Sanatan Jyoti - Bharat Sevashram Sangha

ETERNAL LIGHT ♦ SANATAN JYOTI ♦ 2013Philanthropy in Shri Jagannath Cultureby Nilamadhab NandaLord Jagannath is supreme godhead, known as “Purusottam” means a man ofhighest degree, the supreme soul. Each individual soul is part of the supreme soul.The culture followed with the supreme soul is the mass culture based on “Sanatandharma “. The Social, Cultural, Religious, and spiritual values of Odisha are highlyinfluenced by the culture of Shri Purusottam khetra. This has been continuing sincetime immemorial. The culture has evolved over time with the assimilation of differentreligious and cultural values originated from great religious minds in centuries overcenturies. The world has taken a quantum leap in all most all directions includingsocio-cultural, science, environment, and even in outer space. Old dogmas arereplaced by new discoveries and inventions. These significant changes have majorinfluences and transformations in the human behavior and society. But the impact ofthese changes is none or minimum to Sri Jagannath culture, the reason is, it isbased on the basic values of peaceful survival and progression. It is the root of lifetree, as more and more people know and realize its value, it becomes stronger andsuperior. The adaptive nature of the culture has made it world famous and attractivefor masses over time. For the people of Odisha Lord Jagannath has become the trueidentity in and outside of India. People may not know Odisha but they know LordJagannath and Puri dham, one of the four sacred places in India for Hindus.It is important for us to keep up with this great culture and pass on to our nextgeneration through practicing, promoting, and realizing the true value of the culture.Shri Jagannath culture is not about only worshiping in ritualistic way, it includescharitable services for uplifting the poor and needy people in the society.Sometimes question arises on including philanthropy with ritualistic culture of LordJagannath. But looking back the old scriptures like “Puranas “ and legends on LordJagannath it is very obvious that Lord has always supported and helped the poorand downtrodden people in the society. One such compelling story is around thesocially backward and lower caste woman “Sriya Chandaluni”. When the uppercasts Brahmins were taking it as their exclusive privilege to worship Gods andGoddesses and celebrate festivals, a lowest caste woman with great devotion daredto worship Goddess Lakshmi. This attempt of untouchable Sriya was completelyunacceptable to the egoistic priest community. They created all kinds of hindranceto stop her worshipping Goddess Lakshmi and punished her. Sriya got thepunishment but the pain was felt by Lord Jagannath. The lord of the universe couldnot tolerate this discrimination in the society and suffering of poor lower castepeople. He sent HIS concert goddess Maha Lakshmi to Sriya’s house in guise tohelp complete her worship and celebrate the festival with utmost devotion. This actof sending Maha Lakshmi to a Chandaluni’s (lowest caste) house caused lots oftrouble to Lord Jagannath, HIS elder brother with great anger ordered MahaLakshmi to get out of the temple. Being insulted and kicked out of HER own temple,the goddess of wealth, Mahalakshmi left the temple with all the wealth with herleaving nothing for the two brothers. The brother duo, Lord Balabhadra and LordBHARAT SEVASHRAM SANGHA OF NORTH AMERICA, CHICAGO 41