Jaganath Raytha Yatra

Today 18th July 2014. Aashada sudha vidiya,  called as jagannatha kshetre radhotsva.

Lord Jaganatha is the Avathar of Lord krishna. Jaganatha temple is situated at Puri, Orissa State of India.

The Jaganath Rath Yatra (Chariot Festival) is a huge festival  performed on this day with the 3 main dieties Jaganatha Swamy (Lord Krishna), Lord Balarama and Subhadra. Lord Balarama is the brother of Lord Krishna .
The Subadra here is  Maya Devi, who is called with 12 names like Bhadra, Subhadra, Badra kali....

There is a story behind Maya Devi: Kamsa is a demon king and  the brother of Devakidevi (Lord Krishna's mother). He wants to kill all the children  his sister gives birth to because of the threat he has from her children. In the process he kills 6 children. Then when Devaki devi was pregnant at the 7 th time this Maya Devi transfers the child from her womb to Rohini's womb and that child is Balarama. When Devakidevi delivers the eighth child(Lord Krishna), Mayadevi will be in the womb of Yasoda and both the children were exchanged to save the Devaki devi's  child from Kamsa. Kamsa take that girl child (Maya devi) and forcibly threw her down then immediately she flew to the sky with her Maya and announces Kamsa that the one who kills him is safe somewhere and definitely will kill him.

These three dieties were carried in Chariot with idols decorated very beautifully according to the ancient traditions. 

The names of the 3 chariots are: 

Lord Jaganath: Nandighose
Lord Balabhadra: Taladwaja
Lord Subadra: Devadalan

These chariots are prepared every year according to the ancient specifications colourfully.
These three are carried  to Gundicha temple (King Indradyumna's Queen) which is 3 kms away from the temple. They return again to the main temple on the ninth day. It is believed that whoever take part and pull the ratha is freed from all sins.
The consort of Jaganath Godess Lakshmi temple is situated at a distant place in the Puri temple premises. It is believed that after returning from Gundicha Temple to Puri godess Lakshmi will not open the doors for 3 days till then   Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra await outside the door.

The famous poem recited during this fesival is

NIlachala Nivasaya  NityAya ParamAthmane
SubhadrA BalaBhadrAbyAm JagaNaaThaaya Mangalam.

Feel free to come back with your comments.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Siddhi Vinayaka Temple , Zaheerabad.

Image
Sri siddi vinayaka temple is at Rejinthal, Zaheerabad, Medak district, Telengana. It  is nearer to Hyderabad and is at a distance of 108 kilometers.  Zaheerabad was previously called Pedda Ekkheli. It was later named as Zaheerabad by the name of  the paigah nawab,  Zaheerabad Yar Jung. The idol in the temple is Vinayaka (Lord Ganesha) called as Siddhi Vinayaka. The temple though looks like recently built it has a history of 207 years. The H.H. Shiva Ram Bath  Jyoshi of Maharashtra prayed Lord Ganesh  in this place while he was on the way to Tirupathi. Pleased with his prayers Lord Ganesha came out of the earth in that place as Siddi Vinayaka. The name siddhi indicates success. People who visit this temple are granted success. The idol in this temple is a svayambhu (came itself from earth). The idol is beautiful which is of rock and decorated with sandalwood paste.  Lord  Siddhi Vinayaka faces south side and this is the o...
Read more

Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple Simhachalam

Image
Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple is situated in Simahachalam, 15k ms from Visakhapatnam. The main idol of this temple is Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. Lakshmi is the consort of Narasimha Swamy. There are 10 Incarnations of Lord Vishnu.  Varaha is the third and Narasimha is the Fourth  incarnation. The idol in this temple is the combination of two incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The history of Simahachalam temple links back to Purana's and there are some interesting facts about this history. Those facts goes as: There was a demon called Hiranyakasipu. Prahlada was the son of the demon King Hiranyakasipu .  Prahlada was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Being a demon Hiranyakasipu did not like that.  He forced him to stop worshipping Vishnu and punished him severely. There are four places where he punished his son. They are: 1.Simahachalam 2.Kruthasoucham 3.Harampapam 4.Ahobalam. At Visakhapatnam sea Hiranya...
Read more

Kamakshi Temple at Kancheepuram.

Image
Kamakshi temple is one of the prominent Hindu temples and it is one of the fifity one shaktipeetas. It is situated at Kancheepuram, Tamilnadu. The diety in this temple is Kamakshi a form of Parvathi. This is the only temple of Parvathi in Kancheepuram. Ayodhya, Madhura, Gaya, Kaasi, Kanchi, Avanthika Puri, Dvaravathi Shaiva sapthaithe mokshadayini. Above poem is of the names of seven Moksha Nagarams out of which Kanchi is the only one situated in  South India. In the name Kamakshi , Ka represents Godess Saraswathi, Ma represents Godess Lakshmi and Akshi means Eyes.  Kamakshi is having  Lakhmi and Saraswathi as its eyes. The godess  done penace by sitting on the tip of the needle sorrounded by Pancha Agni's (Five holy fires) to be freed from livelihood. The Godess Kamakshi is in a sitting position in a lotus flower, the posture called padmasana.This place is called gayatri mandapa. She  holds sugar cane, bow on her left arm and 5 flowers a...
Read more