20101211 Talk at the Oḍana-ṣāṣṭhī Festival

20101211 Jayapatākā Swāmi gave a talk at the Odāna Śasti Festival in Rajapur.. [360p]

Gurumahārāj: So, today is the very holy day of Odāna ṣāṣṭi, and this is a special ceremony which is observed by Jagannātha, Baladeva and

Subhadrā.

Haribol.................................... [Haribol]

So, I will tell you history. Lord Jagannātha has been worshipped... he was brought here... at that time there was a demon called Raktabāhu, and,

so, out of fear of him, the pūjārīs brought Jagannātha, Baladeva and subhadra at this place. So, I think it is thirty-six years He stayed here, and then

Indradyumna Maharaj killed that demon, and then brought Lord Jagannātha back. So, somewhere along the line, Shankaracharya established the pūjā worship, using

tantric system. So, when... what is the name of...Ramanujacharya... he visited...he questioned, "Why you are doing this tantric system?" You should in Kali Yuga... in Kaliyuga, you should do the Pancharatrika system, but then, he suddenly disappeared, and it reappeared at the Kūrma kṣetra. In between he was brought here, and he saw

Lord Caitanya, and he had some pastimes. That is mentioned in the Bhaktivinoda Nabadwip Māhātmya Parikrama 21.30. So, then... so, Lord Jagannātha, He was very much ... He had a very special system of worship, and so, He didn't want anyone to disturb that. Now He has about... in Jagannātha Purī, about nine thousand pūjārīs: A, B and C.

So, some are dressing Him, some are doing offering, some are doing sūtra, they all do different ceremony. So, some are cooking, some are at the rath festival, and so, during

the rath festival, this are specially under the care of the descendents of the Śabaras. Like that He has all system, and that originally, there was a certain number of

pūjārīs, but then it was just... say they had whole-year pūjā, and then their sons... say they have five sons. So, each... or six sons. So, each had two ones. So, one had three sons, one had two sons, and one had one son. So, accordingly, that pūjā was distributed... two months for the one who had two sons, you get one month each, and they had over thousands of years.

Somebody said, "Well marriage, intermarriage, I have three days, I cook for the Deity, two days I dress the Deity, and one day I offer toothbrush. So, they have all this system now.

Anyway, be that as it may be. Five hundred years ago, also the Pundarik Premanidhi, he chastised the Pūjārīs, “Why on this day you are putting new cloth? It is a system of pancaratrika... pancaratrika system is that any cloth we give to the Deity should be washed, and then give. But then Jagannātha, on this he was wearing new starch cloth, and so, which day starts wearing winter clothing. But on this day he would wear starch clothes. So, Pundarika Vidyanidhi, he said, "You should not dress Jagannātha in the starch cloth. It is not the system. What you are doing? You call yourselves pūjārī."

So, then he chastised them. That night Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā came. They said, "You don't have any right to chastise our pūjārīs. They are doing their system whatever." And they punched phhh... ph.. and slapped.

So, next day his cheeks were all swollen. So, he locked up for three days. He can't reveal that he was slapped by Jagannath.

Haribol..........................(repeated by devotees)

So, we don't question it anymore. But that also shows how Pundarik Vidyānidhi is very dear to the Lord. It is not that everyone gets slapped by the Lord.

So, only who are very dear. Of course every deity is said to have līlā by citra. That means that they have a very much variegated pastime. They may have the same Kṛṣṇa but their pastimes are different.

So, Jagannātha has his pastimes. Like in Yamunā we have the Khirchoda gopīnātha. He stole the khīr for the Mādhavendra Purī. Similarly, of course this Jagannātha has so many pastimes, but we try to do as much as possible. We worship Him according to the system that they have in Jagannath Purī. One year we brought one pāṇḍā, and he established... that... I don't know if they do it. At that time he said that they are

cooking with ... fire yajña. So, there we had a chula, and he established Agnihotra. Just like we do the Agni Sthāpana. Our gurukul usually know this how do the Agni Sthāpana. So, they would do the Agni Sthāpana, and then the fire would keep going. They would never let it go off, and every day they cook, they pile big pots, small pots, pot on top of pot. In this way they cook their rice, they cook their sabzis, they have a system. So, little bit he showed us, and he showed us how to make the Jagannātha Khajas which are the ... tongues?12.50. And now that's proliferated everywhere, all over Māyāpur. You won't get anywhere in India, only in Jagannatha Purī and here. Somehow we leaked the secret, I don't know. Anyone outside shops have, but otherwise this is a secret. But here they have this Jagannātha Prasad. So, they also make here the sweet dāl, the regular dāl, they try to please Jagannātha. But somehow, here, like this place is non-different from Vṛndāvan. When Lord Caitanya and... what's the name? Jagadananda Pandit. They are young boys; they came back from school, they were in Godrup Dwipa. So, they were in the forest. They met one bird, and that bird, he was chanting,

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

And Lord Caitanya, He covered His ears. "No, no, no. I don't want to hear this. You are non-different from Sukhadev. You are also Sukha. You are a parrot. So, please chant

Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa." But again the parrot said,

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

So, then, Lord Caitanya again covered his ears. "No, no, no, this is non-different from Vrṇdanvan. You should chant the glories of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa." And the parrot said,

"Yes, this place is non-different from Vṛndāvan. But here, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa have combined in the form of Gaurāṅga. So, I prefer to chant Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in my way. You chant your way. I will chant,

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

"Gaura, Gaura"........................................ "Gaura, Gaura."

And Lord Caitanya covered His ears and ran off. (laughter)

So, here Jagannātha has come to Vṛndāvan. In Gundicha, He goes for nine days Ratha Yatra, and there in Gundicha, it is said to be Sundara Chal. It is said to be a

Vṛndāvana. But here, Jagannātha is staying permanently in Vṛndāvana, in this form.

Jaya Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadra ki............... [Jaya]

Jaya Sudarshana chakra ki.

That pūjārī came and said, "You don't have Sudarshan chakra. So, he established. But I don't know... I guess here Lord Caitanya, He called also the Sudarshan Chakra for

the Jagāi, Mādhāi, but he didn't use it. This is a very special place, and this is in the island of Srimanta Dwipa. So, here, we boast to establish a Srimantini and a Lord Caitanya Deity, which will celebrate the pastime where Pārvatī worship Lord Caitanya, and she was revealed that, you are non-different from Rādhārāṇī, and here she regained... she realized her non-difference, and she worshipped Lord Caitanya, attaining the dust from His lotus feet and putting on her forehead. So, that's called the Sīmanta; of the ladies, the part in the hair, and where they put their sindur. So, she put the dust there. So, this island is known as Simanta Dwip, and is the first island of Nabadwip dham. It is related to the Navavidha bhakti of hearing. So, here we hear the glories of Lord. Of course, this is Lord Jagannath. He has done many pastimes, and since he established five hundred years ago where he came on his own free-will. This is Jagannātha. He was especially here. Jagdish Gangopadhyay, he was a blind brāhmaṇa, and he wanted to be taken to Vṛndāvana...

Nabadwip Parikrama, to Jagannātha Purī, to see the Jagannath. Of course he could see, but darshan means, we don't go to see the Lord, we want to be seen by the Lord, we want that the Lord sees us and we can offer him some devotional service. So, he wanted to go. And all the devotees would say that they would walk every year to see Lord Caitanya. Then He said,

"Sure, sure, I will take you." Because if they said, "No." He will argue, "No, please, please, please take me, I want to go." So, they kept him...   They said, "Oh, sure, sure, I will take you."

But no one... they left and no one took because taking the responsibility; coming and going, going and coming, of a blind person. At that time, walking, crossing the rivers, it was like, not wanted to take the responsibility. Then he realized, “Ok, they have left, and they didn't take me.” and He was crying, "Lord Jagannath, when will I be able to serve you, Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā?”

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare."

That night in the sleep his Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā came in his dream and said, "Tomorrow we will bring a big log and touch his body in the Ganges, you have that log carved by a leper...carpenter... his name I think was Vāsudeva. So, I am sure enough, in the Ganges, he felt the touch of a log. So, he had the ...8.05??... of bringing the log up, and history ... how he was... he took to the carpenter, and said, "You should carve the Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā Deities." The carpenter refused. He said, "No, I will not do it. No, no, no. Absolutely not. I am a leper. Look at my hands, I am missing half of my fingers. puss, maggots, they are eating, how can I carve a holy Deity? No, I will not do it. No." So, what to do?

So, Jagadisha said, "Listen, the Lord gave me the order, you must do it. I... if there is any offence, I hereby probably declare, I will take all the reactions, but will you take the reactions.... follow the Lord's order. Will you? I take all responsibility for any sins, any offences, I will take it, because the Lord has ordered me that you must carve the

Deities. will you disobey the Lord?”

"Ok, ok, I will do it, I will do it."

So, like this, every step of Deity carving was itself a līlā, and as soon as with great difficulty he carved the Deity, as soon as he finished he was restored to his full health, and his leprosy was not only cured, but his fingers again came back.

Jaya Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā ki........................ [Jaya]

Jaya Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā ki........................ [Jaya]

And when they did the snāna yatra for the Lord, of the snāna where there was the installation and leading the worship, at that time this Jagadish, he regained his eyesight. So, right from the day of their beginning of their worship, the Lord he had so many pastimes. So, this is one of his līlā, that here... this year in Jagannātha Purī they offered the Udāna ṣaṣṭi. we offered the starch cloth. So, here we also offer the starch

cloth for the Lord, and of course this Lord Jagannātha, He takes a lot of offerings today, a chappana bog, fifty-six different preparations in a day, that's what we offered. So, one of the services to do when he comes here is to chant and take some prasādam

It is a great austerity, I know, but what to do? Are you willing to take this austerity?

I don't know how many. There is something which we should take. So, apparently this Lord Jagannātha... his fingers are never dry, they should always bring him prasādam. So, like that when Lord Caitanya saw Lord Jagannātha in Jagannatha purī, he saw the Śyāma Sundara form of Kṛṣṇa. So, he was very much inside. The first time he saw... Lord Jagannātha saw Shyama Sundar play on his flute, he fainted. At that time of course people thought he was crazy... whats the name? Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, he took him to his house and he saw that he was not breathing, his heart was stopped, but he didn't seem to dead. So, then he tested and he found that there was a slight movement of the cotton swab. They saw a little air was coming. So, this is a symptom of samādhi, that Lord Caitanya went to a deep Nirvikalpa samādhi; ecstasy. But he didn't know how to revive him.

Then Lord Baladeva and Lord Nityānanda and other devotees came. They knew how to revive him by chanting:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare............................... (repeated by devotees)

So, thank you for coming here to the Jagannātha temple, and this is a sacred occasion of Udāna Ṣaṣṭi. As we said, this is a... this day is something which is special, observed by Lord Jagannātha, and just like Jagannath, and just as done for Jagannath in Purī, it is very active, doing different līlās, this Deity also has many pastimes.

Like I saw here earlier, Jagannātha. . was here. He could maybe tell you some pastimes if you want to hear. So, on this day we pray to the lotus feet of Jagannatha,

Baladeva and Subhadrā and Sudarshan Chakra, that we can have all the contamination of the heart removed, and we can have pure bhakti for the Lord's lotus feet.

Haribol............................... Haribol

Hare Kṛṣṇa..............................