Some stories on Lord Jagannath

My special thanks to Purna Mishra from whose mail I received these stories

When disciples of Prabhu Chaitanya asked why Jabana Hari Dasa could not visit Jagannath temple to offer his puja, Prabhu Chaitanya replied something like "... Jagannath visits Hari Dasa every day so where is the need for Hari Dasa to visit the temple ...".

My approach to Puja or worshiping Jagannath can be classified as minimalist approach. It is difficult to describe the minimalist approach.I will explain the understanding in this note through three different stories in two different scenarios.

Scenario #1: Should we go to a temple to worship or offer puja?

Story #1: Where does He live?
Narada, the saint, used to take a lot of pride in being a Vishnu bhakta. Once while wandering the earth chanting “Narayana Narayana”,he started believing that he was the only one who cares and worships Narayana while the rest were more interested in their day to day petty things. Next time he came to offer his worships to Narayana, Lord Vishnu asked if Narada had a little time to help Him carry out a delivery. Narada feeling with pride jumped in and asked what he had to deliver. Lord Vishnu asked Narada to circle the earth once while holding an earthen lamp filled with precious oil and
making sure to bring the lamp back without dropping the precious oil.

Next day morning Narada set out for circling the earth and at the end of the day brought back the lamp with the precious oil without dropping a single drop. Obviously Narada was all in smiles as he was chosen by Narayana for this task and he completed the task without losing a drop of oil. Narayana asked Narada to visit a poor farmer called “Jagga Dasa” next day and observe what he was up to and report Jagga’s daily activities to Him.With all devotion to Lord filled with arrogance of his devotion, Narada set out next day morning to observe Jagga Dasa.

Jagga Dasa woke up in the morning, finished his morning activities, fed the animal, and ate an early morning breakfast and left to work on the fields.Most of the day he worked in the field, came back in the evening,fed the animal, and ate a late supper before retiring for the day.Before he went to bed, he said “Oh Lord, please accept my Namaskar”.With that he started snoring as soon as his body touched the bed.

After Jagga Dasa retired, Narada left for the Vaikuntha and described the day to Lord. Narada was mad at Lord because Lord had asked him to observe a person who Narada believed was void of a single quality that could be common to all the devotees and that was respect for the Lord.Since Jagga Dasa did not take His name during the entire day, Narada was convinced that Jagga Dasa would be heading straight to hell.

After hearing Narada’s pitiful description of Jagga Dasa,Lord asked Narada why he was so mad at Jagga Dasa.Of course it was all to do with Jagga Dasa taking Lord’s name only once and that also before he retired for the day.At this time Lord asked Narada about the number of time Narada took Lord’s name while circling the earth holding the lamp.Of course, Narada had a good alibi that he was asked to make sure to bring the lamp back with the precious oil without losing a drop.While on such an important mission, he could not be expected to take the Lord’s name.

At this time Lord said with a big smile “Oh, sage Narada, you circled the earth with one lamp, while the poor Jagga Dasa is circling the earth 365 days with several lamps feeding his family,the animals, and community.Yet, Jagga Dasa had time to take My name once while you did not have time to take my name even once”. With this with all His love for Narada and the humanity He said

“Na aham thisthAmi vaikunthe, yoginAm hridaye na cha Mudd bhakta yatra gAyanti, tatra thisthAmi NArada”.

[Oh Narada, neither you would find Me in Vaikuntha nor you would get Me by following the wandering yogis, wherever My devotee calls for Me, I make
My self available to him.]

Story #2: What is a temple?
One of our Oriya Vaishnava preachers was Balarama Dasa.He is called “Mutta Balarama” or “Passionate Balarama” as he used to get passionate while taking His name.He is the author who wrote “Laxmi Purana” in Oriya. You must have heard the story of Sriya Chandaluni. This story was originally written by him to remove the evils of the caste system from our society.


The story goes something like this…Balarama Dasa used to tease Mother Laxmi and used to call her “Boki” [temperamental] and “Teri” [squint eyed].
It is a custom in Puri and most of the South Indian temples that one must visit the temple of Laxmi after visiting Vishnu and sit in the verandah for a few minutes as a trip to a Vishnu mandir is incomplete without spending a few minutes with Laxmi and asking for her favor.

Balarama Dasa used to visit Srimandir every day. He would worship Jagannath on the ratna vedi and then return without spending a few moments visiting Laxmi.Laxmi got mad at Balarama and asked Balarama to explain.Balarama typical to his teasing attitude for Laxmi replied “Oh my temperamentally squint eyed mother, I see you standing next to my prabhu on the ratna Bedi.This is quite adequate and I do not see any reason why I must visit you in your temple”. This exchange of words made Laxmi quite mad and she reiterated that the temple is called “Srimandir” and the kshetra is called “Sri Kshetra” after her name as her name is “Shree” and Balarama had the audacity to challenge her.She cursed Balarama to spend his last days away from Sri Kshetra and Srimandir.

After a few days, Balarama had a fight with King Prataprudra Deva, and the king kicked him out of Puri and banished him to a place close to Brahmagiri (20 miles from Puri on the road to Chilika).

Days passed by and the time came when Balarama realized that his end was near. He decided to walk the 20 odd miles to die after visiting Jagannath on the ratna vedi. Alas, the curse of Mother Laxmi was in place. Close to the periphery of Puri, Balarama felt dizzy and sat under a big banyan tree. Lord Jagannath realized that Balarama could not walk the rest of the distance and he must visit Balarama.

Of course, Laxmi was too keen to accompany Him as she wanted to remind Balarama the significance of the practice of worshiping her in a Vishnu temple.

When Lord came with mother, Balarama woke up and offered his namaskar. Mother Laxmi reminded Balarama of her curse that Balarama was finally dying without visiting Srimandir on the Sri Kshetra. Listening this, Balarama smiled a bit, and said “Oh my temperamentally squint eyed mother, don’t you know where ever you stand next to my prabhu that place becomes Srimandir and that surrounding becomes Sri Kshetra”. After saying this he fell down and died.

Bhakta Kabi Madhusudan Rao has said it nicely in his bhajan that goes
“…ei mane bije toro nije NArAyaNa, tu kiyAn khojuchu buli chaudige mana…”

In my understanding of minimalist approach, the temple is in your heart
and the worship is in your feelings.

Scenario #2: What should we offer Him in puja?

Story #3: Vishnupriya’s Letter

Pandas from Puri visit all over India and act as a conduit between Lord Jagannath and the people who cannot visit Puri and see Jagannath on the ratna vedi. The pandas take the prasad and pass them to the people who cannot visit and bring their offerings back to Jagannath. This practice is still in place.

A few hundred years back, one of the pandas made a trip to Rajputana (present day Rajasthan). The king of a small state in Rajputana was a vishnu bhakta and the panda decided to spend the rainy season in the palace.

The king had a daughter whose name was Vishnupriya and right to her name she used to worship Vishnu all the time. Since our panda was from a Vishnu temple, Vishnupriya took an extra interest in our panda and made sure that he was taken care of and fed properly. Our panda started dreaming all the things he would be buying in his village as he was absolutely confident that Vishnupriya would give him a tidy sum as offerings for Jagannath which would be passed on to our panda as Jagannath's representative.

Finally the day came and our panda started the journey back. Vishnupriya made sure that the panda was leaving with enough food. She also gave him 10 gold coins as a respect. Of course our panda was more interested in what Vishnupriya would be sending for Jagannath. To his surprise, all Vishnupriya had for Jagannath was a letter on a bhuja patra. [In Orissa and south India, palm leaves were used for writing while in North India,bhuja leaves were used for the same purpose.]

Of course our panda was infuriated when she asked him to deliver the letter to Jagannath. With no gold coins, no jewelry, and no costly garments,our panda saw his dream falling apart before his own eyes. He did not want to create a scene as that would put him in trouble with the king. He decided to throw the letter in to a heap of garbage (gobora kunda) behind his house as soon as he reaches the village. True to his determination, he threw Vishnupriya’s letter in to the garbage dump as soon as he reached his village.

Our panda had a nice dinner and went to bed still feeling mad at Vishnupriya. In the middle of the night he saw Jagannath in his dream. In his dream, Jagannath expressed his deep displeasure as His devotee had sent a gift for Him, and the panda had thrown the gift away. Jagannath asked the panda to pick the letter from the garbage dump, take it to the village jeweler with the 10 gold coins, and cast the letter on gold. He also asked the panda to deliver the letter cast on gold to Him at the earliest opportunity as He must receive the gift sent by His devotee.

Our panda was scared and yet true to his Oriya identity asked why Jagannath was so concerned about a mere letter when thousands of devotees visit him every day and one letter should not make any difference.

Lord asked him to look up and our panda saw the letter from Vishnupriya
was written in the dark sky in golden letters. This was all Vishnupriya
had sent for Jagannath:

“RatnAkara Staba Griham GrihiNi cha PadmA
Deyam kimapi bhavate PurushottamAya
Avira bAma nayanA hrita mAnasAya
Duttam mano Yadupate tadidam grihANa”

[The abode of jewels is Your home and Mother Laxmi is Your wife Please tell me what I have that You do not have that I must offer You In the past, You have stolen the minds of the Gopis Oh, the Lord of the Yadus, all I have is my mind that I am offering to You and please accept it.]

In my understanding of minimalist approach, the temple is in your heart, the worship is in your feelings, and the offering is your submission before Him. That is where the abode of Lord Jagannath.

Thanks for reading.


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