Celestial Journey

Long before your train reaches Puri station, ending an overnight journey from Kolkata, you would become the target of the practiced eyes of the enterprising pandas (temple priests) of Jagannath Temple, who are on the lookout for prospective clients. If you are religiously inclined, you would eventually succumb to one of their long persuasions and do what most others do. Graded according to their rites and ceremonies in a hierarchy ordered through the centuries, Pandas are your sole connection to the Lord Jagannath and his blessings. However, your chance of site-seeing on your own is much better during the spectacular Rathajatra festival, when the sizeable number of Pandas can not cover even a fraction of the people who pour in to take part in it.

Puri has been a place of worship since time immemorial. The guardian deity of the city is Lord Jagannath, whose temple remains the chief attraction throughout the year, both to the believers and the casual tourists. Indeed, to the pandas, Lord Jagannath is the saviour and employer. Their duties include changing the deity’s clothes, feeding him, carrying him out on their shoulders up to the chariots once a year for Rathajatra when all Jagannath believing world congregates at Puri. It’s a festival so colourful, vibrant and full of life, that even the foreigner dominated ISKON (though followers of Shri Chaitanya and Shri Krishna) has appropriated it as their main festival. However, ISKON’s version is nothing compared to the real one in terms of massiveness and expression of true devotional tradition.

Yes, the climax of all is the Rathajatra (Chariot Journey) in Puri, definitely one of the world’s most impressive festivals. During the festival, the lord traverses just a three-kilometer route and returns. But within this short journey a real life event of epic proportion is enacted every year.

On one end of Puri’s main road is the Jagannatah temple. Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra or Balaram and sister Subhadra travel on a gorgeously caparisoned wooden “ratha" (chariot), from the main gate of the Jagannath temple to Gudichghara or the Garden House of their aunt. They remain there for a week and are then brought back to the temple again, amidst much rejoicing one rainy ulta-ratha or reverse journey. For a week this main road teems with milling crowds and an array of shops on both the sides.

Magnificient Chariots stationed outside the temple of Lord

Though, every year, three chariots are newly built, the process follows the same age old materials and practices. On the day of the Rathajatra, the chariots are placed outside the main gate and three deities of the temple are brought to their respective and installed with great pomp and ceremony. Suddenly the whole place is filled with the sounds of religious hymns, flutes, cymbals and drum beats. The chariots wait near the “Singhadwar” for a few hours, while about a million devotees jostle to get a better view or offer their prayers. Some enterprising onlookers manage to get atop roofs of nearby buildings or perch precariously the walls of the temple itself to ensure a better view of the spectacle. Then, all wait patiently for that magic moment.

Ritual are many

But, two rituals are to be performed before the chariots can start their journey. At first, the king of Puri, popularly known as Gajapati, has to sweep the floor of the chariots. So, he arrives on an elephant and performs the ritual, amidst jubilant crowd and clicking cameras. Another, somewhat unusual ritual follows. It is believed that the deities do not really like to visit their aunt’s place because of her meanness. So, one of the senior pandas is assigned to rebuke the Lord. As is the custom, the priest takes this opportunity to shower the Lord with choicest abuses available in his repertory. Harsher are his word, merrier becomes the crowed.

At last comes the most important moment. The teeming pilgrims who floor the festival line up one after another, and holding the long, long rope and start pulling the chariot with their collective might. The dense mass struggle forward by convulsive jerks - tugging, sweating, shouting, singing and praying. For all of them this is the moment to become one with the lord himself. For the onlookers viewing from a higher lever, it’s a magnificent sight. It looks as if three colourful boats are moving slowly on a sea of humanity. It’s a view that would be in their mind as long as they live.

At the end of the journey, the multitude surges back to have one last glimpse of those dazzling eyes of the lords, arms mutilated, but holding the very essence of creation. After, six days, the chariots would make their return journey from Gudichaghara to the world of their temple - a world that has changed a little over the centuries.



Lord is everywhere