Vaikuntha Hill witnesses the first Snana Yatra

The snana yatra or the bathing ceremony of Lord Jagannatha is one of the several ceremonies performed in Puri prior to the world-famous Jagannatha ratha yatra held every year. This particular ceremony takes place on Jyeshtha Purnima, a fortnight before the ratha yatra. The deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra, Sudarshana and Madana-mohana (the utsava vigraha) are brought to the snana-vedi and ceremonially bathed with 108 pots of sanctified water drawn from the well situated in the northern side of the temple.

After the bathing ceremony, Lord Jagannatha becomes transcendentally ill and moves into His private quarters. For a period of fifteen days no one can go for His darshan. This is called anavasara. The renovations are made on the body of the Jagannatha Deity at this time. This is called nava-yauvana which means that the Deity of Jagannatha is being restored to youth again. Once again the Lord gives darshana to the public on the day of ratha yatra ceremony.

The snana yatra of Their Lordships Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra was performed on June 13, 2014 at ISKCON temple atop Vaikuntha Hill, Kanakapura road, Bangalore.  This ceremony commemorates the divine appearance of Their Lordships. This is the first snana yatra that was celebrated after the installation of Their Lordships in the temple.

Arati being performed for Their Lordships

The ceremony began with a panchamrita abhisheka while the devotees recited Brahma-samhita prayers and chanted the holy names of the Lord. Then a special arati was done after anointing the bodies of Their Lordships with chandan and adorning with tulasi garlands. This was followed by an abhisheka with water from 108 kalashas along with the recitation of Purusha-sukta. After the abhisheka, They were profusely showered with different types of colorful and fragrant flowers.

Their Lordships received a pushpodaka snana

Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa, Temple Vice President, ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Temple gave a short talk on the details and significance of conducting the snana yatra. Meanwhile Their Lordships were offered bhoga and adorned in a special alankara called Gaja vesha.

Their Lordships adorned with Gaja vesha alankara

After the lecture, devotees felt very excited to have the darshan of Their Lordships in the Gaja vesha alankarawherein Lord Jagannatha and Baladeva appeared with elephant faces. During the arati, devotees sang theJagannathashtaka prayers. The ceremony concluded with a prasadam feast.

The story around Gaja vesha has it that once a great scholar and devotee of Lord Ganesha was a guest of the king of Puri around the time of Jagannatha ratha yatra. The scholar was requested to have a darshan of Lord Jagannatha. Being a devotee of Ganesha, at first, he was not interested but finally he was persuaded to go to the temple when it was the day of snana yatra of the Lord. Even after the darshan, he did not feel happy which was noticed by the Lord. Desiring to make him happy, Lord Jagannatha and Baladeva appeared to him with an elephant face resembling Lord Ganesha. Now it has become a tradition to adorn Their Lordships with Gaja vesha to commemorate this pastime.