(8/9) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part Three)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Mejhiari, temple inauguration programme,
21 April 2019, noon, part 8
Translated from Bengali

When King Indradyumna finished building the temple, he became anxious for the Lord to finally come there. He kept praying, 'O Lord! When are You coming? When are You coming?' One day, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'All right, I am coming, but you do not need to send anybody to fetch Me. I will come Myself. I will come to the shore of the ocean, to a place called Chakra Tirtha, in the form of three logs. Only three people will be able to touch those logs – you, your minister Vidyapati, and Lalita's father (Visvavasu) who has been serving Me every day.'

The three of them (the king, Vidyapati and Visvavasu) came to the shore of the ocean and began to wait. Soon they saw three pieces of wood floating towards them. The logs were enormous, so they wondered, 'How are we going to carry these logs?! What kind of pastime is the Lord showing?' but as soon as they touched the logs, the wood became as light as cork. The three of them took the logs on their shoulders and brought them to the temple.

Next, it was necessary to make Deities of the logs. Many expert carpenters came to do it, but when each of them tried to carve anything, all their tools broke. Nobody could make anything. King Indradyumna again prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord, what is going on? Please show us what we must do!' The Lord told him, 'I will send My great carpenter to you. His name is Visvakarma. You will not be able to recognise him properly – an old man will come to you, and you must give this job to him.'

Soon after that, an old man indeed came to the king and said, 'O King, I have heard that nobody could make your Deities. Will you let me try?'

'Yes, sure, of course!' the king replied enthusiastically. 'But will you be able to do it?'

'Yes, I will, but I have some condition.'

'What is your condition?'

'I will go inside the temple and take twenty-one days to make the Deities. You must lock the temple from outside, and I will also latch it from inside. You will be able to hear me working, but you must not enter the temple until I have finished.'

The king agreed, and Visvakarma started working. From time to time, the king and his queen would come to the door of the temple and put their ears to the door to hear what was going on inside. They could the sound ('knock-knock-knock') and understood that Visvakarma was working. After some time, they suddenly heard nothing. 'What has happened?' they wondered. 'Is the man still there? How can that old man stay inside without any food. He must have died! We must break the door and purify the temple.' Somebody hesitated because the twenty-one days had not finished yet, but anyhow they still decided to break the door. When they came inside the temple, they saw the Deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladev and Lady Subhadra without hands or legs, and they did not see Visvakarma inside (he was sent by the Lord, so he went back to the Lord). Later, the Lord told the king in a dream, 'I will stay in this world like this. The Names of My Deities are Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra. I will stay like this and bestow mercy upon the whole world during the Ratha-yatra festival. Visvavasu and the people of his caste will serve Me when I go to Gunicha's house; the rest of the time, your people can serve Me.'

You must have heard that after the snan-yatra, the temple of Lord Jagannath is closed for fifteen days – people say that Lord Jagannath has a fever at that time, but actually it is not so. At this time, the servitors of the temple prepare and clean the temple. Even Mahaprabhu could not get the darshan of Lord Jagannath at that time. He would run all the way to Alarnath to see Lord Jagannath.

This is the history of Lord Jagannath's appearance in this world. Remember it.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 28 Mb
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