By Our Correspondent
RAIPUR/BHUBANESWAR: Bahuda Yatra was celebrated at the biggest Jagannath Temple in Chhattisgarh at Gayatri Nagar in Raipur with much fanfare and spiritual fervour. To mark the occasion special religious rituals were performed before the four deities stationed at Adap Mandap inside the Aunt’s house at the basement of the main Temple till afternoon. At around 4:00 pm, the Gods and Goddess were taken in the procession to the colourfully decorated three chariots standing in front of the temple. Former Organising Secretary of BJP in Chhattisgarh, Ram Pratap Singh did the traditional sweeping of the chariot called the Chherra Pahanra.
The Founder of the Temple Purandar Mishra helped him to conduct the job. Around 5 pm in the evening the long awaited return journey of the Lord of the Universe Commenced. The juggernaut started rolling amidst the Slogans of ‘Hari Bol’, ‘Jai Jagannath’, playing of Musical instruments like Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja, Mrudunga and singing of Soul soothing Kirtans and Bhajans by devotees.
Travelling through the premises of the Temple the chariots were pulled back to the front of Grand Road at around 6 pm. An enraged Goddess Laxmi blocked the entrance of Lord Jagannath to enter into the Temple because she was not invited to accompany the Siblings during the Rath Yatra. Lord Jagannath immediately took stock of the situation and offered Delicious Rasagolla to the Goddess to Cajole her.
Then she was pacified and granted permission to the deities to get in. This Episode was enacted during the occasion in the Temple premises. The Idols were then taken inside the Temple by the servitors and devotees performing Dhadi Pahandi and placed on the Sanctum Santorum at around 7.30 p.m.
The entire arrangements of the Bahuda Yatra were well managed and neatly executed by the overall supervision of the custodian members of the Temple Management Committee Shri Jagannath Temple Seva Samiti like President Purandar Mishra, Manmath Kumar Raut, Subrat Sahoo, Subhaash Agrawal, Gopal Agrawal, Dwarikadheesh Mishra, Ramesh Kumar Agrawal and Prakash Das.
