Bhubaneswar, April 6: Jagannath Swain Mohapatra, the chief servitor of Lord Jagannath, is confident that the God will not let them down and help them find the sacred wood for making the images of the Holy Trinity shortly.

Swain Mohapatra, 61, is leading one of the teams that have been assigned the task of finding the sacred wood for carving the idols. "For the past two days, I, along with my 22 colleagues, am searching for the wood," he said.

The chief servitor and his colleagues are part of the 100-member banajaga yatra team that left Puri on the night of March 30 in search of the wood. At present, they are camping at Deuli Mutt, located on the banks of the Prachi river at Kakatpur, a small town in Puri district.

The members have already visited areas such as Kendrapara, Erasama, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur.

"The younger generation should learn about the rituals that are connected with Nabakalebar. Today, I took my two sons with my team. We have identified a number of Neem trees for the purpose. But, we have to examine whether they meet all the requirements according to the scriptures," Mohapatra said.

His sons Raj and Sanjeeb are businessmen. "I have not asked them to come with me. They have voluntarily joined me and are taking part in the banayaga yatra. They know that their existence is linked to the Jagannath cult. They cannot ignore it. They are trained about the rituals associated withthe Lord," Mohapatra said.

Appealing to the people not to be carried away by the media reports on the location of the tree for extracting the sacred wood, Mohapatra said: "The announcement about the sacred wood will be made only after the lunar eclipse week is over. It will be announced after April 10. We are busy holding meetings with other servitors on this issue."

"No one will believe that at my age, I trek 65km at a stretch to reach Kakatpur from Puri. It is because of the Lord's blessings," Mohapatra said.