Episode 36 – Juggernaut

In this episode we’ll explore the story behind the Rath Yatra, which is this Tuesday.

We’ll learn why you should keep your curiosity in check especially if you’ve got an excellent artist working for you.

We’ll also learn that it’s possible for a drifting log of wood to float all the way from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal

Let’s dive in

A sad beginning

Our story begins on a dark day very far from Puri. In Dwarika, in the state of Gujrat, which is almost on the opposite side of India, Lord Krishna, had passed away. He’d accomplished a lot in his life, as we’ll discover when we get to the Mahabharat episodes. Krishna’s death though sad was one he’d himself predicted.

He’d left some very specific instructions for Balaram his elder brother. And those instructions included surgery!

While Krishna was cremated, Balram kept the heart. Following his brother’s wishes he bound Krishna’s heart to a log of wood and set it adrift in the Arabian Sea. It took a few tries to get this right, as you can imagine. 

Instead of studying the intricate details of Ocean currents to understand how a log could end in the sea on the other side of India, let us simply skip forward a few millennia. The heart was still bound to the log! Balaram had done a very effective job!

But what state was it in? Did thousands of years of saltwater exposure wear it away? Did the sharks and other fish try to nibble at it? Were there barnacles on it?

Or was it perfectly preserved like the beating heart of Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?

The answer is that it was none of these.

We’re talking about a divine heart here, not an ordinary one. The heart had become a brilliant blue colored stone.

After effectively following many different ocean currents and sailing the world, the log and the heart finally landed on a beach in Odisha, near Puri.

It was not a crowded beach. In fact there was no one else there.

The Terrible, Horrible No-Good, Very Bad Day…

Soon a group of people arrived at the beach. They were tourists from a nearby village. And they’d been having the most awful day!

They’d left their village excited for a day of fun! They wanted to go sightseeing in town, eat some dinner watch a stage show. But this was not to be – they’d expected sunny weather, and had picked an open-top bullock cart. But the moment they began their journey, there was a sudden thunderstorm that left them soaking wet. What’s more a wheel come off of the cart and they had to work to get the spare wheel fitted on in the heavy rain. The spare wheel was the wrong size resulting in a very wobbly ride.
They’d forgotten to bring along their packed lunch, so they hadn’t had a bite to eat.
A little girl in the group suggested they take a detour to the beach nearby. They couldn’t shelter from the rain, but maybe there were coconut trees. At least they might be able to eat and drink.

There were coconut trees, but the rain had made it all slippery and they couldn’t reach any of them. Could the day get any worse? As it turned out, no, it was only going to get better.

Someone in the group noticed a huge log of wood on the beach and a strange blue stone attached to it. They went closer and the chief picked up the stone. Yeah, all those thousands of years the stone and the log were bound tightly but the chief was able to just effortlessly pick the stone off of the log.

…turns into an Excellent, Wonderful, Terrific Very Good Day

The moment he did, there was a miraculous change! The rain stopped suddenly and the sun was out and a beautiful rainbow. Birds were singing, dolphins were jumping out of the water as if celebrating something.

The coconut trees bent and swayed and a few of the ripest coconuts broke off and gently rolled to a stop near the tourists’ feet.

A man appeared out of nowhere pulling an ice cooler and explained that the cooler had broken and rather than waste all the ice cream inside, would they kindly help him by eating all of it? He didn’t want it to go to waste.

Well that settled it. This stone was divine! And they would worship it.

They would also keep it in a secret location. Anyone who knew the power of the stone was certainly going to try to take it away.

Their King would want it for himself.

Despite their best precautions however, the King did hear about it, through the cart drivers’ network. 

The King immediately sent down a spy to find out where the stone was.

Betrayed!

This may remind you of Episode 27 – The Rise of Shukra. Kach was there as a spy to learn the secret of the Sanjeevani mantra from Shukracharya.

Much like Kach, the spy romanced the village chief’s daughter, but unlike Kach he married her.

The spy persuaded his new father in law to let him pay respects to this stone that everyone in the village except for himself knew about.

The chief was hesitant because his son-in-law was an outsider. True he’d had a background check and those official-looking government documents looked real – but that didn’t mean a thing if the boy was a government spy.

He finally agreed to take his son-in-law to the stone, but on condition that he come along blindfolded. Blindfolding was not a spyproof solution. In fact, the first thing that taught in the King’s Spy School was how to work around this. Even the little boy in the Hansel and Gretel fairytale knew how to deal with that.
The spy grabbed a handful of mustard seeds and on his journey to the stone, scattered them along the route. Mustard seeds are very tiny and hardly noticeable. The chief did not suspect anything. They paid respects to the stone and went back home.

The Mustard Trail

All was well until about a month later. Because that is about the time it takes for mustard seeds to sprout, grow and flower.

The spy had no hesitation in betraying his wife and her father. He led the King and the King’s army along the trail of the bright new yellow mustard flowers.

Luckily for him, the path to the stone did not pass through a mustard field.

The King was amazed by the brilliance of the stone. When he reached out his hand to grab it however, there was a sudden puff of smoke. The idol vanished and was not seen again.

The King had his soldiers secure a perimeter and search the area. But there was no sign of the stone and no person behind any curtain who’d pulled off such a trick.

The King was disappointed. He had no choice but to go back. 

Another trip to the Beach

That night, he had a dream! Krishna spoke to him in the dream, explaining what the stone was. He also asked the King to go to a specific place on the beach, the same one where the stone had been found.

The next day, armed with suntan lotion and a beach umbrella the King went to the beach. As he looked at the huge log of wood, he understood why Krishna had asked him to visit.

This was the log that the heart had sailed on all the way from Dwarika.

If the King wasn’t going to have the stone, he would have the log!

He built a big temple around the log, and this is known to us today as the Jagannath temple in Puri.

But a temple to worship just a log of wood left the first few visitors a little bit puzzled. They weren’t sure whom they were praying to.

Carpenter to the Rescue

The King was deep in thought trying to decide the next steps here, when a carpenter showed up at his doorstep.

The carpenter who was a very old looking fellow volunteered to carve the log into idols. He came with the best of references and his website had great testimonials. The King picked him on the spot.
The carpenter just had one minor request, a mere nothing you might say. All he wanted was to be left alone with the log for 21 days. The King agreed without thinking too much about it.

The carpenter worked in a locked studio and the King had no way of monitoring progress. Strangely, the carpenter was also not receiving any food or water in his studio.

On the 15th day, the King could hold back his curiosity no longer. He could barge in and say that he was just worried about the carpenter’s health, at his age not eating or drinking anything for 2 weeks, how was he managing?

The King did that – but the moment he did, the Carpenter vanished into thin air. Much like the stone had done. There were actually 4 idols in progress.

That’s why the idols even today look unfinished. They have no arms or legs. The shape isn’t symmetric either.

The wooden idols had progressed enough that it was easy to see they represented Krishna, Balaram, and Subhadra.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Ocean currents show that it’s not easy for something to drift from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. It can take centuries of drift across a very complicated path for this to happen. 

This Rath Yatra or Chariot Procession happens annually in Puri in the state of Odisha as well as in Gujrat. It’s said to be the largest chariot procession in the world. Except that this year, it will not happen. The number of people who gather for this Yatra is enormous and if you see the below pictures, you’ll understand why its such a logistical challenge to do this in the age of COVID.
Procession
The Chariots used

A king sweeps the path of the chariot with a golden broom. A largely symbolic move to illustrate the gap between being a God and being a mere King.

This is also a unique celebration in that the idols leave the temple for a while.

There are 4 idols carved out of the Log – 3 of them are the siblings – Krishna, Balaram, and Subhadra, but the fourth one is Krishna special slicing wheel weapon, called the Sudarshan Chakra

The colors of the log idols are different as well – with the black one representing Krishna, the white one is Balaram and the yellow one is Subhadra.

The word Juggernaut originated from this Rath Yatra, as it begins from the Jagannath Temple.

We’ve previously met Subhadra as the character of the week in Episode 6 – Fish Highwayman

That’s all for this week. 

Next Mini-Episode

The Character of the Week next time is a cousin of Krishna from the Mahabharat who was born with three eyes and four hands! He also had a hundred get-out-of-jail-free cards, and yet he used up all of them.

I’ll see you next week!