vidyapati stayed at their house, and he liked it there. He stayed one day, two days, four days. He did not tell the girl or her father that he was on a mission to find the Deity, but he thought to himself, 'The father of this girl goes out early in the morning every day and comes back in the evening. Where does he go? When he comes back, there is a very nice fragrance of sandalwood and camphor coming from his body. I should follow him one day and see where he goes...'

Before that, the Lord came to Visvavasu (the father of the girl) in a dream and said, 'I will not stay with you for a long time. You feed Me roots, and I want to eat nice things. I want to stay at the king's palace.' After that dream, Visvavasu became scared to lose the Lord – he feared that somebody would come and take his Deity away...

Some time passed. Eventually, the girl (Lalita) and Vidyapati fell in love and got married. So, Vidyapati became Visvavasu's son-in-law. One day, Vidyapati asked Lalita,

'Can you tell me something?'

'Yes, what is it?'

'Your father goes away every morning and when he comes back in the evening, he brings prasad and there is a wonderful smell of sandalwood and camphor coming from him. Where does he go every day?'

'He goes to worship the Lord every day. There is a Deity in the jungle, so he goes there to worship Him.'

'Can he take me along one day?'

'He never takes anybody there, not even me,' Lalita said. 'He keeps his Deity in secret and does all the worship without anybody knowing or seeing it.'

'Can I not see the Lord then?

'No... if Father knows about it, he will be angry.'

'Oh, it is very sad because I want to see the Lord very much...'

'Well, let me speak to Father. Let us see what he says.'

— : • : —

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Length: 58 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Gaura-Nitai's Mercy
2) Faith in Deity
3) Madan-Mohan's Miracle (Part One)
4) Madan-Mohan's Miracle (Part Two)
5) Deity and His Devotee
6) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part One)
7) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part Two)
8) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part Three)
9) Eternal Deities of Eternal Servants