On the New Year eve, not the day, half a million devotees entered the world-famous JagannthTemplein Purionly to have a glimpse of the divine deities.This fact made headlines across the mainstream as well as social media as if some planet had come crashing down.
Lately, the JagannathTemple affairs have remained in big focus for the much-awaited, though overhyped, temple corridor would be inaugurated on January 17 this year. However, the many extra miles taken by the State administration to publicise the event is rather jarring as the doses of self-praise have exceeded acceptable limits. The corridor around the temple is indeed a great endeavour in easing the crowd pressure exerted increasingly on the temple and local administration, but it is not the most critical thing to have been achieved to keep countless devotes at peace. The Purideities are worshipped in a manner that is vastly different from any other across the Hindu world. It is not just possible to keep a queue moving continuously as inevitable rituals force doors to close intermittently. That specific issue has not been resolved at all. The local administration, like anywhere else including Ballaji, Vaishnodevi or Siridi temples one fine morning enforced a crazy queue system only to go haywire itself. Besides, the physical surrounding too changes during the Car Festival; and therefore, any special construction to keep crowds under control or in comfort has to be dismantled to be assembled yet again. The only way out is to somehow keep the uncontrollably impatient crowds of devotees otherwise engaged so as to make them experience less suffering. The temple corridor called ‘ParikramaMarg' may be one of the things to keep devotees in good humour during waiting periods on the way in queue. The corridor essentially is a secular structure which does not have much to do with the orthodox Hindus only. Anyone from any faith can enjoy the ParikramaMarg detour.
Shockingly, for the majority of orthodox Hindus, the administration seems to have recognised the first day of January as the beginning of a new year and that too at 12 am when it is dead midnight.For several years on end in the recent times, the JagannathTemple administration has been organising devotee entry into the temple around the Gregorian New Year commencement at 12 am. On one hand, the temple administration, because of its strict adherence to nonnegotiable rituals, has not been lax on keeping the door of the sanctum sanctorum open at all times. It has compromised on rules to recognise merrily the Gregorian New Year celebration at midnight despite the fact that the Lords’ day begins strictly at sunrise only.
So, of late, they force the deities to wake up around midnight and stay fit to please the devotees when their eye lids would be dropping like crazy. Not only the deities but also hundreds of thousands of gullible mortals brave the chilly winter nights to have a glimpse of the Lords at the make-believe New Year commencement. Some of the dumb, greedy servitors without any knowledge of the strict rituals too side with the stupid administrators to keep the deities awake when actually they should be snoring or purring in the warmth of the bed.
So, as they proudly display on the entrance of the JagannathTemple “Orthodox Hindus only are allowed in”, the Gregorian calendar-based activities or rituals are necessarily sacrilegious. A majority of Christians eat beef much against what the so-called orthodox Hindus would ever practise.It is utterly surprising that no one seems to care about the Western world Christian New Year based on the Gregorian calendar which is a solar dating system used by most of the world today. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who issued the papal bull Inter Gravissimas in 1582, announcing calendar reforms for all of Catholic Christendom. This calendar, like the Julian calendar, is a solar calendar with 12 months of 28-31 days each. The year in both calendars consists of 365 days with a leap day being added to February in the years the number of which is divisible by 4. The months and length of months in the Gregorian calendar are the same as for the Julian calendar.
All said and done, the ParikramaMarg is a great achievement on multiple fronts. It does ensure comfortable temple entry and exit of the devotees; satisfies souls of non-Hindu devotees in a way and most importantly the structure beautifies the 12th-century temple surroundingbeyond belief. Much effort has gone into bringing it in place, which is highly praiseworthy. But at the same time, anyone posing to have got it done all by himself or themselves would be looked upon as grossly ordinary, arrogant fellows only because not a rupee from their personal wallets has been used in the project. As administrators or members of the executive, they have takenstrong decisions to get tough things done only to be admired by the people.
The structure is bang ready for being dedicated to the people. But the way they are wasting public money is unforgivable. Instead of using technology to invite guests from all over, several teams have been dispatched to reach physically distant locations to persuade luminaries in all walks of life to come and be present at the typical opening with strict Hindu rituals which is grossly out of place as the circumambulation corridor is only a secular thing, not a typically Hindu affair. It is more for tourists than for devotees. The insane temple administration has gone crazy so badly as to invite core members of the temple management. The Shankaracharya is an integral part of the temple affairs particularly when impasses occur on religious fronts. Laughably, they have also been mindless in inviting another principal host like the Chief Minister of Odisha to grace the occasion as if a wedding or birthday party is to be held and the CM is an outsider. Incidentally, the JagannathTemple is a government-managed shrine directly under the Law Department of the State, which is obviously under the Chief Minister, the head of the executive. So, inviting such home figures is plain ridiculous. It is like childreninviting parents to their weddings.
