[ Photo: Sampradaya Sun ]

As per the age-old tradition, Jagannath Temple in Puri allows access only to Hindus and those like Alim and others get once-in-a-year opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Deities when they come out of the temple during Rath Yatra.

[ Photo: Sampradaya Sun ]

"We respect the tradition and the rules of the temple. Rath Yatra is the only occasion when we can have darshan of the Deities on the chariots outside the temple. But we have been missing this moment for the last two years due to the ban on the participation of devotees," Alim said.

Foreign ISKCON devotees were also disappointed. Not less than 500 from different countries would visit Puri during Rath Yatra before the Covid outbreak.

[ Photo: Sampradaya Sun ]

"I had received several queries from some devotees in Russia and UK. They wanted to visit Puri. But I told them about the government's ban on gathering of devotees during the festival," said Harish Mohanty, a hotelier in Puri.

Many Hindu devotees, who found it difficult to visit the temple from remote places in Odisha during the pandemic, have also been left disheartened. "I could have visited the temple on normal days for darshan. But we stay in Malkangiri and it is far away from Puri. We were planning to visit during Rath, but the pandemic dashed out hopes," said Sahadeb Pattnaik, a devotee.

[ Photo: Sampradaya Sun ]

Jayashree Mahapatra, a devotee from Kalahandi, said, "I had a smooth darshan of the Deities in the temple in March. I was hoping that normalcy would return. But the pandemic played spoilsport and kept us away from the Deities."

The servitors, too, felt the absence of devotees. "When I was pulling the chariots, I was in tears as we missed the crowd, their chants of Jai Jagannath and the hustle and bustle on Grand Road," said Ramachandra Dasmohapatra, a senior servitor.

[ Photo: Sampradaya Sun ]