SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(1) Sri Jagannathdev

When we come to take darshan of Lord Jagannathdev in Sri Puri Dham, we always remember Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and come to circumambulate, in the company of devotees, all the holy places that He visited.

gaura amara, ye saba sthane,
karala bhramana range
se saba sthana, heriba ami,
pranayi-bhakata-sange

‘In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaura visited during His pastimes.’

(Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Many people wonder, ‘How did the Deity of Lord Jagannath appear?’ There is a very old and beautiful story related to that.

Many years ago Odisha was ruled by King Indradyumna. Although he was a king, he was also a devotee of the Lord: he always served the Lord with deep love. One day, King Indradyumna thought, ‘I am the king, I have everything – I have a kingdom, I have immense riches, I have a beautiful queen; but there is only one thing that I have not been able to do in my life: I have never served the Lord.’ Then, one day, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘I am waiting for you. I am right here, in your kingdom! Find Me!’

The next morning, King Indradyumna summoned his army and sent them to the south, west and north with an order, ‘The Lord is hiding in my kingdom. You must find Him and bring Him here.’

The search began, but nobody could find the Lord. A long time had passed, and having found nothing, all the soldiers returned to the king. King Indradyumna was very sad, so he started praying to the Lord. At this time, the chief minister Vidyapati came to see him. The king told him, ‘Go to the east. Take the Name of the Lord and make sure that by hook or by crook you find the Lord.’

Turning to the east, Vidyapati started walking. He had walked for a very long time when finally he found himself in the middle of a jungle. There was a big mountain and a river in the jungle, and on all four sides around there was a thick forest. Suddenly, amidst the forest he noticed a small hut and a girl standing near it.

As soon as he saw the girl, he turned round and started walking away, but the girl (her name was Lalita) called him, ‘You look like a brahman’s son. We are sabars by caste, living off roots and fruit, but will you not take at least a glass of water from my hand?’

‘No, I will not. You are here alone. If your father or anybody comes, what will they think? It is not right.’

‘No, no. On the contrary, if Father hears that you have come and I have not given you even a glass of water, he will get angry.’

Vidyapati came to the hut and sat down. Soon, Lalita’s father returned home. Lalita told him, ‘Father, this gentleman wanted to leave, but I told him to stay and at least drink a glass of water.’ Her father said, ‘Yes, you have done right. Sir, why do you want to leave? It is evening already. You must have been walking all day long – I do not know where you have come from, but please stay here.’

Vidyapati stayed and started to live with them. As the time went by, he gradually fell in love with Lalita, and with her father’s blessing he married her. So, Lalita’s father became his father-in-law.

The name of Lalita’s father was Visvavasu. He had a Deity (the Deity’s Name was Nilmadhav), and every day he would come to the Deity to offer Him worship. One day, the Lord came to Visvavasu in a dream and said, ‘Visvavasu, you have been feeding Me radish roots (kanda-mula) for a very long time, but I would like to eat opulent royal dishes.’ Hearing this, Visvavasu became perturbed. Feeling both angry and fearful, he thought, ‘What if the king finds out about it? He will take my Lord away from me!’ Fearing this, Visvavasu hid the Lord in the jungle and served Him there secretly.

One day, Vidyapati asked his wife, ‘Lalita, your father wakes up early every morning and goes away, returning only in the evening. And when he comes back, there is a peculiar sweet smell coming from his body. Where does he go?’

‘Oh, he goes to worship a Deity,’ Lalita replied.

‘Worship a Deity? Where? Does he have a Deity?’

‘I only know that he worships a Deity. I cannot tell you where he goes.’

In the evening, when Visvavasu came back home, Lalita told him, ‘Father, your son-in-law has been asking me where you go every day. I told him that you went to worship a Deity every day, but he wants to know where you worship Him. I did not tell it to him.’

‘You did right. Do not tell him anything!’ Visvavasu replied, thinking to himself, ‘O Lord! Is he going to take my Deity away? What if he is the king’s spy? Actually, I do not even know anything about him. I will not wait – I will kill him today!’ Then, he thought a little more and resigned, ‘It is a great sin to kill. I worship the Lord, so I cannot do such a thing…’

Then, he called Lalita and told her, ‘All right. Since your husband wants to see the place, I will show him the place where I worship the Lord. When I go there, I will take him with me, but I have one condition. Explain to him nicely that when I take him there, I will take him blindfolded so that he cannot see the way. After he sees the Lord, I will blindfold him again and take him back home.’

‘All right,’ Lalita said, ‘I will tell him.’

Then, she came to Vidyapati and told him, ‘Father has agreed to show you the place. You are my husband, I cannot betray you. Here is what you should do: take some mustard seeds in your hand, and when Father takes you to the place, throw the seeds along the way – then you will be able to find the way to the place later.’

Vidyapati did as she said. The next morning Lalita put some mustard seeds into her husband’s hand and tied a blindfold over his eyes. Visvavasu took him to Nilmadhav. When they arrived, he opened his son-in-law’s eyes. Vidyapati saw the Deity and offered his obeisance to the Lord. Then, Visvavasu again covered his eyes and took him home.

After a few days, there was some rain and the mustard seeds sprouted and gradually grew into mustard trees. Vidyapati wondered, ‘Will I be able to find the way? Will I be able to go and see the Lord myself?’ He followed the path marked by the mustard trees and reached the Lord. His plan was successful!

A few days later, Vidyapati told his wife, ‘Lalita, listen, it has been a long time already. I have been living with you, but I also have parents. I have not seen them for a long time. I have to go back…’

‘Are you leaving?!’

‘Yes, but I will come back after a while. Do not worry – you are my wife, I will not leave you.’

‘All right…’ Lalita replied, sadly.

So, Vidyapati returned to Puri and went straight to the king.

‘By your mercy and by the mercy of the Lord, I have found the Deity!’ he said.

‘Where?? Where is my Lord??’ King Indradyumna asked, excited.

‘I will show you the place, but the man who worships the Deity, Visvavasu, will never agree to give the Deity away.’

‘What?’ the king replied, ‘He is a mere sabar, a lower caste man, and I am the king! He lives in my kingdom, why must he keep the Deity? I will arrest him!’

Then, King Indradyumna summoned his army, took elephants and horses and came to Visvavasu, but as soon as he arrested him, the Lord spoke a message from the sky, ‘I will not come with you like this! Visvavasu has been serving Me for so long, and you are insulting him. Go back. First make Me a house, then I will come Myself. You do not have to come for Me. And you, Visvavasu, must not quarrel. I have already told you before that I want to leave.’

The king released Visvavasu, returned to Puri and decided to build a very big temple (the temple of Lord Jagannath).

When the temple construction finished, King Indradyumna thought, ‘When is the Lord going to come? He said that He would come Himself, but when is He coming?’ The next day, the Lord came to the king in a dream and said, ‘O King, listen carefully to what I am going to tell you. I will come to the shore of the ocean as three pieces of wood. Only three people can touch this wood: My previous servitor Visvavasu, Vidyapati and you.’

King Indradyumna summoned Visvavasu from the jungle and went together with him and Vidyapati to the shore of the ocean. When they came, they saw three pieces of wood floating towards the shore. When the king saw the wood, he thought, ‘How are we going to carry these huge pieces of wood? It is impossible!’ But as soon as the king touched the wood, the wood became as light as cork. So, the three of them carried the wood to the temple of Lord Jagannath.

Next, the King started searching for a carpenter who would carve the Deities from the wood. Every time a carpenter came and tried to carve the Deities, his hammer and chisel broke. Nobody could make the Deities. Then, the Lord told the king, ‘I will send My own man, his name is Visvakarma. Do as he says, and the Deities will be made.’

A few days later, an old man came and said, ‘O King, Sir, my name is Visvakarma. I am a carpenter. I have heard that you want to make Deities. If you give your permission, I can try to do it.’

‘Sure, but so far nobody has been able to do it. If you can do it, please do.’

‘All right, but I have one condition.’

‘Yes, what is it?’

‘I will stay inside the temple for twenty-one days. I will lock the door from inside and you will lock it from outside. When twenty-one days pass, then you will open the door and can see the Deities. Nobody must enter it before that.’

King Indradyumna agreed. They cleaned the temple and the carpenter went inside, locking the door from inside.

The next day, King Indradyumna and his queen Gundicha Devi thought, ‘Is that man working or not? How will we understand it?’ They came quietly to the door and listened. Hearing the sounds of a hammer and a chisel, they were satisfied. In this way, they would come every day to the door, hear the noise (‘Tuk-tuk-tuk!’) and, feeling pleased, go away.

Fifteen days had passed like that. After that, they suddenly noticed that there was no sound coming from the room anymore. Everybody started saying, ‘The man who came to make the Deities is very old, what if he has died? He has been inside for fifteen days already – how is he doing there? If he has really died, then the temple will be desecrated and it is necessary to clean everything…’ Deciding not to wait any longer, King Indradyumna ordered his men to break the door.

When the door was opened, the king saw that there was nobody inside and in the middle of the room there were three Deities: Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra. They looked the same as today: no hands, no fingers, no legs, no ears. The king was astonished.

Then, the Lord again came to the king and told him, ‘If somebody wants to make Me fingers, they can do it, but I must be offered bhoga fifty-six times: I will accept it as I am. I will stay in this form in this world and bestow mercy upon all jiva souls on the day of Ratha-yatra. And one more condition is that you must keep My temple open for twenty-one hours every day.’ The king did everything as the Lord told him, and since that time the temple of Lord Jagannath has been running like that.

This is how Lord Baladev, Lady Subhadra and Lord Jagannath appeared.

And one more thing. Next to the temple of Lord Jagannath, there is a bridge called Atharnala. The bridge has eighteen (athara) holes. There is a special reason for this. King Indradyumna had eighteen sons, but he realised, ‘Later, all these sons will fight, “This is my Deity! This is my temple!”’ – so, he killed his eighteen sons. In this way he established that the temple of Lord Jagannath does not belong to anybody – the Deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladev and Lady Subhadra belong to the whole world. ‘Jagannath’ means ‘jagatera natha’ (the master of the world). Everybody has the right to come to the temple of Lord Jagannath, everybody can serve Him. This is how Lord Jagannath’s service is continuing to this day.

When we come to take darshan of Lord Jagannath’s Ratha-yatra (chariot procession), the main question is whether we have the eyes to have Lord Jagannath’s darshan.

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite
ki-rupe se paibe para-tattva dekhite

‘My eyes are blind with the dust of visaya, the material world – how can I see the transcendental world?’

Our eyes are blinded by the dust of materialism. How can we see Lord Jagannath then, tell me?

aprakrta vastu nahe prakrta-gochara
veda-puranete ei kahe nirantara

‘You can never see that which belongs to the transcendental world with your mundane eyes; all Vedas and Puranas constantly tell this.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.9.196)

It is impossible to see anything transcendental with the help of material faculties. When we come to the Lord, He can understand that we have come in front of Him. What should we say when we come to Him? ‘O Jagannath, please bestow Your mercy upon me. Please forgive me my offences. For so long, for so many lives, for so many ages, I have been committing countless offences, but now I have anyhow come to Your holy feet – Prabhu, please forgive my offences.’ This is how we should pray to Lord Jagannathdev.

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