Thousands of devotees witness “suna vesh” of Lords in Puri Sri Jagannath temple
Puri, Nov 8: Thousands of devotees witness the Rajarajeshwara vesha (Sunsvesha) of the presiding deities of the Sri Jagannath temple as the temple administration rescheduled and advanced the rituals of the day by twelve hours in view of the lunar eclipse.
The temple doors were opened by midnight and the servitors performed “mangal arati, abakash, mailum offered Gopal bhog “to the presiding deities before they appear on suna vesh.
Thousands of devotees had darshan of “Sunsvesha”( golden attire) of Lord Jagannath and his siblings which continued till 5 am this morning.
Long queues of devotees within barricades were seen along the Grand road to witness the suna vesh of the lords.
At midnight devotees rushed to Mahodadhi Tirth(five km. stretch of Puri beach from Swargdwar to Chakratirth) to take a holy dip and rush to Sri mandir for darshan of Sunavesha of the Trinity.
The administration had made elaborate arrangements for devotees. Over two hundred lifeguards, fire services personnel besides regular police personnel were deployed along the beach and other holy water bodies to prevent drowning.
The “Habishyalis” who were observing Kartik brata in large numbers in this abode of Lord Jagannath after a gap of two years have started returning to their home as the month long brata was concluded a day prior to Purnima because of lunar eclipse.
A special ritual was performed on Tuesday in Habisyali centres to mark the concluding of brata. Most of them become emotional and showered blessings on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for making all arrangements for their month-long stay in this pilgrim town.
They prayed to lord Jagannath for his long life and success. They return with a hope to come again next year if they survive.
It was difficult to depart. “We took a vow that if lord Jagannath grants us another year of life next year definitely we will meet again in the camp” the habisiyalis said while returning to their home.
District collector Samarth Verma and Superintendent of police K. Vishal Singh bid farewell to devotees.
On October 8 last, the beginning of month-long Kartik Brata, Patnaik dedicated a seven-story building complex christened as ” Brundabati nivas” to house habisyslis from this year onwards.
The administration had also organised four other Habishyali shelters and housed over three thousand devotees who came from various parts of the state to observe the month-long kartik brata.
These centres are well furnished with all basic facilities to meet the needs of devotees to perform their religious rites.
Those who were admitted to the government facilities to observe month-long Kartik brat were provided with breakfast, mahaprasad once per day.
The government had made arrangements to take them from shelter camps to temple and back, appointed priests to help them perform their religious rites, and deployed scholars for religious discourses in the late evenings in the camp.
CM presented each with shawls and administration provided blankets to them. While departing they were given away dry mahaprasad (Khaja) and fruits packets.
