10 Amazing Facts About Puri Jagannath Temple

Jagannath temple is one of the famous temples that is visited by millions of devotees all around the world. Throughout the year, one can easily see a huge amount of crowd visiting the small state of East India, Odisha, just to get a small glimpse of the Lord Jagannath and be a part of the famous annual Ratha Yatra. Jagannath temple (Shrimandira) at Puri is one of the four ‘Dhams’and it was built in the year 1078.

You will be shocked to know that there are a few amazing facts related to this temple that don’t have any logical explanation for it.

Here are the 10 strange and amazing facts about the Puri Jagannath temple :

1. The flag that you see on top of the temple always flaps in the direction opposite to the direction of the airflow. This is something very unusual and till now there is no theory that can explain this fact.

2. There is a Sudharshan Chakra on top of the temple. The strange thing associated with this Chakra is that it is visible from any part of the city of Puri and surprisingly it always seeming to face the viewer.

3. During the daytime, breeze generally flows from sea to land and in the evening the direction of the breeze is vice-versa. In Puri this seems to be in the opposite direction that what normally it should be.

4. There is one more very unusual fact related to the Jagannath Temple. No planes are seen to be flying above the temple. Not only planes, even birds do not seem to fly above the temple.

5. One cannot see the shadow of the main dome of the Jagannath temple at any time during the day. It may be the architecture of the temple that doesn’t allow the shadow of the main dome to fall on the ground or it’s a blessing of the Lords itself.

6. There is one more amazing fact related to this Jagannath Temple. Inside the temple, there is a certain door (SinghaDwara) beyond which you can easily hear the sound of the sea waves. But as soon as you step towards the other side of the door, nothing is audible at all. This is a very strange fact which even scientist are not able to find any proper explanation for. People believe that it is because of Subhadra Maharani wished of peace and tranquility within the temple because of which this is happening.

7. Inside the temple, the Prasadam or holy offering to the Lords is prepared in seven different vessels or pots that are kept one above the other. You must be thinking what is unique here. The miracle associated with the food preparation is that the food kept in the topmost vessel gets cooked first, followed by the second and so on till the lowest one above the fire gets cooked. Actually, it should be in the reverse order. The one which is kept at the seventh position should be the first one to get cooked as it is closest to the fire. But, this temple has all the weird things.

8. The daily Prasadam that is prepared in the temple never get wasted or get less in quantity no matter how many devotees are coming to take the blessing of the Lords. The quantity of food prepared is a fixed quantity throughout the year and it is aimed to be served to 25000 persons.

9. Chariot Festival inPuri is the most famous event in Puri. Thousands of people from different part of the world come to participate and be a part of this holy event. There are two sets of chariots for each deity (3 plus 3). Since there is a river flowing called Sri Mandira (Jagannatha Temple) and Mausi Maa (Aunty) temple, the set of first chariot brings the Lords near the river. Then three giant wooden boats are used to move the Lords across the river and then finally second set of chariots are used to reach Mausi Maa temple. People might think it’s an easy task to perform, but truly it takes huge courage and blessing from the Lord to actually perform it.

10. There is a very popular Tulsi Garden where old idols and newly constructed wooden idols are brought and are placed face to face.Every twelve years, Shaligram or holy stone is removed from the old idol and put into the new one for each of the three deities. There is a divine force which people actually feel while physically transferring the stone.

We all are living our life with all new modern amenities around us. We have made our life very comfortable with the usage and advancement of technologies. But the belief people have in their heart for God is still on top of everything. We should never forget that there is some power above us on which we human beings don’t have any control.

Image Source–Bing