Jagannath Snan Yatra Festival @ ISKCON Baroda

BY: BASU GHOSH DAS

Jun 16, 2011 — BARODA, INDIA (SUN) —

Yesterday, on the auspicious day of Jyesth Purnima, June 15, 2011, ISKCON Baroda observed the age-old Jagannath Snan yatra (festival). On this day, their Lordships Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadradevi are taken outside of the ancient temple of Jagannath at Puri (Orissa/Odisha) in Eastern India, to a mandap (porch/platform) for a ceremonial bath (snan).

Water, mixed with a small quantity of water from the sacred Ganges river was kept in clay pots for the bathing ceremony. Here at ISKCON Baroda, the Deities were taken out of the temple by the pujaris accompanied by a kirtan party and placed in the mandap, decorated with flowers, at around 10 AM. At first there were not many members of the public to be seen in a specially erected pandal, in front of the temple. However, as time passed, quite a good crowed consisting of congregational devotees, donors, life patrons, members of the general public and members of the press, both print and electronic media, arrived to attend and - in the case of the press - report on the proceedings.

After arati was offered to Their Lordships, the bathing ceremony began. Simultaneously, a large group of temple and congregational devotees performed non-stop harinama sankirtan that lasted for more than an hour. All of the gathered devotees, life patrons and donors had a chance to participate in the jal abhishek (bathing the Deities with water), each being supplied a clay pot full of water.

Several electronic media persons conducted interviews with myself, which were later broadcast on local cable TV. During these interviews, I narrated both the story of the Snan Yatra festival, as well as took the opportunity to inform the viewing public of the upcoming Jagannath Rathayatra festival - scheduled on the traditional date of aashaadh shukla dvitiya, this year falling on Sunday, July 3rd.

This year is the 30th annual observance of Sri Jagannath Rathayatra festival here at Baroda, organized by ISKCON. This program is famous throughout Baroda, and is inaugurated annually by the Mayor of Baroda.

All the participants in the Snan Yatra festival were served halava prasad, and those who stayed for the rajbhog arati at 12:30 PM were served plates of prasad with rice, kadi, chenna, potato subji and halava.

For more pictures, please see our photo album.

Jagannath Snan Yatra Mahotsav ki jaya!