{"id":784,"date":"2020-01-05T08:27:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T08:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harinammandir.com\/en\/?page_id=784"},"modified":"2023-05-03T19:32:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:32:49","slug":"pastimes-of-our-jagannath","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/harinammandir.com\/en\/pastimes-of-our-jagannath\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastimes of our Jagannath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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19.03.2012 \u2013\nAnanda Vardana Prabhu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dvadashi morning, 08:00: before taking a\nbath in Radha-Kund, I went to a disciple of H.G. Mahanidhi Swami, Ameya Prabhu,\nto download Maharaja’s lectures.  Ameya\noffered me some water, but I refused: then he brought Jagannath’s maha-prasadam\nand said: \u201cThis you cannot refuse! This is directly from the plate, from the\naltar of Jagannath!  Tulasi leaf is on\nit. This is not an ordinary maha-prasad!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh! What luck can come through devotees!\nI took a piece of it and with respect tasted the nectar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rest I will wrap up to take away\nfor the next time! \u201d – I said to Ameya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took a bath in Radha-Kund, and in the\ntemple of Jagannath offered obeisances and asked Him to manifest in His Deity\nform, because there were some obstacles. \nIt was not clear what Jagannath wanted, and why His Deity form was\nspoiled during the journey from Puri to Vrindavan. Five minutes later, a phone\ncall from Amala Bhakta Prabhu (Andrei).  Andrei\nhad received initiation in Mayapur.  Now that\nhe was in Vrindavan, he had to see if the Jagannath deity was ready, the one\nthat we had given for restoration to Anjana Prabhu \u2013 a Russian artist whose\npaintings are known to Vaishnavas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaribol, I’m at Anjana\u2019s.  Jagannath is ready! Anjana finished, painted, and\nlacquered and said that everything is going to be fine!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jai Jai Jagannath, today You manifested\nin Your final form! We already thought that we should bring in another Deity\nfrom Puri. I had even given money to associates, who were going to Puri for a\nweek from March 21-28. Immediately, I remembered today’s special gift from\nJagannath \u2013 His caritamrita maha-prasad. I decided to write that down at the\nbeginning of book about the lilas of Tallinn’s Yatra Deities \u2013 Jagannath,\nBaladev and Subhadra Maya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bit of a background story: In Tallinn\nthere were two big asanas \u2013 big, beautiful, a gift from Zurich: on one throne,\nSri Sri Nitai Caitanya Candra, on the other, a picture of Panca-Tattva.\nHowever, the asanas themselves were meant for Panca-tattva and Jagannath, which\nwas seen in the ornament on the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Ratha Yatra in Tallinn was\norganised with a chariot in the summer of 2010. The chariot and the Deities\nwere brought from Kaunas (in Lithuania). For a few days during the festival,\nDeities were on the altar and appeared to like being in Their own home. But I\nthought that no one would allow us to install Jagannath in the temple, because\nthe temple was being rented from the city. \nIt was an old building, and the standards we had were really poor.  We had no brahmanas for puja. I pushed the\nthought away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2011. Summer \u2013 Ratha Yatra again, and again\nthe Lithuanian Deities are guests at the temple. Every day is a festival, for\nalmost a week: kirtans, harinams, Krishna-katha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We rode \u201cShyam\u201d from the winter\nLithuanian festival.  We have two\nvehicles for sankirtan: \u201cShyam\u201d and \u201cBalaram\u201d, one micro bus is dark blue, the\nother is white, both with tilakas, inscriptions, and pictures of Jagannath and\nBaladev from the winter Lithuanian festival.  I was driving, next to me was Vishvavasu\nPrabhu. For some reason we touched upon the topic of the Deities, the standards\nof worship, and talked about Jagannath.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vishvavasu prabhu said: \u201cAsk the\nGBC.  Maybe they will allow you to\ninstall Them, even if there is a low standard, especially if it would be useful\nfor the community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spoke about different varieties of\nworship, which inspired me to call the servant of his Divine Grace Bhakti\nCaitanya Swami immediately upon our arrival. He gave the phone to Maharaja and\nI asked, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan we bring Jagannath from Puri and\ninstall it in our temple?\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He answered, \u201cYes, the installation and\nbathing should be done in the reflection of a mirror…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was something! Because it\u2019s kind of\nnot allowed by GBC standards, but no \u201cinstall!\u201d Immediately, we started\ncollecting donations, clothing, paraphernalia for the Deities. I called\nGajendra Patra from Puri, who sells Deities, and ordered Them 38 cm , a bit\nless than the Lithuanian Deities, because for our altar they are a bit too big\nand heavy for the mataji-pujari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interesting how to get them from Puri\u2026our\nbrahmacari wouldn\u2019t go there. Ishupriya and Dima were going to Mayapur, and\nsoon afterwards Andrei Prabhu bought a ticket to India, as well, for the exact same\nplane as Dima and Ishupriya! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach will carry a Deity in their hands\nand bring it to Tallinn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I called to Petersburg, so that they\ncould organise a nama-hatta in February. I planned to be there from February\n6-8.  Rasatattva brahmacari said that their\ngroup from Petersburg was going to Puri. Oh! I asked him to bring the Deities\nfrom Puri and he agreed. On the 6th<\/sup> of February, I brought him the money,\nand relied on Krishna.  They say, \u201cIf you\nwant to do something properly, do it yourself\u201d, but I didn\u2019t want to travel to\nPuri. All that was left to do was to hope that, through Rasatattva Prabhu,\nJagannath would manifest in some Deity form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15.02.2012 \u2013 Vrindavan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to reach Rasatattva by\nphone to find out what happened.  No\nresponse.  18.02\u2026I finally reached him. He\nsaid that our order had not been placed, and he ran directly to the master, who\ncreates the initial deities, Jagannatha Patra who promised to make copies of\nthe initial deities with noses! I’m in anticipation. In the last days of the Petersburg group\u201ds stay in\nPuri, finally there was a phone call: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have received the deities,\nand we are taking them to Mayapur!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrived in Vrindavan from\nRadha-Kund to see the Deities. We opened the crate \u2013 Balarama! Subadra! And\nhere was Jagannath! But it seemed that the Deity had not been properly dried\noff when they were putting paint on the fabric: bubbles were on the face, mold had appeared, the paint had swollen. \nWhat should be done?  Take off the\npaint, sand it, paint again? But how to order the repair of a whole Deity? I started\nto call everyone we knew in Vraj to ask questions. In the end, we went with Amala Bhakta to Anjana prabhu and showed him. He\ntook on this task and said that you can\u2019t peel the paint, because no one could\npaint like that, even though he himself was a master artist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is natural\ndraftsmanship, with one hand, one swing of a brush. But here it is not so\nstraight, it looks like something alive\u2026 here the resident of Puri invested his\nheart!  I will just slightly correct it,\nwhere the paint inflated. Meanwhile, you buy some notebooks and start to write\na book about the lilas, the stories of the Deities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this was the first lila \u2013\nJagannath wanted to have Himself painted a bit more! Jai Jagannath!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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