On 12 of Jan I went to this holy abode of Lord Jaggannath with my parents. The place is quite amazing and so amazing are the stories related to it.
Nestling on the eastern coast along the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal,the unique State of Orissa offers to her guests a ‘tourism capsule’ containing magnificient temples, sunny beaches,colourful wild life, traditional tribal culture and a rich heritage. To her credit, it has housed the important pilgrimage centre for the Hindus - Puri, the 13th century magic carved on sand stone - Konark, the largest brackishwater lake of the continent - Chilika, the wonder green land of the white tigers - Nandankanan, and many more caves, Chaityas, Stupas.temples,forts and palaces. Statistics says most of the visitors frequent this place for Lord Jagannath and the blue bay.
While several temples have vanished or have declined in importance, the great temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri is still a living and vivrant temple. Over the centuries it has attracted kings, conquerers, religious teachers, devotees and piligrims. In the minds of the millions of Indians, Orissa is the land of Jagannath. A synonym of Purusottam is Jagannath and his abode Puri is known as Purusottam Khetra, which is one of the four most sacred places in India for the Hindus.
Well there are hundreds of sites available on the net about this great place, but there were a few intresting that i came to know about when i went to this place. I would like to share them with you all.
My father told me that according to hindu mythology there are four dhams in INDIA, but it is believed that even if you cant visit the rest its enough if you have visited PURI Dham. I searched a little as to why it is considered so and this is what i found.
According to hindu mythology there are four dhams and four yugs or ages:-
Each dham is associated with one yug or age.
To start with we have the
Badrinath in the Satyug,
Rameshwar in the Tretayug,
Dwarika in the Dwaparyug,
And the present time is believed to be the kaliyug or the age of lies and deception.
All these Dhams are the abode of Lord Vishnu,the lord of life or living.
Since Lord Vishnu is belived to be residing in Puri now hence it said that it is sufficient to visit Puri among all Dhams.
There are in total 119 servitors of the Lord who perform the various puja rituals or holy practices of Lord Jagannath. The servitors are given a share of the mahaprasad, that is the sacred food that is offered to the Lord. 56 different kinds of dishes are offered to the lord which cooked in 794 ovens.
There are various mathas in PURI established by the various saints of different religion and sects who have till date visited Puri. The servitors and the people of the mathas celebrate various festivals in the name of lord Jagannath all year round. Visitors keep flocking this place to just have a glimpse of the Lord and make their birth a blessing.
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