In November 2024, HH Maharanyam Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji visited the divine Jagannath Puri kshetra along with over 1500 devotees from all over the world. It was an extremely memorable, divine and one-of-a-kind experience for all who were blessed to be a part of this Yatra.
In this article, Smt. Shanthi Dhilip from California, USA shares her personal experience of being a part of this unique Yatra with Sri Swamiji.
By the boundless grace and blessing of our Guru Maharaj, I began my Puri Yatra from San Francisco on the 18th of November.. This was my very first Yatra and I was excited, nervous and feeling blessed by Sri Guruji to attend the Yatra this year. Having been smitten by the “Jai Jagannatha Swami Jagannatha” kirtan that we had been singing at Radha Kalyanams in the last year, I was eagerly looking forward to putting “a face to the name” as they say, to Sri Jagannatha Swami. In anticipation, I had been paying keen attention to all the “Coming soon to you” Yatra information and Puri Kshetra Mahatmyam being shared, whether it was about the great Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his devotees or just the beauty, splendor and specialty of the Puri Kshetra.
The Yatra itself was slated for Nov 22nd through the 25th and we were to arrive in Bhubhaneshwar, Odisha on Nov 21st and check into our respective staying arrangements. The satsanga began as early as the Chennai airport on the morning of the 21st on the flight to Bhubhaneshwar. The flight was filled with Sri Swamiji’s devotees and all these family members of the “Govindanukku Atpatta Kudumbam” were sharing their eager stories full of anticipation of the divien journey ahead. We even chanted Mahamantra Nama on the flight for a few minutes with the consent of the pilot!
Let’s talk a little bit about the Puri Kshetra, geographically and its spiritual importance. As told to us by our Guru Maharaj, Puri is one of the most sacred kshetras in our Bharat. One thing pretty much everyone knows about Puri is its famous “Rath Yatra” – the festival where the huge ornate chariots carrying Sri Jagannatha, Sri Balabhadra and Subhadra Devi, come in a procession on the grand street. Lord Krishna is worshipped as Jagannatha here and gives darshan with elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra in this temple which is located in Odisha, India. Our Guru Maharaj also added while talking about all the puNya sthalAs in India that, Bhagavan sleeps and wakes at Srirangam, takes snAnam at PrayAg (trivENi sangam), does dhyAnam at Badrinath, gives darshan at Tirupati… and at Puri, he does bhOjanam. Puri is Anna kshetram, and the holy mahaprasad is itself considered to be Brahman (just like the rajas (soil) of Vrindavan and water of the Ganga).
There are also several constructional miracles of magnificence associated with this Kshetra that were mentioned by Guru Maharaj:
a. The temple flag waves in a direction opposite to the natural winds in this ecosystem (this flag atop the 214 ft high gopuram is changed and hoisted every evening, which is a miraculous feat in itself!)
b. The deities are made of neem wood (and known as Daru Brahma) and replaced every 12-15 years through an elaborate process
c. The shadow of the temple tower does not fall on the ground at all
d. The temple kitchen is the largest in Asia
e. The Mahaprasad is prepared by priests where 9 earthen pots are placed one over each other to cook the food and the top-most pot cooks first!
f. Although there are plenty of birds in Puri, and many hover around the gopuram, none of them ever alight on the main temple tower
g. The devotee climbers who change the flag every evening use just their hands and feet to climb the gopuram, without using any other aids like ropes etc. And the stunning fact is that they climb facing outside, i.e. with their back to the tower! This is their family seva for the temple, and they are trained from childhood in this service. They climb all the way to the top of the chakra atop the gopuram and change out the main flag as well as the flowing flags each day!
Now, let’s get back to our Yatra. Over 1500 satsangis were traveling for this Yatra and we had been split into small groups, led by one person who was our conduit to all communication with the organizers. As we landed in Bhubaneshwar on the morning of the 21st, we collected our belongings and headed to Puri. On the way, we had darshan of Lingaraj who is a form of Lord Shiva, at one of the oldest temples in India. Built in Kalinga architectural style, the temple boasts of finely carved sculptures on the walls of the temple. Spread over a huge area, the temple complex also features 150 smaller shrines. The height of the tower of the main sanctum is quite high and can be seen from a distance.
Next we headed to have our much needed repast at Hare Krishna Govinda’s restaurant. We then visited the Sakshi Gopal temple on the way to Puri, which signifies the time when Bhagavan Himself appeared as a witness to aid a bhakta in need. We then reached Puri and checked into our respective rooms and got ready to have darshan of Jagannatha Swami (a first time for many of us). By our Sri Guruji’s instructions, we had connected with Sri Lokanath Panda, one of the head priests at the temple and Sri Swamiji’s devotee. He had offered to take us through the temple to have darshan of Bhagavan through the Simhadwaar.
The Jagannath temple has 4 dwArs or entrances – Simha (Lion, East), Vyaghra (Tiger, West), Hasti (Elephant, North), and Ashwa (Horse, South). We were feeling exhilarated and yearning to see with our own eyes that Jagannatha Swami who had been so beautifully described and sung by our Guru Maharaj. The lines are always full with devotees who come from all over the globe to see Bhagavan and there is no space even for a speck of dust. As we moved in waves towards Bhagavan and had our first darshan, I was speechless and tried not to blink to take in the sweet and divine vision of Jagannatha Swami, Balabhadra and Subhadra. It was exactly as envisioned by our Guru Maharaj but stunning and spectacular too since this was my first darshan. It was all over within a matter of minutes and we found ourselves outside the shrine. We then visited other smaller sanctums within the temple premises, including Bata Ganesha, Sakhi Gopal, Rama Chandra Prabhu, Bhoodevi, Mahalakshmi Devi, Paduka Kund, Ekadeshi (who had been chained so Ekadasi fasting was not needed within the temple premises), and the coveted holy feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. One of the children even commented that the feet impression looked just like our Guru Maharaj’s. Over the next few days, we also had four more darshans of Lord Jagannatha by Bhagavan’s grace and blessing. One more specialty about this temple is that it is one of the very few where the main deity (moolavar) is the one who gives darshan outside the temple during processions and utsavams and the utsava murthy stays inside the temple and serves as the main deity when the moolavar leaves the temple.
The schedule for the Yatra itself was split over a period of four days. Logistics wise, every Yatrika was put up in one of the lodging locations near the temple but the central venue was Brindabati Nivas. We convened here every day to begin the day with Guru Maharaj and His pravachan, and also for coffee, breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. Every day began with the chanting of Gajendra Stuti, Satvika Smaranam, Kshetra Mala, Guru Ashtakam, followed by Sri Guruji’s discourse inspiring us for the day. On the first day, Sri Guruji explained the Sthala Mahatmyam of the Puri Kshetram. How the three archAvatAras came to be, with Lord Krishna visiting his aunt with his brother and his sister. And that the form of this particular archAvatara was of Bhagavan “melting” for His Bhaktas, in this case for Sri Radha Rani, who was pining for Him back in Brindavan. Sri Guruji explained how Bhagavan melts and pines to see his bhaktas infinite times more than a bhakta does for Bhagavan. Guru Maharaj also explained that Mahaprabhu was in viraha bhAva just like Radha Rani and felt that prEma for Bhagavan and could not bear to be separated from Him during his last few years on this earth. He taught us about all the Mahans that visited Puri including Sri Adi Shankara, Sri Ramanujacharya, Sri Madhvacharya, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bhagavannama Bodhendra Saraswati Swami and Sri Sri Anna. He then went on to explain what holy places we were to visit that day.
The special places we visited around Puri included Sweta Ganga, situated between the simha dwAr and the swarga dwAr, which is not any different from the holy Ganga. This is the same holy pond where Sri Bhagavannama Bodhendral witnessed the miracle of Rama Nama which inspired him in his mission to do the Nama Siddhantam. In accordance with the wishes of Sri Sri Anna, Sri Guriji was going to do pratishTa of Sri Bhagavannama Bodhendral on the banks of this Swetha Ganga. Another special place was Gambhira Guha – the cave where Mahaprabhu spent the last twelve years of his life pining for the Lord and exhibited all nineteen bhAva lakshaNAs. Siddha Bakul is the place where Haridas Thakura, one of the dearest disciples of Mahaprabhu, chanted at least three lakh Namas a day (this location has the Bakula tree which grew miraculously from a stick of the same tree that was used to brush Lord Jagannatha’s teeth every day and was given to Haridas ji by Mahaprabhu). Sri Vasudeva Sarvabhouma’s residence with a form of Mahaprabhu with six hands, Shadbhuja Gauranga, the form in which He gave darshan to Vasudeva Sarvabhouma. After visiting all these places during the day, we all convened for a divine Nama sankirtan on the premises of the temple facing the temple gopuram to watch the spectacular flag hoisting. All the while singing Namavalis and Nama; the air reverberating with “Jai Jagannath” ghOsha. Right after this, we had one more, (but never enough) darshan of Lord Jagannatha.
The next day began again with Sri Guruji’s adorable and blissful upanyasam about Bhagavan’s love for his bhaktas and how he would appear as a witness even for a village simpleton who was promised a hand in marriage with the village dhanawAn’s daughter. This is signified by the Sakshi/Sakhi Gopal temple. Sri Guruji also shared some reminiscences from Sri Sri Anna’s life and how he pined for Bhaktakolahalan when he knew he was going to be separated from Him in this physical plane. Guruji also related the story of Thota (Garden) Gopinath where Bhagavan who was initially an archavatara in a standing state (nindra kolam) later changed his form just for his bhakta Gadadhar who was getting old and could not care for Him in the standing state. Guruji also asked us not to miss the Bedi (Chained) Hanuman temple. Here Hanuman ji who was initially ordained to prevent the Samudra Raja from raging and enveloping the city and then left to visit Ramachandra Prabhu in Ayodhya was chained so that he would not leave but protect the Puri Kshetra. Also adorning that evening was the beginning of the Ashtapadi delight with Sri Erode Balaji Bhagavathar narrating Sri Jayadeva Charitram followed by dinner. After visiting these temples, we were so blessed to have two more darshans of Lord Jagannatha on this day.
The third day began with our Guru Maharaj reiterating the significance of Gita Govindam and Sri Jayadeva’s love for Bhagavan and his leelas. The Ashtapadis were rendered that day by all the wonderful Bhagavatas of our satsang. Guruji also said that those of us who wanted to visit Alarnath, and other temples that we had missed, including Chakra Theerth could go and have darshan as well. We had darshan at Alarnath (previously Azhwarnath since it was founded by them) where Bhagavan is Jagannatha Swami in a standing pose like Vishnu. There is a shrine here for Mahaprabhu who also visited this temple but yearned for Puri Jagannath so much that His tender body, hands and feet left an impression here which is preserved to this day. After visiting these places, we had one more sweet darshan of Lord Jagannatha in the afternoon assisted by the pandas and had the bhagyam of doing Annadanam as ordained by our Guru Maharaj. The evening was bejeweled by Divyanama sankirtan back at Brindabati Nivas which was filled with scintillating music, bhakti bhaava, rejoicing satsangis and sweet darshan of our Guru Maharaj.
Alas, it was the last day of the Yatra. Last but not the least and the best day it was! We convened near the Puri Municipality shoe stand on Grand Road, the main chariot street. We were eagerly waiting for the ultimate and most coveted experience of doing a Nagara Sankeertan with our Guru Maharaj in the hallowed kshetra of Puri. Devotees thronged around Sri Guruji and the sankeerthanam began with the entusiastic chanting of “Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare!!”. The volunteers requested us to follow Sri Guruji down the path to the Simha dwAr entrance to the temple, and then led by our Guruji, we did parikrama around the temple, singing kirtans, chanting Nama and our Guru Maharaj getting into the same bhAva as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Guruji sang, clapped, danced, jumped, went round and round and rolled with divine ecstasy!! Having darshan of Guru Maharaj in an utmost blissful state was the ultimate blessing for us and it lifted even our mundane our spirits to a divine plane. After the vIdhi bhajan was over, we headed back to Brindabati Nivas where the concluding Radha Kalyanam was conducted in a grand manner, in the divine presence of Sri Guruji. Guru Maharaj also blessed us with a last few yet monumental words about the Yatra, while mentioning that next year’s Yatra was going to be at Shukhasthal with a Srimad Bhagavata Saptaham! He also said that he was very pleased with all of us yatrikas for complying with the rules and setting good examples of how devotees should conduct themselves. The previous day had ended with the 21st Ashtapadi and therefore this morning began with the 22nd Ashtapadi and culminated in a beautiful Radha Kalyana Mahotsavam. Sri Guruji out of his immense grace and kindness handed every single Yatrika who had attended, Puri Mahaprasadam with his own hands. What a bhagyam!
There were Yatrikas who were slated to leave at different times of the day on the 25th and on the 26th and the organizers had so thoughtfully prepared meal packets to carry on the trip back. I left on the evening of the 25th with heart that was heavy both because the trip had come to an end and it would be months before I would have darshan of Sri Guruji again, but also because my heart was filled with Guruji’s love and blessing for my family and for everyone who attended the Yatra.
Shanthi Dhilip, San Ramon CA
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Click here to see all articles in Dec 2024 issue:
https://godivinity.org/newsletters/nama-dwaar-newsletter-december-2024/
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