By Himanshu Guru: ‘Baishno Mela’, a devotional carnival, was the special attraction in Puri when the city is going to witness a huge number of tourists during Christmas and New Year. The carnival was organised by Jay Mata Di Baishno Trust in Puri.
The carnival began on December 14 and remained till the next day. About one thousand devotees from different states had taken part in this divine celebration. It is all about the worship of Baishno Devi and Lord Jagannath.
Dr. Satya Narayan Pandey narrated about the nine forms of devotion, described as ‘Navdha Bhakti’ in Hindu mythology in his speech and revealed some rare facts about Lord Jagannath. He also criticized the secret ritual of animal sacrifice in ‘Shree Mandir’, the world famous temple of Lord Jagannath in Puri. He expressed his astonishment that how come a ritual of sacrificing animal is practiced in this Baishnav temple. He further revealed that the same is not an ancient ritual, but was only initiated merely five hundred years back, but now it is time for amendment of this practice.
On the second day, Pandit Suryanarayan Rathasharma, an eminent and gifted devotee of Jagannath was honored who also narrated interesting facts about Lord Jagannath and Shree Kshetra in his speech. Rathasharma is a renowned orator and his voice is known to all as he provides live speech during Rathyatra in Puri since last several years.
Apart from the speeches, the celebration also witnessed other events such as Odissi dance, Gotipua dance, recitation of hymns from the Veda, concert of devotional songs, Maha-Arati and Maha Prasad Laagi, on the eve of the religious gala.
Among the devotees, Daitapati Krupasindhu Das Mahapatra, Jagannath bhai from Puri, Ajit Gupta, Gopi Shaw from Kolkata, Pradeep Pandey, Dr. N.K. Mahapatra from Samabalpur, Ajit Patra from Bhubaneswar, Debabrata Pani from Baripada, Deepak Agrawal from Raipur, Ashis Mehta from Ludhiana took part in the massive observation among others that. The programme started early in the morning and continued till late night on both the days at the Golden Palace premises in V.I.P. road Puri.