20220618 Snāna-yātrā Address

The following is a Snana-Yatra address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 18th,2022 in Bangalore, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Jagannātha! Jaya Baladeva! Jaya Subhadrā! So today this temple is observing the Jagannātha Snāna-yātrā. Snāna-yātrā is observed 15 days before the Ratha-yātrā in Jagannātha Purī. The King Pratāparudra Mahārāja, Gajapati, arranged a good viewing site for Lord Caitanya and His associates. And They could watch with great transcendental bliss the bathing ceremony of Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā and Sudarśana cakra.

In Māyāpur at the Sīmantadvīpa we have the Rājāpur Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra. The villagers and devotees go to the Ganges with their clothes on and fill pots of water. Their clothes are wet and they carry the pots all the way to Rājāpur so that they will be pure. And they chant Jaya Jagannātha! Jaya Baladeva! Jaya Subhadrā! Sudarśana cakra kī jaya! While the snāna is going on we want all the devotees to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Jaya Jagannātha. This Snāna-yātrā is observed in temples all over the world. Other countries they observe it according to the climate. Like in Australia now it is winter, and they observe Snāna-yātrā in December. All over India we observe the Ratha-yātrā, Snāna-yātrā at similar times. Because the Odiya devotees were insisting that we observe the exact same tithi. We accepted that, we observe any time during the nine tithis of the Ratha-yātrā festival. Day before the Ratha-yātrā devotees clean the temple. And remember the Guṇḍicā-mārjana pastime of Lord Caitanya. Here we have Jagannātha Deity and we are observing the Snāna-yātrā. Today the Governor of Karnataka came here, he got the blessing of Lord Jagannātha and graced the occasion.

Any way this is a very important service, festival, and I hope all the devotees are able to participate in one way or another. If they bring the container here I can bless it.

You see bhakti-yoga we do the sevā to Lord Kṛṣṇa. One of the services is arcana. In this way we can do personal service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa and His name are not different. If you are chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name that is also a particular service. That is śravaṇam kīrtanam. Snāna-yātrā kī jaya! Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana kī jaya! Snāna-yātrā kī jaya!