Jagannath Puri -- The City of Lord Caitanya

Jerusalem, the renowned holy city of biblical times, and the site of Jesus Christ's last days on earth, for Christians and Jews a memorial of some of the most significant people and events in their religious history, and therefore a place of pilgrimage. For Muslims there is Mecca, famous as a religious center since the days of the Old Testament and greatly magnified in importance by the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, here in the 7th century after Christ. The most sacred of the Muslim holy cities, it draws millions of pilgrims every year. Well, we've all heard of Jerusalem and Mecca, and yet few Westerners know anything about this holy city, situated on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in India.

It is called Jagannath Puri, And like Jerusalem and Mecca, it hosts millions of pilgrims every year. For thousands of years, Puri has been famous for its annual Rathiatra, the world's oldest and largest religious festival. Each year, the deities of Jagannath, literally translated as Lord of the Universe, His brother Baladev, his sister Subhadra, come out of the temple for their once-a-year public appearance in a grand procession. Devotees from all over India throng in their millions to take darshan, or audience.

For the world's 700 million Hindus, the ancient holy city of Puri is a spiritual landmark. landmark not only because of its festival or its beauty or even because of its historic temples rather like mecca and jerusalem jaganath puri has achieved much of its present-day religious importance because of a great saintly person who once resided here the year is 1511 and a young saint leaves his birthplace in Navadvip on the banks of the Ganges in Bengal and travels on foot with his closest associates toward Puri. Although still a young man whose golden effulgence, beauty and keen intellect had brought him fame in Bengal, at the age of 24 he has already accepted the austere life of a celibate Sanyasi monk. His mission is to spread love of God throughout the world through the singing and glorifying the names of God as recommended in the timeless Vedic scriptures.

He is to become one of India's most renowned spiritual preceptors and leaders in a social and religious revolution. His name is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he is to leave an everlasting imprint upon the history of Puri. From this place, Sri Chaitanya first sees the chakra, the disk of Vishnu atop the famous Jagannath temple of Puri, six miles away. Here a memorial was established.

It houses Sri Chaitanya's footprints in marble. Sri Chaitanya immediately goes to the famous temple, which is thousands of years old. Inside are the sacred deities of Lord Jagannath, which have been revered since antiquity and are known to bestow special blessings on their worshippers. Upon seeing the deity, Sri Chaitanya is so overwhelmed with spiritual ecstasy that he loses external consciousness and faints.

He is brought to this nearby house, the home of Sarvaboma Bhattacharya, the leading philosopher and spiritual advisor to the king of Orissa, King Prataparudra. Sava Boma is India's most famous Mayavadi, or impersonalist, who teaches that God is energy, but without personality and form. The next morning, on this seat, the proud Sava Boma expounds his impersonal interpretation of the Vedanta philosophy in order to convert the young Sanyasi to his view. For seven days he continues his discourse without interruption.

On the eighth day, Sri Chaitanya replies, I can understand the meaning of each verse very clearly, but your explanations cover the real meaning. He then explains that the sacred Vedanta scriptures clearly uphold the personal feature of the Absolute Truth as supreme, that God is a person with unlimited spiritual form. Sri Chaitanya devastates all of Sarvabhauma's arguments and finally reveals his true nature to the bewildered scholar. He transforms himself and then appears in his original form as Krishna.

Sarvabhauma becomes overwhelmed by this revelation and instantly surrenders to Sri Chaitanya whom he recognizes as the supreme personality of Godhead, incarnate. This six-armed form of Lord Chaitanya is called Sri Sadbhuj. The upper two hands hold the bow and arrow of Lord Ramachandra. The middle two hold the flute of Lord Krishna.

And the lower two hold the danda and water pot of Chaitanya himself. Pilgrims come to visit the home of the famous Savaboma and they remember these pastimes of Lord Chaitanya as they worship these deities of Radha and Krishna here. After the conversion of Sarvaboma, a religious, social and cultural revival of unprecedented proportions begins to take place in the state of Orissa. Lord Chaitanya prophesies that the chanting of the holy names will spread worldwide and leaves Puri to expand the preaching.

He visits all the major pilgrimage places of South India. The temples of Ranganath, Meenakshi Devi and Rameshwaram, to name a few. He even induces wild animals of the jungle to set aside their natural enmity and dance together. At last, in the year 1513, he returns to Puri to a tumultuous Rathayatra festival.

King Prataparudra personally begins to sweep the path before the deity with a golden broom, a tradition followed even today by his descendants. The Rathayatra procession ends at the temple of Gunditra, which is surrounded by gardens and lakes, and these appear to Sri Chaitanya like Vrindaban, the spiritual realm of Lord Krishna. With his devotees, Sri Chaitanya re-enacts the pastimes of Vrindaban here. Sometimes they enter the lake Indrajumna, where the Lord sports with his associates.

At the nearby Alanath temple, Sri Chaitanya prostrates himself before the Vishnu deity, and his body becomes so hot due to his feelings of intense love of God that the stone floor upon which he lays melts and to this day bears the imprint of his body. This monastery on the western side of the Jagannath temple is constructed by a contemporary associate of Sri Chaitanya, Paramananda Puri. But unfortunately, the water so necessary for the self-sufficiency of the compound is bitter and unusable. Sri Chaitanya prays to Jagannath to bring the sweet water of the Ganges hundreds of miles to the well.

Immediately, the water becomes sweet, and Sri Chaitanya proclaims that anyone who drinks this water will certainly develop pure love of Godhead. Naturally, for devout visitors to Puri, stopping here for a drink is mandatory. It was beneath this Bokul tree that the famous saint Haridas continuously chanted 300,000 names of God each day. He was a dear devotee of Lord Chaitanya, and each day Chaitanya would meet him here.

Curiously, although the tree's roots are hollow and completely rotted, the tree still survives. Today, devotees of Chaitanya chant beneath it in memory of Haridas. This memorial honours the Namacharya, the spiritual master of the chanting of the holy names of Krishna. At his feet one can see the Hare Krishna mantra written in Bengali script.

A shrine built on this spot, known as the Haridas Thakur Samadhi, is one of the favourite places of pilgrimage in all of Puri. Within lies a set of chanting beads, said to have belonged to this revered and humble man. Groups such as this come daily to chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra in honour of Haridas. Artists in Puri have especially glorified Lord Chaitanya and his associates.

Another name for the province of Orissa is Utkal, meaning the place of the highest art. Skilled artisans continue to fashion miniature deities of Lord Jagannath for people to worship in their own homes. In the Mahapatra family, this traditional devotional art has been passed down from father to son for centuries. A particularly vivid example of a risen devotional art is found in these colourful reliefs decorating this exquisite temple.

Here, at the Raghunandan Library, next to the main gate of Puri's great temple, one can examine centuries-old leaf manuscripts with devotional drawings illustrating the intimate pastimes of Sri Chaitanya. In this drawing, a verse from scripture is integrated into the design. The local artists have developed a distinct style of painting that has become famous among students of Oriental art and are in great demand among Western collectors. This painting shows the miraculous pastime of Lord Chaitanya, dancing and chanting simultaneously with many different Kirtan groups during the Rathiyatra festival.

Pilgrims to Puri are reminded of Lord Chaitanya everywhere, and the beach is no exception. One night, in great spiritual ecstasy, Sri Chaitanya mistakes the ocean for the sacred river Jamuna and jumps in, allowing the waves to carry him away. A fisherman, not unlike one of these, catches his body in a net and brings him to shore. The devotees revive the Lord by loudly chanting the holy names of Krishna in his ear.

He has been immersed in a vision of Krishna, sporting with the Gopis in the spiritual world. As the years go by, Lord Chaitanya enters into deeper meditation upon the divine pastimes of Krishna and his consort Radha. In this secluded retreat, called the Gambhira, meaning profound, he sometimes dances, sometimes sings, and sometimes becomes unconscious in ecstatic love of God. Enshrined within the gambhira are wooden peg shoes which he used to wear.

Decorating the wall are reliefs of the Lord and his associates. While his devotees sleep outside the main door, Lord Chaitanya remains awake inside chanting the Hare Krishna mantra all night. In 1534, during his 48th year, Lord Chaitanya decides within himself to wind up his manifest earthly pastimes. He enters the Puri temple for a final audience with his beloved Lord Jagannath and then returns to the spiritual world.

Miraculously, devotees witness his departure from this mortal world at two other locations simultaneously. Here at the Tota Gopinath temple, the Lord enters the chamber of the deities closes the curtain behind him, and vanishes. At the same time, other witnesses describe how he enters into the sea with his arms raised, chanting Hare Krishna. Lord Chaitanya and Puri have become inseparable in the minds of the city's inhabitants, who daily enter temples such as this to worship him, or offer homage to his deity within their own simple dwellings.

Lord Chaitanya is worshipped as the combined form of Lord Krishna and his eternal consort, Srimati Radharani. In Jagannath Puri and throughout India, Lord Chaitanya is worshipped as the golden avatar. But what of Chaitanya's prophecy that his movement will eventually spread to every town and village in the world? Until the late 19th century, the pastimes, teaching and miracles of Lord Chaitanya are little known outside of India.

However, in 1896, this book introduces him to the English-speaking world. Appropriately, it is written by an important resident of Puri, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. These buildings are part of Bhaktivinoda's original household. He is the manager of the Puri temple. an influential district magistrate, and an acharya, a great spiritual teacher who vigorously preaches the message of Sri Chaitanya.

This temple in Puri marks the birth site of the next great acharya, Bhaktivinoda's son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. He expands his father's mission by writing profusely about Lord Chaitanya's teachings and establishes many temples in Puri and all over India to propagate the process of Harinam Sankirtan, the chanting of the holy names of God. He attracts many disciples, among them A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

In 1965, after a lifetime of preparation, Srila Prabhupada comes to America and in the space of a few short years successfully transplants Lord Chaitanya's movement to the West. And along with it, he brings Jagannath Puri as well. The deity of Lord Jagannath is worshipped in every one of the Hare Krishna movement's temples around the world. And every year, the great Rathayatra festival of Jagannath Puri is re-enacted in the major cities of North America, in the great capitals of Europe, in South America, Africa and Australia, where millions of people attend the same sacred ceremony that has attracted pilgrims to Puri for thousands of years.

The holy places such as Jerusalem, Mecca and Jagannath Puri have made an enormous contribution to the world. They keep alive the profound lessons of the world's greatest spiritual teachers and for this reason we hold them sacred. To this day, the spirit of Lord Chaitanya lives on in Puri, and for the devotees of Lord Chaitanya, Puri is forever in their hearts. To receive a copy of the book, A Visit to Jagannath Puri, send $9.95 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling to ITV Productions.