28. The Identity of Daru Brahma Jagannath

The Identity of Daru Brahma Jagannath:

The name Daru Brahma means that God, the Absolute Truth, Brahman, has appeared in a Deity made of wood (daru).

This is confirmed in the Padma Purana:

samudrasyottare tire, 

aste śri-purusottame 

purnananda-mayam brahma, 

daru-vyaja-sarira-bhrt

"At Sri Purusottama (Jagannatha Puri), on the northern shore of the ocean, resides the Supreme Absolute Truth. Full of ecstatic bliss. He has assumed a transcendental body that appears wooden."

Jagannatha Swami is called daru-brahma because He is the Absolute Truth in wood (daru), and because He destroys (daranát) the miseries of material existence.

The word daru has 3 parts. The syllable "da" is a combination of da and do. Da means to give endless bliss, ananda. "Do" means to cut away illusion, material attachments, suffering and the various miseries eclipsing the pure soul. "Ru" means to revert to one's original nature.

In conclusion, Daru Brahman means the Deity form of God, the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman. It means the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, who cuts away all sufferings and miserable material attachments, and then awards one an eternal life of endless bliss in the spiritual world; He is Lord Jagannatha or Daru Brahman.

In the age of Kali, Bhagavan Sri Krsna appears in two special forms, Daru Brahma Jagannatha and the Ganga River, to liberate conditioned souls from the cycle of birth and death. Once in Puri, Gauranga confirmed this point while instructing Sarvabhauma Bhattacayra and Vidya Vacaspati:

daru jala rupe krsna,

prakata samprati

darasana snane' kare,

jivera mukati 

daru-brahma-rupe-saksat, 

śri-purusottama

bhagirathi hana saksat,

jala-brahma-sama

Mahaprabhu said, "In this Age of Kali, Krsna is manifest in two forms - wood and water. Thus, by seeing the wooden form [Jagannatha] and bathing in the water [Ganga], conditioned souls become liberated. Lord Jagannatha is directly the Supreme Lord Himself in the form of wood, and the river Ganga is directly the Supreme Lord Himself in the form of water. (Cc. 2.15.134-135)

There is another reason why the deities for Kali-yuga have appeared in wood. The murtis of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra are carved from Neem wood (margosa). Brahmins say that neem wood deities can be worshiped by all the four varnas (not just born brahmins), and bestow the fourfold benefits of life.

"Maha-purusa-vidya" is a little known Sanskrit book glorifying Purushottam Kshetra, Jagannath Puri. 

Maha-purusa-vidya stresses Jagannath as the deity for this age, and gives an interesting definition of the word daru, "wood".

The famous scholar on the subject of Lord Jagannath G. K. Tripathi comments on this definition: A 20

The shape of Jagannath is the primeval shape of Vishnu out of which His various incarnations proceed, and His body consists of daru because in this form the deity 'cleaves asunder' (dar) the miseries of the world and 'imparts' (ruh, from the Sanskrit root ra, to give) eternal bliss. It further asserts that though the stone statues might be effective in granting wishes, etc., in the first half of the day of Brahma, in the current second half of the day (i.e., in this Sveta-varaha-kalpa) it is the image of daru (wood) which really fulfils the desires of the devotees and makes them jivan-mukta (3.140-143).

The Maha-purusa-vidya (3.147, 6.6) states:

daranāt sarva-duḥkhānām 

akhandananda-dänatah 

padmajaham sada

däruḥ samśayo nästi cătra vai

"Because of breaking apart all miseries and because of imparting uninterrupted bliss, I am always called däru, O lotus-born one. There is no doubt in this regard."

darayaty eva duḥkhäni 

dadaty anandam avyayam

tasmát svabhavato

darur ena vedenu niscitam

"He breaks apart miseries and imparts everlasting bliss. Thus, being of such a nature, He is called daru in the Vedas."