How Rajapur Jagannath Came To ISKCON by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja.

According to the Navadit Mahatma and according to the eternal associates of Lord Caitanya like Narahari Chakravarti Thakur. In the previous thousands of years ago, Lord Jagannath was being disturbed by a demon called Rakta Bahu. And due to that disturbance, he decided to visit Navadib Dam. Actually, he arranged that he wanted to come to Navadib. So he had to have an excuse. So he had this demon come at that time. And his servants, their mood is to protect Jagannath. They took him up to Navadim. There he could enjoy meditating on his incarnation as Lord Caitanya for some time. After some time, some devotee went and annihilated that Rakta Bahu demon. And again he returned to Jagannath Puri. This is the historical fact. About 500 years ago, during the past times of Lord Caitanya, one very great and humble devotee known as Yogesh Ganguly. He was feeling great separation from from Lord Caitanya because he was blind. No one would take him when they went every year to Jagannath Puri. And he was thinking, how will I ever worship Jagannath? So he begged people, please take me. Please take me to Jagannath Puri. So they agreed. Yes, yes, we will take you. But in the end, no one would take him. Because the mode of transportation was walking. And who would walk so far with a blind man over the difficult paths, etc. So many river crossings. So he was crying and crying. No one would take him. He was crying, lamenting. When he went to sleep, Lord Jagannath came in his dream and said, all right, I will Benedict you. You may worship me in the morning. Go to the Ganges and bathe there. I will come to you in the form of a very large log. You take this log to a particular leper carpenter and he will carve my form. And you establish me and worship me. And thus I will remain with you always. So very excited. When the blind Brahmin awoke, he prepared and went to the Ganges and bathed. And wonderfully enough, the Lord words came true. A very large log touched against his body. He called the villagers. They came down, lifted up the log onto the shore. And according to his direction, they took it to this leper carpenter. So they requested the leper that you please carve Jagannath deities. The leper says, me, carved Jagannath. I'm a leper. Look at my hands. I have had only stubs. There's a pus and the maggots from the flies are crawling in the stubs of my hand. And the black blood is oozing out. How can I carve a Jagannath? My disease and pause will go on his murti. This I cannot do. So they said, no. Jagannath has ordered. You must do. Never mind. His order takes precedence over these considerations. You must do this. This is the order of Jagannath. So that leper carpenter finally accepted. And he started to carve by hand chisel. And he carved out murti. Jagannath Subhadra Balaram. As he is finishing the Jagannath, the last murti while he's carving is so difficult. He's hitting. Hitting the hands is so sore first it squirts out. And he feels such pain. He has to set down his implement again, rest, wait again a few more hits. So painful, so sore, very tender. Finally, he completes the Jagannath set of deities. As he completes, he becomes completely cured of his leprosy. So these deities were taken and installed and they were worshipped for hundreds of years. This Jagannath is very particular about his devotee worshipping him with the proper care and attention. So these devotees gradually started to water down the puja. First there were six offerings, then there was four. Then it was three, two, one. Once a year, then one year they forgot Jagannatha whole family was completely wiped out by smallpox. The original love and devotion of Yogesh Ganguly who had long ago gone back to godhead that had gradually been not maintained by the descendants due to their material distraction. So Jagannath was simply sitting there alone for a long time. Gradually he became covered over by huge mound of white ants. About 80 years ago, a Brahmin called Chakravarti had another dream that there was a Jagannath muti within a white ant hill. So he went there. Any dog, any dog, to find any in the very middle. White ants are known also as termites. And Jagannath is carved of wood. And termites eat wood. In fact, termites in India are so ferocious, they eat anything organic. In fact, in Bhubaneswar, they put concrete down underneath the wooden almiras for keeping clothes. And the termites eat through the concrete and go into the wood. They're so ferocious. But somehow Jagannath, although he was within the middle of this termite hill, he was unscathed. He was as new as could be. So for 80 years, the grandfather, son and then finally the grandson they were worshiping three generations. The grandson 87 years old. He was the one who requested us to take over the puja. That he felt that ISKCON was the only organization in Mayapur and in Bengal who had the devotion and the capacity to properly worship Jagannath. So when I asked Rameshwar Swami what he thought his divine grace told me, the Prabhupada told him that eventually we'll be required to take responsibility for all these temples. So we should take this also as our duty. And all the devotees from around the world that were present at the festival, they all contributed a little something. About 5000 rupees was raised spontaneously from the different devotees. And we began the process of getting the land transferred. And that money was kept for the initial work on the Jagannath Mandir. Other money was also allotted from different trusts. So it was much more complicated than we thought. There were 47 shareholders because in those three generations they had many children. And they had children and they had children. And it had become 43 members or 47 members in that 80 years. And some members, their share was 4 inches. But they were refusing to sign that. Well, this is our birthright, so many things. So we were feeling that there's some difficulty. Actually, Nitai Chandas, he worked very hard on this. So I gave an instruction. Till they sign over, don't start worshiping Jagannath. Because once you start worshiping, then they'll think that we're obligated. Because once you begin worshiping deity, how can you stop? Your relationship is already there. So don't start to worship until they give us the land. Otherwise there may be some complication. They may not give it. In the end, it will be in a limbo state. So I told this to my regional secretary who delayed about three days to tell it to the Pujari who went ahead and he went over and he offered big plates of Radha Madhav bhoga. The same boga is offered to Radha Madhav three times every day to Jagannath. After three days, the regional secretary finally got around to telling him. And so he felt guilty, never admitted that he had already began giving the prasad, the food bhoga to the Lord. So he just stopped for another three days. I was out at the time. So what happened was after three days, this Pujari, when he was sleeping, he saw a dream where he went to the Jagannath Mandir, opened the door, said, no Jagannath, no Jagannath, no Subaja, no Balaram. Where did they go? He looked everywhere, he couldn't find him. Finally looked across the field and there he saw Jagannath. Subhad Ivaram walking over the field saying, we're going to take Prashad with Radha Mata. For three days you haven't fed us. So when the Pujari woke up, he was very immediately prepared. The Boga took it over. Offered so by Jagannath's mercy. Finally everyone signed and we began to. We prepared new clothes for Jagannath and we made nice arrangement and started to design how we would improve. And actually Jagannath is loved by all the people.