Snana Yatra celebration is to remind us that Lord Jagannath wants us to deal with him personally

Lord Jagannath who is Krishna wants us to deal with him personally, this is why he appears in this world and performs so many pastimes. Snana Yatra celebration is one such festival – the festival of loving reciprocation between the Lord and his devotees.

Today Lord Jagannath is going to be bathed with many pots of sacred water in Jagannath Puri and also at all the places where Lord Jagannath is worshipped. Jagannath is Krishna or Krishna is Jagannath. He is the Lord of the universe. So, how can he become sick? If you and I become sick, then it is understandable because we have material bodies which continues to decay daily. Our physical body is fragile and prone to many diseases.

But the Lord’s body is not physical. But still, he gets sick. Just like Lord does not require food for survival but still he gets hungry and becomes angry when there is some delay in giving him food.

If we see all the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavana or in Dwarka we will see that there is continuous exchange of love between Krishna and his devotees. Whether Krishna is playing with his cowherd friends, taking cows for grazing to Govardhan, stealing butter from the house of the gopis, breaking the pot containing butter, dancing with the gopis – all these pastimes are celebration of reciprocation of love between the Lord and his devotees.

Krishna with his devotees enjoy each other’s company. And when they all are together, there is song, dance, drama, games, pulling each other’s leg, teasing each other, laughter, anger, joy and delicious food. Every moment is a moment of celebration.

Krishna is personal and he wants personal relationship with us too. So, he comes to this world to teach us how to develop personal relationship with him.

Jagannath needs personal attention & care

Jagannath, the Supreme Lord, does not feel hot or cold but still he needs a bath with cold water during the summer time, just like we need to bath with cool water during this period. So, we have Snana Yatra for Jagannath.

Since he is bathed with many pots of water, so he gets sick, he develops fever. Why? Because he gives us an opportunity to personally take his care. So, for 15 days he remains in a separate room, we can say sick room, and devotees give him medicinal herbs and healthy food.

Since he is sick, so he is not healthy enough to give darshan to his devotees.

How much separation we feel from Jagannath?

So, for 15 days devotees won’t see the Lord on the altar. This is the time to check our heart that during this period whether we are feeling separation from the Lord or not. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, used to visit temple daily to take darshan of Lord Jagannath when he was in Puri.

During this period when he was not able to see the Lord then he would develop deep separation from Jagannath. He could not bear the separation and would leave Puri and go to Alarnatha.

We feel separation from someone whom we love. So, we have to check our heart if we will be missing the Lord for these 15 days or not. And also, how much eagerly we are waiting to see the Lord on the altar.

It is the period to check how much love we have for the Lord.

Lord wants personal attention, so let us introspect whether we are giving personal attention to him or not.

We eat food and Lord also wants us to give him food. So, whatever we are eating are we first offering to Lord with love before eating it? Are we nicely taking care of Lord daily by cleaning him and his altar daily, performing arati daily, doing kirtan for him daily.

If not, then let us do it because this is what Jagannath wants that we should deal with him personally. By doing so we will gradually develop love for the Lord.

And that should be the purpose of our life – to fill our heart with love of Lord.

Three Reflections