Rakhi Purnima & Lord Balabhadra’s Birth Celebrations At Puri Jagannath Temple Tomorrow; Know The Rituals

Puri: Rakhi Purnima, also Gamha Purnima observed as the birthday of Balabhadra, the eldest of the sibling deities, will be celebrated at Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s pilgrim town of Puri on Thursday (August 31).

It falls on the full moon day in Shravan month. Lord Balabhadra or Balaram was born on Shravanā nakshatra’s ‘Gamha Purnami on Makara Lagna.’ And Langala is his weapon. Considering him as the initial exponent of cultivation and the Lord of the farming community. farmer families, as per the tradition, also worship their wooden ploughs on this day.

At the Srimandir, all the six idols (Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra, Sudarshan, Bhudebi and Sridebi) on Ratnabedi are bejewelled with gold ornaments. The Lords are also offered ‘Guamala’ (garland of areca nuts).

Along with the 54 areca nuts necklaces, four big rakhis are prepared for Lord Jagannath and Balabhadra and 10 small ones for the Parswa Devatas (minor deities) of the temple. The Basunga Pata is dipped in red, green, purple and yellow colours. With the help of a comb, the cloth is shredded into threads. With the four coloured Patas, the servitors then make four-layered Rakhis. They are in concentric circles one atop another with the lowest disc being the largest.

Goddess Subhadra ties these ‘Pata Rakhis’ prepared by Patara Bisoyi to Her brothers.

The servitors prepare Guamala in yellow and red colour combination for Lord Jagannath and purple and blue colour combination for Lord Balabhadra.

Later, Lord Sudarshan proceeds to Markand Pond in ‘chaudola’ decorated with golden garlands, where Sudha Suara observe some traditions by making the idol of Lord Balabhadra with wet clay. They spew life into the idol by chanting mantras and then offer ‘bhog’. The idol is later immersed in the pond. Following this, Lord Sudarshan proceeds to three Ashrams and returns to Srimandir late in the night.