Jai
Jagannath,
May the lord be a divine creation or a recreation of
tribal deity, Lord Jagannath bears the honor of his highness as
Jagatara Natha or Lord of the world due to his divine superiority
over thirty three crore gods and goddesses in the universe. Although
several interpretations encircle the secrets of his Origin, the
supreme lord has been worshiped mostly as reformation avatar of Lord
Vishnu or Narayan. In depth study by many authors in the myth,
mystique and historical evidences of the origin of Jagannath has
brought new facts to surface.
The present day God Lord Jagannath originally manifested in
Purusottama-kshetra “Nila Kandara” as a giant sapphire gem stoned
avatar called “Nilmani” or vigraha named “Neelamdhava”. After the
disappearance of Neelamadhava the Lord remanifested in His present
Chaturdha vigraha daru form. The significance of the Lord's
manifestation in wooden form is revealed by Lord Brahma.
Origin of the Lord :
Indrayumna, the king of Malava in Satya Yuga and a great devotee of
Vishnu Once dreamt of Nilamadhava Vishnu and got curious to find
where the Lord was being worshipped. His emissaries adventured in
all directions to discover the truth. One among them was a clever
Brahmin named Vidyapati who adventured towards east. Inside dense
forests of Utkala he took shelter in the house of the Savara King
Viswavasu. In order to extract the secrets of Nilamadhava, clever
Vidyapati married to Viswavasu’s daughter Lalita. Clever Vidyapati
persuaded Viswavasu thru Lalita to take him along while going inside
dense forest to worship Nilamadhava. The supreme GOD Lord Jagannath
was installed in a blue cave Niakandara in the form of “Nilmani” the
sapphire gem stoned vigraha Neelamdhava. Viswavasu agreed on the
condition that Vidyapati will be taken to the cave and brought back
from there with a blindfold.
Although smart Vidyapati was blindfolded, but he sprinkled mustard
seeds on his way so that he can retrace the path by himself from the
sequence of mustard plants. Having heard the entire story from
Vidyapati, King Indradyumna started with his retinue for Utkal to
see Nilamadhava. In the dense forest he followed the grown up
mustard plants to reach Nilakandara, but found the lord missing. A
divine voice aired him to build a temple on Nilasaila (Blue
Mountain)at sea shore. The king immediately ordered for temple
construction. He searched for a carpenter to make the deities. King
Indradyumna found a mysterious old Brahmin carpenter who appeared
and took the responsibility and took a few days to accomplish that.
Surprisingly the carpenter insisted that he would not be disturbed
while he was carving the deity and start working closed door. Every
one including King and his Queen were very much anxious and come
every day to the closed door and there was sound of working. After
6-7 days waited anxiously outside his room, but after some time, all
sound stopped. The impatient Indradyumna's Queen worried what had
happened and assuming the worst, opened the doors - only to find the
deity half-finished and the carpenter vanished! The mysterious
carpenter was none other than Vishvakarma, the heavenly architect.
The king was distraught as the deity had no arms and legs. Utterly
repentant that he had interrupted the carving, the king was only
pacified when the muni (sage) called Narada appeared and explained
that the form the king now sees is a legitimate form of the supreme
personality of godhead. The second story here was narrated to
further explain and remove any doubts and confusion.
On completion of the temple, the king went to Brahmaloka to invite
Brahma to consecrate the temple. But, Brahma being in meditation, he
had to wait for nine Yugas. The temple thus got buried in sand in
his absence. In the mean time, a new dynasty came to rule at Utkala.
Galamadhva, a king of that dynasty, detected the buried temple. He
was considering installing images in the temple when Indradyumna
with Lord Brahma appeared before him. Both the kings had a tussle
over the ownership of the temple. However, Lord Brahma decided in
favor of Indradyumna and asked him to install deities in the temple.
Now, the king was at a loss as to where to find the deities from.
Therefore, god told him in his dream that he would be floating in
the sea in the form of a log of wood. Then Sage Narada assured
Indradyumna that Vishnu would appear to him in the temple form of
three wooden images. When a big tree, radiant with light was seen
floating in the sea, Narada told the king to make three idols out of
it and place them in a pavilion. Indradyumna got Visvakarma, the
architect of Gods, to build a magnificent temple to house the idols
and Vishnu himself appeared in the guise of a carpenter to make the
idols on condition that he was to be left undisturbed until he
finished the work. But just after two weeks, the Queen became very
anxious. She took the carpenter to be dead as no sound came from the
temple. Therefore, she requested the king to open the door. Thus,
they went to see Vishnu at work at which the latter abandoned his
work leaving the idols unfinished. But a divine voice told
Indradyumana to install them in the temple.
The three idols represent the god Jagannath, his elder brother,
Balabhadra and their sister, Subhadra. The wooden idols being
worshipped are renewed during special occasions. This wooden idol
prepared from a log of wood floating on the ocean finds a mention in
the Rig Veda, where it is referred to as Purushottama. Sudarsana was
added and, therefore, the quadrangle worship.
Regards
Team Nilachakra |