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The Snan yatra bathing ceremony of Lord Jagannath has become one of the most popular festivals on the Iskcon calendar over the years since His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad introduced it to the world outside of India. Traditionally this festival has been going on since the time of the carving of the 'Dharu-brahman' Deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balaram, and Lady Subhadra in Sri Purushottam Kshetra (Jagannath Puri) thousands of years ago, commemorating Their sacred appearance for Their devotees - primarily the saintly King Maharaj Indradyumna.

Many of you would know that after the bathing ceremony the Lord catches a transcendental chill, are fed sweet foods and drinks to break Their fever, and then retires for Their 'Anavasara kala' - recuperation period. In Jagannath Puri where the Deities are painted with natural mineral paints, after the bathing ceremony the paints have a tendency to run and the Deities would be not viewable to the general public. So to allow the devotees to partake further in the Lord's pastimes, They made a special arrangement with one 'brahmin' who came to visit to take 'darshan' at this time.

Lord Sri Krishna, Jagannath is the Lord of the Universe and so in essence is the original creator of everything, nothing exists without Him. In one sense then everything is Him, at least coming from Him. Just as in the creation of a by-product from an original source the by-product has it’s existence by association with the original object. Shastra gives the example of milk being transformed into yogurt for a functionary analogy of Krishna being like the original source (milk in this case) and lord Shiva being like yogurt, having come in contact with a culture for his functionary activities in the material world. The milk therefore in one sense created yogurt, but that yogurt can never again become milk. Therefore it, although one in origin, it is different, becoming secondary or mutated potency and therefore lessor in potency and function.

Sripad Shankaracarya taught a very dangerous philosophy called pancopasika (païcopäsanä – Chaitanya Chairitamrta Adi-lila 7:151. Purport; Madhya-lila 9:360. purport), which wrongly inferred that the Lord and His primary creation, and the predominating Deities of it were equal in potency to Him. He said that Lord Vishnu, Ganesh, Shiva, Surya, Laxmi (Durga, Kali, Saraswati) were/are equal which to us, and to Lord Vishnu is to be considered as a grave offense (çivasya çré-viñëor ya iha guëa-nämädi-sakalaà / dhiyä bhinnaà paçyet sa khalu hari-nämähita-karaù. – Padma Purana.)

In various places it is phrased slightly different ways; (2) to consider the Lord and the demigods to be on the same level or to think that there are many gods (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta Adi-lila 7:73., purport.) (b) to consider the name of Lord Çiva or any other demigod to be equally as powerful as the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (no one is equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nor is anyone superior to Him)(A.C. Bhaktivedanta swami Prabhupada. SB 7:5:23-24. Purport.) ”The second offense is to see the holy names of the Lord in terms of worldly distinction. The Lord is the proprietor of all the universes, and therefore He may be known in different places by different names, but that does not in any way qualify the fullness of the Lord. Any nomenclature which is meant for the Supreme Lord is as holy as the others because they are all meant for the Lord. Such holy names are as powerful as the Lord, and there is no bar for anyone in any part of the creation to chant and glorify the Lord by the particular name of the Lord as it is locally understood. They are all auspicious, and one should not distinguish such names of the Lord as material commodities.”(A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srimad bhagavatam 2:1:11. Purport.)

sthävara-jaìgama dekhe, nä dekhe tära mürti
sarvatra haya nija iñöa-deva-sphürti

“A Vaisnava never sees the material form of anything, moving or nonmoving. Rather, everywhere he looks he sees the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and immediately he remembers the transcendental form of the Lord.”

This wonderfully merciful and enlivening story of the Lord knowing the heart of His devotee, and personally bestowing His mercy upon him has nothing what so ever with that deviant philosophy.
The story goes that this 'brahmin' was a devotee of Lord Jagannath, but for some reason expected to see the elephant-headed deva, Ganesh, in the temple. The 'brahmin' was somewhat disappointed seeing the deva / demigod not there, and that Lord Jagannath had been bathed already and that They were looking a bit 'off colour' with Their mineral paint colours running. In many ways the hearts’ desire of that devotee were unfulfilled. Then that night, knowing his heart, the Lord appeared to the devotee in a dream and told him to go back to the temple and he would not be disappointed. Rather all his desires would be fulfilled by worshipping Lord Jagannath and not by separatedly worshipping any deva (Bhagavad Gita 9:23.).
The all merciful Lord then appeared to his devotee; Lord Jagannath and Lord Balaram assumed the appearance of beautifully decorated elephants, while Lady Subhadra decorated Herself as a Lotus flower. From that time on they began the Hati Vesha (Elephant Mask) festival. Consequently some call it the Hati-vesh festival, some the Ganesh-vesh festival. Both are correct – the Lord assumed a special form to satisfy His devotee, just as in other cultures we hear stories of the Lord appearing to Moses in the form of a Burning Bush, or to Mohammed in the form of sound, or as with Jagannath in the form of the Dharu-brahman logs that washed up upon the ocean shore to be carried by the sabara Virabhadra, and fashioned by the architect of the devas Vishvakarma into the wonderful forms of Sriyuts Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra maharani we see before us.

Formerly when we were in Mayapur we had the rare opportunity to discuss through some local devotees (Jananirvas and Pakajanagrhi prabhus) with 'pujaris' from Jagannath Puri who were helping to authenticate Iskcon's 'seva' to the Lord at the Jagannath temple in Mayapur. They described to me the festival, and how to execute it. Since then we began that festival in Melbourne, Australia where the festival is still an escalating favourite with all of the congregation of devotees.

In essence the festival begins with Their Lordships coming to the Snan-Vedi. At this time everyone there gets the great blessing of being able to render the service of bathing the Lord in nectarean natural bathing substances. After that the Deities return to the altar to be cleaned off, where They are tended by Their 'sevaks'. The Deities are then dressed in their 'Hati Veshes' (Elephant Masks) and offered a wonderful myriad of sweets and sticky buns, cakes, and local delicacies - as all elephants, and especially These Transcendental Ones, love. The curtains are again opened leaving the food offerings of love for all to see before the Lord. The 'Arati' ceremony is then performed, and according to the Jagannath pujaris, traditionally it is accepted that the Lord bestows all benedictions and blessings upon those fortunate enough to be there to see Them there in Their Elephant masks. After the 'Arati' the Deities retire to Their 'Anavasara' rest rooms to 'restore the colour to Their cheeks', where the Lord will be served in private intimacy for the next couple of weeks up to the 'netrotsava' or 'nava yauvanotsava' - first restoration 'darshan'.
The abundance of offerings are then distributed for a small donation to all the eager devotees who wait to savour the culinary blessings of the Lord too.
Their Lordships now have their very own Hati Veshes so that everyone may participate in this transcendental festival. We hope to see you all there.

[ Source : http://www.salagram.net ]