Significance of Ratha Yatra

The worship of Radha and Krishna deity requires strict brahminical standards. And in Kali yuga, there are not many people with brahminical qualities left. Thus, The Supreme Lord manifested Himself as Jagannatha as is confirmed in the Narada Purana (U. Kh. 52.12):

pratimāṁ tatra tāṁ dṛṣṭvā
svayaṁ devena nimitām
anāyāsena vai yānti
bhavanaṁ me tato narāḥ

The Supreme Lord Narayana tells Lakshmi Devi, “In that great abode of mine known as Purusottama-ksetra, which is rarely achieved in the three worlds, the Kesava Deity, who was fashioned after The Supreme Lord Himself, is situated. If men simply see the Deity they are easily able to come to my abode (where birth, death, old age and disease are absent).

On Ratha Yatra day itself, The Lord of The Universe comes out from His abode just to give the masses regardless of race, language, religion or gender, His darshan. In fact, due to The Supreme Lord being all spirit there is no cause of duality. Therefore, when He presides in the cart, due to the absolute nature of spirit, the cart also becomes non-different from Him. When people come into contact with the cart, they are personally in contact with The Lord of The Universe. This even includes people who see Him or His cart but are unable to maintain physical contact.

Because, The Supreme Lord is all spirit and pure, he cannot be affected by any amount of material element. After all, if He indeed was affected, the He would no longer be perfect and this perfect knowledge called Vedas could not have been established by Himself. This is confirmed in the prayer by Brahma known as Srī-Brahmā Samhitā (text 1), the first living entity that came into existence in this material world:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

Krsna who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime causes of all causes.

When we come into contact with The Supreme Lord, we will become purified of the sinful reactions of our past deeds. When the dirty elements within our hearts are wiped away, only then will we break away from these suffering cycles of birth, death, old age and disease. We will gain entry to Vaikuntha, where we will always joyfully reside with The Supreme Lord His variegated pastimes. This has been promised by The Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-Gita (18.66):

sarva-dharmān parityaja
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

Appearance of Lord Jagannatha (The Lord of The Universe)

In the run up to the largest festival celebrated by Sri Krishna Mandir, Ratha Yatra or The Festival of Chariots, we will be running a series of articles on Lord Jagannatha and His pastimes. As this is the first article of the series, let us understand more on the appearance of Lord Krishna as Jagannatha.

In Satya-yuga, King Indradyumna wished to visit the place where he could see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. A travelling mendicant informed him of a place in the north-east of Bharata-varsha (as India) called Purussotama-ksetra. This land was the residence of the deity of Lord Nila-Madhava. Every night demigods grace the land to take darshan of The Supreme Lord. Anyone who resides in that land for a few days would have freed himself of all sinful reactions. In fact, a simple crow had even attained salvation at the touch of water from a Rohini-kunda, sacred pond from Purussotama-ksetra.

The brother of the chief minister, Vidyapati, a learned and intelligent brahmana, was selected to verify on this matter. After some time, Vidyapati returned to the kingdom and affirmed the existence of Purusottama-ksetra and Lord Nila Madhava. King Indradyumna together with his entire kingdom then prepared to resettle in Purusottama-ksetra. Upon his arrival in the holy land, he learned that the deity of Nila Madhava was forever lost during a violent sand storm. King Indradyumna was devastated and felt much emptiness for not having darshan of the Supreme Lord.

Narada Muni, the liberated pure devotee of the Supreme Lord consoled King Indradyumna and instructed him to perform one thousand asvamedha yajna (sacrifices) to please The Lord of the Universe. Before the final day of the sacrifice, the king had a dream in which he saw Lord Viṣnu lying on the soft white body of Lord Anantadeva and Lakṣmī Devī massaging The Lord’s lotus feet and They were surrounded by an ocean of milk. King Indradyumna relayed his dream to Narada Muni, in which Narada replied that The Supreme Lord was please with the king’s sacrifice and would reveal Himself to the king.

True to the words of Narada Muni, some citizens returned from bathing in the sea and announced that they had seen a magnificent tree floating on the waves of the sea. It had a sweet smell, was glowing with an unusual luster and had the symbols of Viṣnu on it. The tree was pulled out of the water and placed in a mahāvedi or sacrificial platform. As the king concluded the sacrifice, he thought how the sacred wood could be carved to a form of The Supreme Lord so that everyone could take His darshan. Just then a supernatural voice was heard from the sky, stating that a brahmana would arrive and offer to carve the deity of The Supreme Lord. He had to be given absolute privacy and during this time, kirtan should be ongoing without interruption.

Soon indeed, an old brahmana appeared with his tools and offered his services to carve out the deity of The Supreme Lord. King Indradyumna gave all the facilities that was instructed to him by the divine voice and after two weeks the deities of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva, Lady Subhadra and Sudarshan Cakra was introduced to the entire universe.

King Indradyumna then decided to construct a majestic temple with all the wealth of the treasury. He declared, “What could be a superior fortune than offering all the wealth we have to The Supreme Lord. After all, The Lord of the Universe is the provider of all the wealth and riches we have.” The Supreme Lord is fully satisfied in Himself and does not need anything from anyone but to show mercy to His devotees he accepts their offering regardless of it being menial.

At the conclusion of the temple construction, Narada Muni had to return to meet Brahma to inform him of the appearance of Lord Jagannatha and construction of His temple. King Indradyumna requested that he accompanied Narada Muni. Together, they met Brahma at the topmost planet of this material universe, Brahmaloka. King Indradyumna then requested Brahma to descend to Purusottama-ksetra and install the munificent deities.

When all of them descended on earth, preparations of epic proportions were made for the first ever festival of chariots. This was required as the deities were still being staged at the mahavedi (sacrificial platform) and had to be brought to the temple for their permanent residence. Three enormous carts were constructed by Visvakarma, the architect from the heavenly planet. The canopies were decorated with exquisitie silk and gold. Lord Jagannatha’s cart flew the flag with the symbol of Garuda; a flag with the symbol of lotus flower for Lady Subhadra and a flag with the symbol of a plough for Lord Baladeva. A long stretch of horses with reins decorated with gems and stones pulled the carts all the way to the temple.

Brahma explained that the presiding deity in Purussotama-ksetra was Nila Madhava for the first fifty years of Brahma’s life. Once that period came to pass, Nila Madhava would disappear and in His place will be Jagannatha for the next fifty years of Brahma’s life. The appearance of Lord Krishna as Jagannatha was only due to the devotion of King Indradyumna who played the role of an ideal ruler in the pastimes of The Supreme Lord. The rajarishi or the saintly king was concern for the citizens and their liberation from material miseries. While he carried on his duties to perfection looking after all the citizens of his kingdom, he never relented from the devotion of The Supreme Lord. And thus, The Supreme Lord agreed to manifest Himself just to allow the citizens of the kingdom to take darshan and purify themselves from all sinful reactions.