By Our Correspondent
NOIDA: The Jagannath Temple at Garhi Choukhandi in sector 121of Noida celebrated Annual Car Festival with spectacular fanfare and spiritual fervour. Around 5,000 devotees alongwith their family members gathered here to witness the Grand Religious Ceremony. At 5.00 a.m. in the dawn Mangala Arati was performed before the deities in the Temple. The establishment of Chariot and other related rituals were performed at around 11.00 a.m.
The Idols were offered 56 types of Bhogs, specially prepared for the occasion at noon. The Mahaprasad was distributed among the visitors at 1.30 p.m. Special arrangements were made by the Temple Management Committee Shree Jagannath Samiti under the able and active stewardship of General Secretary renowned Chartered Accountant Dr Manoranjan Mohanty to maintain discipline and decorum during the Mega Event.
The Pahandi Bije of all Four Deities to the 24ft High colourfully decorated chariot being conducted by servitors started around 2 p.m. The entire atmosphere got reverberated with the recitals of hymns, roaring of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees.
The traditional service of sweeping in Front of the Chariot called Chherapahanra was done by noted Entrepreneur and Philanthropist Dipak Singhal. The long awaited and much cherished moment came at about 3.00 p.m. when the pulling of Chariot commenced. The Distinguished Guests present include National President of Hindu Mahasabha Swami Chakrapani Maharaj, Prabhari of U.P. Kumar Brijesh, Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh, District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma, MLA of Dadri Tej Pal Nagar, Rajya Sabha M.P. Surender Nagar, Chairman of the U.P. Council of Agricultural Research Capt. Vikash Gupta and Former Minister Nabab Singh Nagar.
The Royal Chariot having Four Deities on Board were pulled by devotees till 3 k.m. to the Aunt’s House located at Baba Balaknath Temple in Sector 71 of Noida. The Chariot reached their in the evening. The emotional scene of devotees earning lots of fortune by sheer having a holy glimpse of Lord of the Universe atop the Chariot was just mesmerizing and memorable. At Baba Balak Nath Temple, the Idols were taken in a procession to the Aunt’s house and were placed in the special podium in night. The Gods and Goddess will be worshipped here till the Bahuda Yatra on 15th July 2024 as per the information of Temple sources.
The massive arrangements of Rath Yatra Festival was smoothly organized and successfully executed with the active involvement of the Office Bearers and members of Temple Management Committee which include President Biswanath Tripathy, General Secretary Dr Manoranjan Mohanty, Vice President Pramod Bal and Nigamananda Mohanty, Joint Secretary Dhaneswar Nayak and executive body members Subala Behera, Dillip Swain, Debu Mishra, Akshay Swain, Prashant Khillar, Abhimanyu Parida, Ramesh Nayak, Prakash Ray, A.R.Parija, Bharat Pradhan, Kishore Parida and Dr Bimbadhar Rath.
