Debasis Debata

Name: Debasis Debata

Age: 40

Place: Dhenkanal

Profession: Businessman

As a staunch believer of Lord Jagannath, I have been to Puri umpteen number of times during rath yatra. I was only eight-years-old when I had first gone with my parents to Puri to watch the festival. Since I was a child, I have vague recollections of the yatra as it was then. But the huge chariots left me awestruck and enchanted.

As far as I can remember, I have been religiously coming to Puri to participate in the grand festival since then. The revelry, traditional music, pahandi procession of deities, chhera pahanra (the sweeping ritual) of Gajapati Maharaja and chariot pulling have always fascinated me.

I usually reach Puri one or two days before the car festival every year. I stay in the house of a relative, which is close to the Jagannath temple.

Like previous years, this time too I will occupy a seat atop a building near the temple. I feel elated when foreign devotees, mostly Iskcon pilgrims, serenade along Grand Road by chanting hymns on Jagannath. The atmosphere is charged with religious fervour when the deities are ferried out of the temple on to their chariots in a pompous procession, called pahandi. It is a treat to watch the pahandi procession.

Since I have been coming here every year, I could see some changes around the temple. Some 10 years ago, there were no non-vegetarian food kiosks around the temple. But I have seen fast food shops mushrooming around the temple over the last few years. This changing trend has upset me a lot. The Jagannath temple administration should ban the sale of non-vegetarian food near the temple.

Besides, I earnestly beseech the Lord that the festival passes off peacefully. I can never forget the 2008 rath yatra during which six pilgrims were trampled to death in an unprecedented stampede. I was standing amid the crowd when all hell broke loose and pilgrims ran helter-skelter. I did not know why the stampede took place.

I was very sad, but not scared. I came to Puri in 2009 as well. Thank god, the rath yatra was incident-free last year.

One thing I have been noticing every year is the unnecessary crowd on the chariots of the deities. I am shocked that the police are not taking any action against those priests who have been allowing others to climb the chariots. Pilgrims like me go through a trying time in getting a glimpse of the deities.

This year, I was a bit excited when I came to know that the temple administration was contemplating to reintroduce “hati seva (elephant service)” on rath yatra. But I was told by some priests that the elephants are not coming for the purpose.

Since I am so much attached to the rath yatra for years, I feel proud that the millennia-old festival has managed to survive in the age of modernity. Credit goes to the temple priests, who have kept the tradition alive.