Business is down at the moment. With God's grace, I can make up for it when opportunity comes. But I could not have missed this Nabakalebar of Lord Jagannath because the next one will happen after 19 years, which is too long a time. It is this feeling that made me forget everything else and actively take part in this Nabakalebar.

The Nabakalebar is almost over with old idols replaced with the new ones. But I have been involved in it right from the beginning and experienced how the Lord himself helps shape his own idol. Lakhs of devotees had his darshan on the rath yatra day and returned happy. As a sevayat, I feel both relieved and content.

Now, I have the onerous responsibility to carry forward the age-old traditions of Nabakalebar with the next event already looming in my thoughts. My participation in the next event depends on the wish of God. If the Lord desires, I will be there next time to carry forward the tradition.

My father has been doing the job of transferring the souls ( Brahma paribartan) since 1969. He had to take up the responsibility as his father had passed away a few years before the 1969 Nabakalebar. This year, he transferred the soul of Lord Balabhadra for the fourth time. I have noticed his sincerity and dedication over the years.

I live in Bhubaneswar and run my computer hardware business. However, ever since my father told me that I would have to perform transfer of soul ( Brahma paribartan) in the next Nabakalebar, I feel strange. I know my father Haladhar Das Mohapatra, who is a man of few words, will be hurt if anything goes wrong at the time of soul transfer.

Now, I feel more responsible. Though I stay in Bhubaneswar, I visit Puri frequently to stay connected with the Lords. Only with their blessings, can I move ahead. As for my business, which has achieved a turnover of around Rs 5 crore within three years, I am confident it will cross Rs 10 crore in the next three.

This was my second Nabakalebar. I was 13 in 1996 when I took part in the first Nabakalebar. Back then, however, I was not part of banajaga yatra to search for the sacred logs for making the new idols of the deities. But, I had entered the Sri Jagannath temple to see the idol-making process and other related matters. That is called aanta banajaga.

First, I am a sevayat of Lord Jagannath, then a businessman. Being the sevayat of the Lord is a different feeling. We learn the seva and are trained in it since we are only 21 days old.

At that age, we are inducted as members of the Jagannath family. In the process, we learn it step by step. There is no regular teaching and no books are required.

When I saw the rath yatra this year, I wondered how the age-old tradition has continued for the last 1,000 years without any major deviations. No government could have imagined this. Even the slightest difference on the part of the carpenters in the making the idols would have an impact on the tradition.

With any major deviation in the shape and size of the deities there may be problems in the idols entering or coming out of the temple during the car festival. When the banajaga yatra had kicked off on March 29, I had never thought that I would cover a distance of 60km from Puri to Kakatpur. After walking 12km, my feet were sore. Even then I managed to reach Kakatpur and the feeling at Deuli Mutt was beyond imagination. I felt overwhelmed by the experience inside the Maa Mangala temple.

No one will believe, but a garland had fallen from the idol of the presiding deity Maa Mangala's neck in front of everyone when we were praying to seek her guidance for the sacred logs. The Lord is the Jinata Thakura, the living deity. Man is only his instrument. But what has pained us is the unnecessary controversy surrounding the Brahma paribartan. The process was delayed by a few hours, but the Brahma was replaced properly. No one could have dared tamper with it. It is beyond mere mortals.