Lord Jagannath fell sick and kept in isolation

After recovery, special bhogs offered to Him

Jagannath Maha Prasad is very auspicious and we will distribute it to people as part of ongoing Food for Life programme, in which we have been distributing 5000 plates of Prasadam in Nadia each day since lockdown said Alay Govind Das, principal organiser of Rath Yatra festival.

Biswabrata Goswami

KRISHNAGAR, 24 JUNE: The pandemic might have cast a shadow on  the grandeur and huge public participation in Rath Yatra at ISKCON headquarter  but it could not dampen the  spirit of personal service in the devotees.

The Annual Jagannath Rath Yatra at Mayapur did not witness usual participation of 2 lakh people and the 3 chariots of divine siblings, Jagannath, Baladev, Subhadra could only be drawn inside the temple campus.

Monks, Pujaris and a restricted number of devotees were allowed to take part and close to a million devotees across the world watched it on various digital platforms.

However at Gundicha temple, Lord stays for 8 days and here the exuberance among  the devotees was no less. Close to 40 devotees from 30 countries ( resident devotees) are busy painting colourful rangolis, flower garlands and most importantly the opulent Chappan bhog which is so dear to Lord Sri Jagannath, as mentioned in established scriptures.

At Gundicha in Mayapur  the Lord will savour a variety of dishes offered by devotees across the world. From mouth watering continental cuisines to Chinese noodles, dumplings,  Italian pastas, pizzas, American donuts, cakes , Russian salads, icecreams to our very own traditional Bengali dishes - saag, chochodi, sukta, chatni, payesh, luchi is presented to the Lord.

Besides this 15-20 types of sweet preparations like laddus, malpoa, khir, halua, patisapta to name a few are being prepared.  This year Lord will also be served with doklas,  khakras and  ghewars for breakfast by Gujarati and Rajasthani devotees.

The mood is that after Snan Yatra( 5th June this year) Lord Jagannath falls sick and He is kept in isolation where opulent Bhoga is not offered due to His ill health so after He recovers we try to offer Him best quality Chappan Bhoga which He likes so much.

At Gundicha we offer bhoga 5-6 times each day and try to ensure that the Lord is satisfied and happy so that each year He comes and gives us Darshan, said Subroto Das, spokesperson of ISKCON, Mayapur.

Jagannath Maha Prasad is very auspicious and we will distribute it to people as part of ongoing Food for Life programme, in which we have been distributing 5000 plates of Prasadam in Nadia each day since lockdown said Alay Govind Das, principal organiser of Rath Yatra festival.

The devotees who are serving in the Gundicha will be screened every day and proper sanitisation arrangement is being ensured by the ISKCON authorities.