45. The History of Jagannath Worship

The History of Jagannath Worship:

Ancient scriptures state that Jagannath worship has been going on eternally. The Rg Veda mentions it and the Puranas (Skanda, Brahma, Narada) present elaborate descriptions of Sri Kshetra dhama. The Ramayana and Mahabharata refer to the deity of Jagannatha deva. During the last 2000 years of continuous worship, the cult of Jagannath has assimilated the practices and philosophies of many religious faiths. Consequently, the cult of Jagannath worship symbolizes the unity in diversity of all the major religious cults of India, including tree and totem pole worship (the Sabara cult); Jainism; Buddhism; the cults of Purushottama, Vasudeva, Madhava, Rama and Lakshmi Nrsimha; and Panca Upasana worship (five-fold Hinduism) as Vaishnavism (Vishnu worship), Saivism (Siva worship), Saktism (Durga worship), Ganapatya cult (Ganesha worship) and Saurism (Suryadeva worship). 

Jagannath represents an integration of all the important Hindu cultures that had flourished in India, including the Vedic, Puranic, Tantric, Smarta, Vaishnava, Jainism, Buddhism and the aboriginal tribes. Jagannath is worshiped as Vishnu or Narayana when He sits on the simhasana in the sanctum sanctorum; as Ganesa during Snana Yatra; as Rudra during the Nava Kalevara ceremony; as Durga in the Sayana festival and as the Sun when riding on the chariot during Ratha-yatra. 

Apart from this, pilgrims worship Jagannatha according to their religious persuasion. Ramanuja Vaishnavas worship Jagannath as Narayana, Nrsimha, Hari; Ramanandi Vaishnavas adore Him as Rama; Gaudiya Vaishnavas worship Jagannath as Krsna; and Oriyan Vaishnavas see Jagannath as the combined form of Radha-Krsna. Hence, Lord Jagannath represents an assimilation of all the religious cults, creeds and sectarian philosophies under the broadest sense of the term Hinduism. 

It appears that people worship Lord Jagannath according to their own realization. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers, however, see and worship Sri Jagannatha deva as identical with Bhagavan Sri Krsna, the original, Supreme Personality of Godhead. 

The Gaudiya Vaishnava view is supported by the fact that Jagannatha Swami's pujaris use two kį¹›į¹£į¹‡a-mantras in their daily worship of Lord Jagannatha: gopijana vallabhaya svaha and klim krsnaya govindaya gopijana vallabhaya svaha. Sri Baladevji is worshiped as the son of Vasudeva with the mantra om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Subhadra is worshiped with the bija-mantra Hrim. Incidentally, the Oriyan Vaishnavas pronounce Krsna as Krusna.

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