Lord Jagannath’s ‘Snan Yatra’ held at ISKCON Rajapur temple

Annual bathing festival popularly known as ‘Snan Yatra’ of Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra was held at the ISKCON, Rajapur temple, Nadia district on Monday. The festivities started early this morning with the darshan of the deities and a grand ceremony of bringing them to the snan vedi (bathing ground).

This was followed by over hundreds of devotees bathing the Lords. It continued till late afternoon amidst chanting of melodious devotional songs rendered by the devotees. According to established scriptures, when King Indradyumna installed the wooden deities in Puri he arranged this bathing ceremony. This day is considered to be the divine appearance day of Lord Jagannath.

As a part of his ‘leela’, Lord Jagannath falls sick after the bathing festival and hence the doors remain closed till Rath Yatra day. According to President of ISKCON Jagannath temple Rajapur, HG Nirmal Chaitnya Das, 108 types of food, fruits and sweet dishes were offered to the Lord and later the Prasadam was distributed to more than 9000 people who came from various parts of Nadia and adjoining areas. The Jagannath temple which is 6 km away from the main ISKCON Chandrodaya temple of Mayapur, is located in a place where there exists a large Muslim population and members of the community actively participate in making the festival a huge success every year, added Das.