Thousands of devotees welcome Lord Jaggannath

Aurangabad, July 1:

Thousands of devotees pulled the chariot of Lord Jaggannath on the occasion of Jaggannath Rathyatra on Friday.

The Odhisha Samaj organise the Rath Yatra every year in the city. Devotees enthusiastically participated in the Yatra and changed Hare Krishana Hare Rama. They pulled the chariot of Lord Jaggannatha.

Earlier before the yatra at 4 pm, various religious rituals were done including the bath of the Lord, Pujan and Aarti. Later the yatra began from the temple at N-7, Cidco to Jain Chowk. Lord Jaggannath, Subhadra and Bhagwan Balram were mounted on the chariot after swinging them in a cradle.

Kapil Dakva, Ashish Mishra, Shrikant, Anil Pradhan, Acharya Govind Padhi, Narendra Sahu and others were present.

On behalf of International Society of Krishna Conscientiousness (ISKCON) around 15 to 20 devotees participated in the Yatra and they danced to the tune of chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Rama. The entire atmosphere was turned devotional. Vir Mohan Prabhu, Raj Gopal Prabhu, Raghupati Prabhu, Brij Mohan Prabhu and others were present.

The musicians and singers were invited from Odhisha and they conducted various traditional rituals and sung Bhajans. Their team including Laxmidhar, Sudarshan Mahapatra, Vardan Mahanti, Anil Pareda, Dassarthi Guru, Sandeep Mahapatra and others led the Rathyatra. They enthusiastically danced to the tune of Dholak, Manjira, Mrudamgam and other musical instruments.

It is believed that Lord Jaggannath goes to the house of his aunt, which is established at Gundecha Bhavan (N-7, Ayodhyanagar). He will stay here for eight days here where Bhajans and other rituals will be organised every day.