Bhubaneswar, June 29: The holy city of Puri witnessed an overwhelming display of devotion on Monday as thousands of devotees gathered along the Grand Road (Bada Danda) to witness the sacred Snana Yatra of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra at the Shree Jagannath Temple. The annual ritual, observed on the auspicious occasion of Devasnana Purnima, marks one of the most significant events in the Jagannath temple calendar ahead of the world-famous Rath Yatra.
Among the prominent dignitaries present were Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan and Puri MP Sambit Patra, who joined thousands of devotees in offering prayers and seeking the blessings of the sibling deities.
Expressing his spiritual experience, Chief Minister Majhi shared on X that he felt immensely blessed to witness the divine darshan of the Chaturdhamurti at the Snana Bedi. He prayed that Lord Jagannath’s boundless grace would bring peace, prosperity, happiness and progress to every individual.
Earlier in the day, the deities were ceremonially brought from the sanctum sanctorum to the Snana Mandap in the traditional Pahandi Bije procession following the Mangal Arati. The Daitapati servitors adorned the deities with Senapatta, a protective body armour crafted from sacred Baula wood, before the commencement of the rituals.
The deities were then ritually bathed with 108 pitchers of scented herbal water drawn from the sacred Suna Kuan inside the temple premises. Several elaborate Vedic rituals accompanied the ceremonial bathing, making the occasion spiritually significant for devotees.
Snana Yatra heralds the beginning of the annual Rath Yatra festivities and attracts devotees from across Odisha and different parts of the country, reaffirming Puri’s status as one of India’s most revered pilgrimage destinations.
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