One of the Most Important Dham

Puri  ..we all know a holy dham it is.  It is said that in kalyug  Lord Vishnu has taken the form of Jagannath , and His brother is Balabhadra who was Laxman in  Treta yug and Devi Sita or Maa Laxmi has taken the form of devi subhadra who is the sister in kaliyug.  So today the navami day after the holy Rath yatra. Day before yesterday that is on saptami,  I had planned to visit puri  with my mother to have a darshan of Sri Hari in the form of Lord Jagannath. On Rathyatra  , both the brothers with their sister Subhadra Maa will come out of the main temple and visit the gundicha mandir for 9 days. This auspicious festival  comes every year. So it was in the Saptami  me and my mother decided to go  .

                        We had to plan for one day also because there stays a new member now at home. We’ll..  it’s Wally , my dog.for whom we had to make arrangements.  So we requested our maid to stay some extra hours with him so that he won’t feel alone at home. Thanks to her that she gladly accepted the offer because we all know wally also loves her a lot. So at morning 9.30 we started for Puri. 

                          Rathyatra was happening after 2 years why because due to covid all public functions were closed. So this time it was very rush.  I was  very excited  . One thing was that I am visiting and will have Darshan of Shri Vishnu and another thing was that my mother was also going. In all these years I have felt and seen her devotion towards shri Ram. I still remember her meeting with Beloved Swamiji. I wish she can visit ashram again. Any way  that day it was raining. The climate was just awesome..Every where it was lush green on the way. The rain water was splashing outside our vehicle window and in the front glass. So beautiful and divine. From cuttack to puri by road it takes maximum 2 hours depending upon the rush. Finally at 11.15 am we reached. 

                  Entire city was protected with army and police people.  First there occurred some confusion with the driver. He wanted to take us to the Gundicha mandir through some shortcut road but failed because everywhere there was police and they closed all extra roads . So finally I told him to take us to the parking lot of the main Sri mandir. After reaching there, we took rickshaw. Surprisingly rain stopped at that time. All Divine grace. Finally after 15 /20 minutes we reached at the temple. It was extremely crowded. I felt a divine aura . The enchanting chariots were standing in front of gundicha mandir.  The name of Lord Jagannath ‘s chariot is Nandighosha and shri Balabhadra’s is Taladhwaja and Maa Subhadra’s chariot is Deva Dalan or Darpa Dalan.  I can’t describe but there was certain pure and powerful  energy there. A lot of people were working towards the baricade  to enter the temple. We too started towards the main entrance after giving our mobile and shoes. I will describe about the gundicha mandir in some other post.  For now I will just stick to our darshan. As I said, I was much concerned about my mother as I wanted that she should have a beautiful and clear darshan of Prabhu Jagannath. There was immense crowd inside the temple. One negative thing was that there was no barricade inside. So people were just pushing each other and trying to go forward. As my mother is old and she has a tiny and fragile figure so I was scared she might get claustrophobic in that atmosphere. Suddenly another miracle happened though I must confess that it is because I am a known actor I always get that typical emotional support in public places. The pujaris, the pandas recognize me immediately and give support to have easy darshan. But I always take these gestures as grace and miracle. That day also it was grace…a grace of beyond imagination.  A young panda (pujari) appeared in that crowd and asked us to have ticket so that we can have Darshan inside the garvagriha. As I heard it that he can take us to garvagriha I jumped in excitement.  He took us by holding my mother’s hand and brought two ticket from the counter.

                   Now we were ready to go inside the garvagriha. Since the crowd was pushing each other it was just impossible to stand inside. I was worried for mother.it was extremely humid inside..we were sweating like anything.Just at that time Prasad was coming out of garvagriha.  It means Lord had just finished His lunch with His brother n sister. The Anna is called ABADHAA in puri.Every day there are 60 kind of food are made as Prasad for Shri Hari.So then we had to wait for some more time to enter inside. In that crowd  I was just observing other devotees. ALL WERE SO HAPPY AND DESPERATE TO SEE LORD JAGANNATH. I was thinking how miracle these all are…We all are His children.  There were children, old people,young ones…every one was standing and waiting there.Finally ,the auspicious time came and Rakesh the pujari took us with utmost care inside the garvagriha. It was my second time visit inside the garvagriha. I was a kid when I went first. I was feeling really it is all His grace. And there we are…standing infront of the Ratna Sinhasan. We bow our head and touched the sinhasan by doing pranaam. And the moment I moved my head and saw above ,a flash of my looking at Sri Hari  at ashram came into mind. The memory again brightened .I felt I am looking at Sri Hari when Swamiji allowed us to go inside garvagriha in the temple. The feeling was exactly same. For a moment I felt I am in front of Shri Hari. We had a great Darshan.  My heart was filled with love and gratitude to Bhagwan for giving my mother also a great Darshan.Then we did parikrama .The garden was dark, wet and cool. Then after coming out we bought Prasad and returned. We were really grateful to Rakesh for treating us like a family.. It was so godly.It was so pure and divine…we came home with a lot of Prasad.  At home ,we shared the Prasad with other flat friends..I was thinking Lord Jagannath is so kind ..I asked Him many things.. i told Him to keep our dearest swamiji,our beloved Guru always protected and safe.. I know He is a part of HIM but still I told Him.

1.          MY IMMENSE GRATITUDE TO OUR BELOVED GURU JI…FOR ALL THESE THINGS..