Lord Jagannath Temple

Puri is widely known as Jagannath Puri. It is situated about 60 kilometers south of Bhubaneshvar. It is one of the four main Holy Places of pilgrimage in India. It is situated on the coastline having a very good beach where, Sri Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu entered and took a bath. The climate is very nice here—neither hot nor cold.

Lord Jagannath Temple

This temple is the greatest attraction in Puri. It is situated on a hillock having four main gates. The eastern gate is called Simhadwara or lion gate. In front of this gate, there is a Aruna Stambha or sun pillar upon which the Sun god is said to be situated. Before pilgrims enter into the temple, they must touch this Aruna Stambha to become purified.

The Jagannath temple is surrounded by 25 feet in height thick walls. As you enter through the Simhadwara, within the doorframe, you will see a Jagannath deity named Patita Pavana, meaning the rescuer of the fallen. This deity is placed there because only the Hindus are allowed to enter the temple. This has been the tradition for hundreds of years. Those who are non-Hindus, can see this Jagannath deity and become purified. Even at the time of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, five hundred years ago, His direct disciple and loving devotee, Haridas Thakura, could not enter Jagannath Temple because he was born in a Muslim family. Although he was chanting 300,000 names of Hare Krsna Maha Mantra (64x3 rounds) everyday and living in a devotee dress with a shaved head and tilak, whom Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu loved so much, he was not allowed to enter into this temple.

There is a history behind why non-Hindus are not allowed inside the temple. At that time, the king of Orissa was a great devotee of Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath would converse with him and protect him. Once one Muslim ruler came to Jagannath Puri to break the temple and caught hold of the king and asked him to get converted into Islam. The king refused and the Muslim Nawab took his sword to cut off the king’s head. But by the strength of Lord Jagannath, the sword broke before it touched the neck of the devotee king. Since that day, the king made the rule that only Hindus can enter into the temple. In another occasion, one Muslim came to catch the king. The king ran and entered into the temple through the Simhadwara. The Muslims who were running behind the king came near the Patita Pavava Moorthy of Jagannath on this gate. They changed their desire to enter. For example, Lord Jagannath changed their minds and made them think to leave the king alone. Therefore all non-Hindus, including the converted devotees, have to stay outside this Simhadwara doorframe and see Patita Pavana deity and not be able to enter into the main temple.

As you enter the eastern gate, there are 22 steps to go to the next gate. On the half way of these steps, on the left side, there is a temple for Lord Siva, who came from Varanasi to see Lord Jagannath. After seeing Lord Jagannath, Lord Siva stayed there. That is why, those who want to visit Lord Jagannath in the temple, must first see Lord Siva and pay homage unto Him. Since Lord Siva is the greatest devotee of Krsna, He allows the visitor to see Lord Jagannath. Although originally the temple was constructed by king Indradyumna using the help of Visvakarma, the demigod of architect, the present temple was built by king Anangabhima in 1198. The second prakara, the surrounding wall is 22 feet high and 6.5 feet thick and has four gates. This wall was said to be built by Lakshmi, the wife of Jagannath, because Lord Jagannath complained to Her that Her father, the ocean (Lakshmi was born from ocean), makes a roaring sound, which disturbs His sleep. Hearing the complaint from the Lord, Lakshmi Devi built this wall to avoid the complaint from the Lord about Her father. That is why the respect is given to this gate to receive the blessings of Lakshmi Devi to see Her husband Jagannath inside.

After passing this gate on the left, Lord’s kitchen named Rasoda can be seen and then the innermost circle of the temple can be reached by climbing up the stairs to have darsan of the Lord. In the Jaganmohana, the rule for seeing the Lord is that at first Garuda Stambha or the pillar of Garuda to be circumambulated three times clockwise and embrace it, and then see Lord Jagannath. This is to pacify the carrier of the Lord to see Jagannath. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also stood at this place and help the temple wall to see Lord Jagannath. Lord Caitanya Mahapraphu touched the wall to see Lord Jagannath and the wall got melted by His touch. The impressions of His fingerprints are still there today and people pay homage to the fingerprints by touching the marks with their heads.

While having darsan, all the devotees sing the wonderful songs very melodiously depicting the pastimes of Lord Jagannath. Jagannath means Lord Krsna, The Lord of the Universe. When you see Lord Jagannath standing in front of you, you develop a particular feeling within your heart and stand pleading at Him with prayer. The atmosphere in the temple is very wonderful and spiritually charged. If you pay a small donation to a priest, he will take you directly near Jagannath to let you touch His simhasana, the seat upon which Lord Jagannath is situated, with your head. Lord Jagannath’s seat is about 6 feet high from the temple ground. Lord Jagannath has round eyes with no eyelids (for watching everyone without blinking), has extended arms without fingers (to embrace the fallen souls calling them ‘please come to Me and do not suffer in this material world’). Baladev, in white complexion, is also in this same posture. Between the two brothers, Jagannath and Baladev, their sister Subhadra is situated to bless the visitors with wonderful spiritual realizations. You can purchase a ghee lamp and offer it to the Lord. After darsan, you are allowed to leave through the left side gate of the Lord, to perform circumambulation of the temple.

As soon as you leave the temple sanctum, you see a banyan tree called kalpa vata. As the priest say, at the time of annihilation, Lord Sri Krsna appeared on the leaf of this banyan tree and Markanteya Muni saw Him there. Those women who cannot bear children sit under this tree seeking for a benediction. If the woman is sincere, a leaf or a particle of the tree falls upon her blessing her with a son. In Niladri-mahodya, it is stated that those who sit under this kalpa vata tree, his miseries and sins will get destroyed and anyone who performs oblations to forefathers under this tree liberates them.

After passing this tree, walking clockwise to do circumambulation of the main temple, you come to a raised platform supported by pillars upon which many learned brahmanas sit. It is said that when the temple was being constructed, Lord Brahma sat on this raised platform to direct the mansions and engineers in their work. Therefore, this platform is named as Mukti Mandapa or liberating platform. As you carry on walking, you come to the following temples:

1)The Sarva Mangala temple:

It is stated in Matsya Purna, that this Sarva Mangala temple is established within Jagannath temple, which gives spiritual strength and purity to see Lord Jagannath and pray to Him.

2)The Pancha Pandava temple:

According to Mahabharat, when five pandavas, Yudhisthira, Bhimasena, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were exiled by Duryodhana, they came to see Lord Jagannath and pray to Him to remove all their obstacles while they were lost in the forest.

3)The Ekadasi temple:

In a very small temple attached to the right side of the outer wall of the main sanctum centrum, the Ekadasi deity is hanging upside down (head down and feet up). It signifies that Lord Jagannath does not want to perform Ekadasi fast meaning that on the Ekadasi day fasting is recommended, but Lord Jagannath loves eating. Therefore when Ekadasi came, He took Her and hanged Her upside down so He could eat sumptuously. But the visitors are requested not to eat grains on Ekadasi day, even though it is Jagannath’s prasad for self-purification and keep the prasadam for the next day.

While circumambulating, there are various temples for worship: Ananta Vasudeva, Vimala Devi, Yogeshwara, Saksi Gopala, Ksirachora Gopinath, Laxmi Narayana, Maha Lakshmi, Navagrahas, Lord Ramachandra, Pataleswara, and the foot prints of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, where he sat down to see the Chakra located atop of the tower over the main sanctum centrum of Lord Jagannath.

Due to the salty winds of the nearby ocean, the management of the temple has covered all the carvings of the gopuram with plaster saving it from getting destroyed. According to Vedic civilization, after seeing the main deity of the temple, one must perform pradakshina or circumambulation of the temple. When the circumambulation is completed, one must sit down briefly so that the pradakshina and darsan is completed. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s footprints are located where Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu sat down and looked at the Chakra. This is the place where all pilgrims sit and watch the Chakra. Haridas Thakura who could not enter into Jagannath Temple chanted his japa at a distance looking at the Chakra of the temple. Looking at the Chakra means also getting the same benefit of seeing the deity.

The Food Offerings

Lord Jagannath likes to eat most of the day. He is offered two kinds of foodstuffs. One is called sankudi consisting of boiled rice, dal, vegetables, etc. the other is called nisankudi consisting of deep fried preparations and sweets made with ghee, milk or sugar candy. Everyday throughout the year the deities are offered 56 varieties of dishes. Offering to the Lord are made for a minimum of six times a day.

1)Early in the morning (530 a.m.) deep fried sweets called Gopala-Ballabha boga is offered to the Lord

2)When the Lord is dressed after His bath, another offering made of nisankudi with sweets and deep fried foods are offered.

3)Before noon, a sankudi boga consisting of boiled rice, vegetables, and curries are offered to the Lord.

4)Lunch time of mid day (at 1 p.m.) sankudi boga of boiled rice, etc. is offered to the Lord.
5)When Lord gets up after taking daytime rest (at 5 p.m.), He is offered different varieties of puddings.

6)Late at night, Lord is offered with cooked rice that was soaked in the water (called turani).

The quantity of total food that is offered to the Lord can feed more than 10,000 people at a time.

The Ananda Bazaar

When offering is made to the Lord, all prasadams are brought out to this market called Ananda Bazaar located inside the outer compound wall. Although there is nisankudi prasadam such as malpua and sweets offered to the Lord is sold, the principal item of Mahapraad is boiled rice, dal, varieties of vegetables, curries and green leafy preparations tossed together with different sour chutneys. They are all sold in this market. The daily quantity of Mahaprasad can feed about 10,000 people, yet in the festival occasions more than 100,000 people can be fed with Mahaprasad of Anand Bazaar. This Anand Bazaar is not like that of outside bazaar because it is within the temple compound and managed by the temple. This bazaar is open from early morning until 10 p.m. and constantly flooded with pilgrims purchasing Mahaprasad. You can purchase a banana leaf on the spot and purchase Mahaprasad. While eating one must be careful because there are many beggars who will loot the prasadam and take it away. These beggars are different agents of different departments of demigods who came to obtain Mahaprasad for their liberation. All the foods for the Lord are cooked in freshly made clay pots and after usage the clay pots are thrown away.

The Rasoda

While leaving Anand Bazaar (and after enjoying Mahaprasad) of Lord Jagannath, Rasoda or the kitchen of Lord Jagannath comes on the way. This Rasoda has 200 stoves and 600 cooks who cook Lord’s food at one time for each offering. The main meal called lunch of Lord Jagannath (named Raja-Bhoga) consists of 120 to 240 quintals of rice (1 quintal = 100 kilograms) and according to the rice proportionate the quantities of vegetables, curries, dals, and deep fried sweets such as malpuas, etc. are prepared. This is the world’s largest kitchen where a million people can be fed in a matter of hours. The residing priests say that Lakshmi Devi herself, supplies the goods for cooking and Parvathi Devi, the wife of Lord Siva, cooks the food. All the water used for cooking and worship of Lord Jagannath comes from a well, which is located within the compound near the Rasoda.

There are various categories of workers, some grind the spices (no pre-ground spice is purchased from outside), some cut woods, some fetch water, some oversee everything and supervise, some wash the rice, some wash dals, some cut vegetables, some clean the kitchen, some rinse the new clay pots for cooking, etc. No outsiders are permitted in the kitchen, but there are tiny holes on the kitchen wall through which the visitors can see how cooking is going on in Lord’s Rasoda.

According to the scriptures, there are four main holy places in India and Sankaracharya placed his seat in these four places. In the north, his seat in Badrinarayana is called Jyotir Math, in the west his seat is called Sharada Math, in the east his seat in Puri is called Govardhan Math, and in the south his seat in Rameshwaram is called Sringeri Math. According to scriptures, the pious are instructed to systematically visit the holy places as described here. One should first go to Badrinarayana where the Supreme Lord of universe takes His bath. Then go to Dwaraka where the Supreme Lord gets decorated opulently with nice ornaments. Then come to Jagannath Puri, where the Supreme Lord eats very sumptuously and then to Rameshwaram, where the Supreme Lord enjoys taking His rest. These are the four places where Lord performs four different past times. This is the system to travel to the holy places in India. While traveling to these places from one place to another, there are also many other holy places that are also worth visiting. We are also including those places in this book.

Lord Jagannath’s cooked rice is also dried and packed in little pieces of cloth and sold to the visitors. Visitors purchase this dried rice and keep it in their homes for years together and eat grain each day. It removes sins, protects from bad omens, evil spirits and saves him from going to hell. As it is said in the Padma Purana:

rudanti patakah sarve nihswasanti muhur muhuh
ha ha krtva palayante jagannathanna bhaksanat

“When Jagannath’s passed (rice) is put in the mouth, all sins within the body starts crying out. With breathing heavily screaming again and again with pleading sounds ‘we are leaving, we are leaving’ and thus run away from the body of the eater.”

Snana-vedi

This is a platform where Lord Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra take Their bath. It is located just next to the Ananda Bazaar. On the full moon day of the month of Jyestha (May-June) and just two weeks before His chariot festival called Ratha Yatra, Lord Jagannath is brought down to this platform where all the visitor can give Him bath. But they all have to be born Hindus. This is because the bathing process takes a long time and Lord Jagannath will catch cold from this bath, which many medicines are supplied to Him as a cure. It takes two weeks for the Lord to come over His cold.

Bhent Mandapa (Meeting Place)

When Lord returns from His chariot festival, Lakshmi Devi, the wife of Lord Jagannath welcomes Her sister-in-law, Subhadra, and Her brother-in-law, Balaram, by paying respects to Them, but She does not welcome Jagannath. She closes the gate keeping Jagannath outside where He pleads Lakshmi Devi to open the gate. This is because Lakshmi Devi becomes upset as Lord Jagannath left for a pleasure trip to enjoy with His brother and sister, leaving His wife behind uninformed. Due course of time, Lakshmi Devi lets Jagannath enter into the premises.

There are 6000 servants in the temple who are grouped in 36 categories. Everybody and every group is assigned with a particular service. We shall discuss Lord’s main service and His different dresses. But for further details, one can study ‘Niladri Archana Chandrika’, ‘Suta Samhita’ and ‘Niladri Mahodaya’ books. The process of worshipping Lord Jagannath are based on the teachings of Narada Pancharatra literature. On special occasions, special festivals are held and Lord is dressed as per the taste of the festival.

The Categories of dresses for Lord Jagannath

Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladev and Subhadra dress very gorgeously. Starting from mangala arti in the early morning, Lord changes His dresses in many different times as the day progresses. The artistic dresses are put on artistically on the Lord and the priests who serve the Lord come down in generations. No outside priests are allowed to dress the Lord. Some of the main dresses are discussed here:

1)Chandana-Vesa

This dress is not made of cloth, but of a huge supple of sandal wood paste mixed with camphor. This paste is smeared around the Lord all over His body for 42 days during the summer months of Vaisakha and Jyestha (April-May-June). In this dress the Lord looks very beautiful and His complete body can be seen without clothes.

2)Hathi-Vesa

Lord Jagannath, the source of the universe and the Supreme Lord, includes 330 million demigods in Him. Therefore He can dress and act as He likes. On the full moon day of month of Jyestha (May-June), He dresses as Lord Ganesha having the face of an elephant and body looking like that of a man. At this time Lord is taken out of the deity room and seated on a platform of the northern corner of the sanctum centrum, where everybody from outside the boundary also can see the Lord. When the Lord dresses with the face of an elephant and body of Jagannath. He clearly resembles Lord Ganesh and a devotee of Ganesh feel very happy to see the Lord like that.

3)Navayauvana-Vesa

After wearing the Ganesh vesa the deities remain in seclusion for fifteen days and then they are dressed in Navayauvana vesa, meaning freshly youthful form with a charming robes making them appear as 16 years of age.

4)Vesa-Vesa

In this, the Lord is dressed with golden ornaments. This starts in month of Asadha (June-July) until the end of the chariot festival. When the chariots are brought back from His travel back to Jagannath temple, Lord remains on the chariot for two days before re-entering into the temple. At this time, Lord dressed with golden ornaments with visible golden hands can be seen. On the left hand, Lord holds a golden conch shell and on the right hand, He holds a golden chakra (disc). Similarly, Baladev holds a plough on His left hand and a golden mace on His right hand. Subhadra is also decorated beautifully with golden ornaments.

5)Vana-Bhoji-Vesa

This unusual dress is made from tender leaves, creepers and different colored flowers. This dress is put on the Lord on the tenth day of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September). It commemorates Lord Krsna, Balaram and Subhadra’s transcendental pastimes of Dvapar Yuga in the groves of Vritndaban.

6)Kaliya-Dalana-Vesa

This dress is put in a dark color commemorating Lord Krsna’s killing Kaliya serpent in the holy waters of Yamuna in Vrindaban. This dress is put on the eleventh day of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September). While dressed like this, Lord appears as He is dancing over the head of Kaliya serpent.

7)Krsna-Balarama-Vesa

This is put on the thirteenth day of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada month. Krsna, Balaram and Subhadra are dressed as appeared in Dwaraka.

8)Vamana-Vesa

This is the dress put on the light fortnight of month of Bhadrapada (August-September), where Lord looks like Vamana Deva (dwarf incarnation), appeared as the fifth incarnation of Lord Krsna to punish Bali Maharaj.

9)Raja-Vesa

This is the dress put on the Lord on the tenth day of bright fortnight of Asvina (September-October) month. With this dress, the Lord looks like a king.

10)Radha-Damodara-Vesa

It begins on the first day of the month of Kartika (October-November). He is dressed very gorgeously and a rope is tied around His waist commemorating Lord’s childhood pastimes in Vrindaban, where Mother Yashoda tied Him to the grinding mortar for breaking her clay pots and stealing the butter.

11)Hari-Hara-Vesa

Hari means Lord Sri Krsna and Hara means Lord Siva. Lord Jagannath and Lord Balaram are dressed like Lord Siva and Lord Krsna combined. Lord Krsna is black and Lord Siva is white, so the upper portion is white and the bottom is dressed as black. So both the Vaishnavas, the devotees of Lord Krsna, and the Saivites, the worshippers of Lord Siva, happily have darsan with the pleasing mood. Many pilgrims rush to the temple on this day.

12)Lakshmi-Narayana-Vesa

On the bright fortnight of month of Kartika (October-November) on the Ekadasi day, Lord is dressed in Lakshmi Narayanan style.

13)Lakshmi-Nrsimha-Vesa

On the fourteenth day of light part of Kartika month (October-November) Lord Jagannath is dressed as Nrsimhadev in angry mood.

14)Nagarjuna-Vesa

Lord wears this dress for six consecutive days (the last six days) of Kartika (October-November). The last five days of Kartika are called Bhisma-Panchaka, where Bhisma performs austerities to pass away in the battlefield of Kuruksetra. These five days are very important for Vaishnavas. Therefore the Lord dresses as Nagarjuna-Vesa, which is sometimes known as Parasurama Vesa where Lord holds an ax in His hand.

There are many other vesas, which are very important, but for the reader’s choice we have presented some of the main vesas or dresses of the Lord so that they can see the Lord as per choice on a particular day.

The question may arise if Jagannath is Krsna and Krsna looks so beautiful and nice, how come Jagannath looks with round eyes having no eyelids, no hands, no proper mouth, etc.? The answer to this is found in the Niladri Mahodaya scripture. The history goes as follows: When Krsna was ruling Dwaraka, 5000 years ago, He has 16108 queens and the head of all queens was Rukmini Dev. Whenever Rukmini saw Krsna near Her she felt that Krsna is always in anxiety. Seeing Her husband to be in such morose condition, Rukmini felt uneasy and meditated to find the cause to solve the problem. She reached Revati, the mother of Balaram, and requested her to tell the remedy for Krsna’s lamentation.

Revati replied that she can tell the cause, but Krsna and Balaram should be out form the scene i.e. she had to tell in privacy. When Krsna and Balaram went out, Rukmini arranged Subhadra to guard the gate so that Krsna and Balaram would not enter. Subhadra promised and stood to guard the gate to prevent Krsna and Balaram from entering in. Revati was narrating about how the residents of Vrindaban had incomparable love for Krsna, which He could not forget and felt indebted to them constantly. The love of Vrajavasis was unconditional and uninterrupted. Subhadra on the gate desired to hear what was being told by Revati to Rukmini. When Subhadra heard about the love of Vrajavasis, she was amazed. At that time, Krsna and Balaram also arrived. Although Subhadra prevented Krsna and Balaram from entering, being elder brothers, convinced Subhadra to let Them hear what is being told inside. Being the little sister to Krsna and Balaram, She felt compassion and allowed Them to hear. Thus, Krsna, Balaram, and Subhadra heard the story being narrated about the transcendental devotional dealings of Vrajavasis with Krsna and with amazement. Their hands sank, feet sank, eyes broadened and the posture, as we see in Lord Jagannath deity, happened to be three of them. Today with Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra look, is not a speculation of carving person, but actually it happened in Dwapar Yuga in Dwarka.

Because such became the posture of Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra when the king wanted Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra to be worshipped in the temple, he invited Viswakarma, the carpenter of heaven, to carve the deities. He agreed with a condition that until he completes his work, doors of carving room should not be opened. The king agreed to the proposal and Viswakarma started carving. The king would bear the woodcutting sound, but when Viswakarma finished carving to the point where Jagannath looks as of today, the cutting sound, which came from the room, stopped. King ordered to open the doors of the carving room upon which Viswakarma disappeared. Whatever was king found the deities he installed them in the temple and worshipped. This is the history of Lord Jagannath’s present form.

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