Delay in the sacred Bramha Paribartan rituals at Srimandir in Puri was caused mainly by the apathy and heedless attitude of the servitors who have brought the state a bad name, say women devotees. Rashmi Rekha Das met a few and here below are their comments
Delay in Bramha Paribartan, a key ritual of Nabakalebara (transfer of soul from old idols to new ones) by Srimandir servitors has hurt religious sentiments of people in general and women devotees of the Lord in particular who believe that what happened on the ritual night inside Jagannath temple is a reflection of the lackadaisical attitude and irresponsibility of the servitors and the temple administration should bring detractors to book.
The idols of the four deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Sudarshan in the 12th century temple in Puri were scheduled to be replaced June 16 with new ones after 19 years. The transition of souls, scheduled to be completed in the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday, was inordinately delayed and could only be accomplished Tuesday afternoon because of internal bickering among the servitors.
The priests’ proclamations to leave no stone unturned for the smooth conduct of the extravaganza was nothing but hogwash, say hurt devotees to Orissa POST who are demanding that the real culprits behind the fiasco be identified and punished.
Bishnupriya Das, an ardent devotee and homemaker from Bhadrak, says, “I came to know from newspaper reports that a few priests had barged into the shrine complex and clashed with each other, insisting to witness the Brahma Paribartan. There are also reports of some of them carrying mobile phones and taking pictures. The ritual was scheduled to be completed early morning Tuesday. Had the priests not created an unpleasant mess, the secret and holy affair would have been over by the dawn as it was meant to.”
“Puri temple servitors have become so unruly that they have the habit of misbehaving with devotees. This time they have crossed all levels of decency. Instead of four Badagrahis, a few other servitors wanted to see the Nabakalebara rituals. This is really disgraceful,” adds Bishnupriya.
Manorama Samantaray of Bhubaneswar holds both the state government and the servitors responsible for the irregularities. “The government should have control over rowdy servitors. It was the government’s responsibility to oversee the preparations ahead of Nabakalebara. The secret ceremony, which was scheduled to be held Monday night and completed before dawn (June 16), was performed Tuesday afternoon leading to a statewide uproar. Blaming servitors only for the delay in rituals is not wise. Had the state government come up with measures to check the activities of unruly servitors, the latter would not have dared to create an unpleasant atmosphere during the holy the ritual. Thus, what happened is a reflection of irresponsibility of both the government and the servitors,” she says.
Rajalaxmi Devi from Balugaon says the servitors played with the sentiments of devotees. “Since the ritual is conducted in a most secret manner by some selective daitapatis (servitors), the temple administration has no control over the affair. The senior-most daitapatis have been entrusted the job of monitoring the rituals. Thus, those servitors who were assigned the job are solely responsible for the unsavoury incident inside the shrine, leading to considerable delay in Brahma Paribartan. This proved that the servitors do not have respect and devotion for the Lord whom they serve. They are responsible for the delay and should be taught a lesson,” she says.
Mataji Behera from Jajpur says the Nabakalebara festival in 1996 went on smoothly but this time the daitapatis failed to live up to the expectations of common people in conducting the event successfully. “It is not wise to blame the temple administration or the state government for the delay. The government has provided adequate funds and infrastructure for the extravaganza. But the daitapatis, who were assigned the task, failed to perform the sacred and secret rituals successfully. Jagannath dham, which was once a popular spot on the world tourism map for its serene atmosphere, has earned a bad reputation among tourists and devotees thanks to the mismanagement of the servitors. Infighting among servitors has not only delayed the rituals but also brought a bad name to our state,” says Mataji.