Rath Yatra Story: The world-famous Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra of Odisha is going to start from the 27th of June. This Rath Yatra has great importance in Odisha and it is celebrated with great enthusiasm. People from all over the world come to Puri to be a part of this festival. In this festival, Lord Jagannath travels to Gundicha from Puri by chariot along with his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra.
This centuries-old tradition of Jagannath Rath Yatra has also been included in the list of World Heritage by UNESCO. What is the importance of this Jagannath Rath Yatra, and what is the Rath Yatra Story? Today, we will discuss the importance of Jagannath Rath Yatra, the history of Rath Yatra, the Rules of Rath Yatra, and the Story of Rath Yatra.
Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra
The world-famous Puri Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath starts every year on the second day of Shukla Paksha of Ashadh month. In this, Lord Jagannath comes out of his temple and gives darshan to the devotees and does the welfare of the world. It is believed that Lord Jagannath took an incarnation in the Puri region of Odisha. Jagannath Rath Yatra is mentioned in the Purushottam Kshetra Mahatmya of the Vaishnav section of Skanda Purana. According to Skanda Purana, the first Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath was taken out in the Satyayuga.
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During this Rath Yatra, the chief sevadar of the temple brings Mahaprabhu Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra, and sister Devi Subhadra from the temple and makes them sit on a chariot, and all the devotees pull the chariots and take them to Gundicha, 3 km away from the temple. Where Mahaprabhu rests for a week and then returns to the temple. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has considered the Sri Jagannath Temple to be similar to Dwarka and the Gundicha Temple to be similar to Vrindavan. Thus, Lord Jagannath goes to visit Vrindavan from Dwarka once a year.
History of Rath Yatra
If we talk about the history of Jagannath Rath Yatra, then in many mythological texts, Jagannath Puri Dham has been considered as the Vaikunth of the earth, where Lord Vishnu has created many types of leelas.The first evidence of the temple of Lord Jagannath is found in the Mahabharata, in which the worship of the Lord in the form of Sri Vigraha Neel Madhav by Vishwavasu of the Sabar caste is described. According to Skanda Purana, the geographical shape of Puri city looks like a south-facing conch. It is spread over a geographical area of 16 kilometers.
Importance of Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra
The world-famous Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra has great importance in Indian culture. It is also said about this journey in the Puranas that any devotee who becomes a part of this journey and gets the darshan of the Lord during this time, all his sins, whether done intentionally or by mistake, are destroyed. Along with this, they get salvation from all the sorrows of the world and the cycle of birth and death. This year, the Rath Yatra will start from 27 June and will continue till July 5. Further in this article, we will learn about the Rath Yatra Story, which is very amazing.
Tradition of Rath Yatra
The incarnation of Jagannath Puri is considered to be on the full moon day of the Jyeshtha month. On that day, Lord Jagannath is taken down from the throne along with brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, and taken to the bathing pavilion, and he is bathed with 108 urns. After that, the Lord suffered from fever for 15 days. During this period, the Lord lives in Osar Ghar, which is a special kind of room.
During these 15 days, no one is allowed to have darshan of the Lord. Only the temple priest and the Vaidya can have darshan of the Lord. After 15 days, on the day of Nava Yauvan Netra Utsav, the Lord comes out of that special room. After that, on the second day of Shukla Paksha, the Lord, along with his brother Balabhadra and Subhadra, rides on a chariot and goes out to roam the city.
Story of Jagannath Rath Yatra
If we talk about the Rath Yatra Story, then there are many stories of the Jagannath Rath Yatra. Out of which we are sharing with you the most popular Rath Yatra Story, the details of which are given in the Skanda Purana. This Rath Yatra Story is as follows. – In Satyuga, King Indradyumna was ruling the city of Ujjain. His wife’s name was Gundicha. The king desired to see God in person.
Once, from his guests, he came to know about the Neel Madhav idol of God, whose darshan leads to salvation, and the king had a desire to see him. He sent his priest’s son, Vidyapati, and other servants to find the Neel Madhav idol and ordered them to return within 3 months. After 3 months, all the servants returned except Vidyapati.
Vidyapati reached a village looking for the idol of Neel Madhav and stayed as a guest at the chief Vishwavasu’s place. During this time, vidyapati fell in love with Vishwavasu’s daughter and married her. He came to know from his wife that Vishwavasu knows about Neel Madhav Vigraha and goes to worship him daily. Knowing this, he also expressed his desire to see Neel Madhav Vigraha.
Knowing Vidyapati’s desire, Vishwavasu first refused because he was afraid of Neel Madhav getting angry. But he gave in to his daughter’s insistence and said that he would make Vidyapati see Neel Madhav but would take him there blindfolded, so that he does not know the place where Neel Madhav lives. On this, Vidyapati made a plan that while going for the darshan, he would keep a mustard seed bundle with him and would keep scattering mustard seeds all over the way, later it would be easy for him to know the way to Neel Madhav temple through the plant grown from mustard.
On seeing Neel Madhav, Vidyapati reached King Indradyumna and told him the whole story. When the king reached to have darshan of Neel Madhav, he did not find the Neel Madhav idol there. He thought that Vishwavasu must have hidden the idol, and he imprisoned all the people, including Vishwavasu, and decided to sacrifice his life.
Then there was a voice from the sky, and the Lord said, ” Rajan, I will not give darshan to you in the form of Neel Madhav but in the form of Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra. I will come there in the form of Darukbrahma wood near Bankim estuary, on which Shankh, Chakra, Gada, and Padma symbols will be carved. You take out that wood from there and make four idols of it and install them in the temple and worship me.
After this, King Indradyumna built a huge temple to install the idol of the Lord. When the time came, Lord Darukbrahma appeared in the form of wood, which the king got out of the sea, and instructed him to make idols. Vishwakarma himself appeared as a carpenter for the construction of these idols, and he put a condition to the king that I will make these idols alone in a closed room for 21 days, and if the door is opened before this period, I will leave this work incomplete and go away. The king agreed to his words and the construction of the idol began.
When no sound was heard for 14 days, Queen Gundicha thought that the carpenter might have died without food and water, so she instructed that the door be opened. On opening the door, incomplete idols were seen there but the carpenter was not seen. Seeing this, the king repented, then a voice from the sky said, Rajan! I wanted to appear in this form, so install these idols of mine in the temple. After the installation of the idol in the temple, it was predicted that once a year, Lord Jagannath would go to his hometown, Mathura. To follow this order, the Rath Yatra is organized every year.
Conclusion
So friends, in today’s article we discussed Jagannath Rath Yatra. Also, we learned about the Jagannath Rath Yatra Story, the history of Rath Yatra.
Rath Yatra Story- FAQ
When does the Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra start?
Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra starts on the second day of Shukla Paksha.
Who built the Puri Jagannath temple?
The Puri Jagannath temple was built by King Indradyumna.
What title has Chaitanya Mahaprabhu given to Jagannath Puri?
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has described Jagannath Puri as similar to Dwarka.
