Facts About Jagannath Puri Temple That Defy All Human Logic And Science!

India is home to many prominent spiritual places, be it ShreeKrishn ki Nagari; Vrindavan and Dwarka, or the Heaven on earth; Amarnath. Among the numerous holy places, Puri’s Jagannath Temple (a part of Char Dham) is one such revered shrine.

The temple deities of Jagannath ji are, to my knowledge, the most adorable ones, and you’ll literally fall in the loving prey to their bigger-than-life size, beautiful, and embracing eyes.

This 12-century old temple is always open for its devotees and only closed for 2 hours (for the Demigods to have Darshan of their Prabhu)

The noteworthiness of this temple, however, is not just limited to this but a number of mysterious and queering facts about the Temple!

Here, I bring to you — ALL the intriguing and breathtaking activities that happen in Jagannath Puri !

So, let’s list them out!!

1. The Temple Flag That Breaches Logic

If I ask you — wind is moving from right to left, so in which direction will a piece of cloth fly?…

Come on, it’s not that hard! It will undoubtedly fly in the same direction.

But miraculous, not the case with Jagannath Temple’s holy flag. This flag — also known as Patitpabana — always flows in the opposite direction of the wind’s course with no backup for any scientific explanation.

2. The Colossal Sudarshan Chakra

The Sudarshan Chakra placed atop the temple is another bizarre subject matter. The positioning of it is a mystery as you’ll always see it facing towards you, no matter in which direction or position you are standing.

In other words, it appears the same from every angle, whether you watch it from the back or from the sides — like its visibility was designed to be the same from every direction!

(It’ll always be eying you in the face ;)

3. Emplacement Of Sudarshan Chakra

The eight-beam stone carved Sudarshan chakra weighs a ton and is 20 feet tall. Imagine how such a massive and heavy Chakra would have been placed in ancient times with absolutely no sophisticated equipment.

Clearly, it was just with the use of handwork and look at the Chakra now! Still upright at the peak of the temple!

4. Nothing’s Above God, So Obviously Nothing Fly Above It Either

The temple has not yet been formally declared a no-fly zone by the govt powers, but conversely, the same has been declared by the nature, long time back because no birds and planes fly above Jagannath Prabhu’s temple. Moreover, if you ever visit this divine place, you’ll observe that its weird that not a single bird is seen even flying around the Shikhar of the temple, let alone flying atop.

It is the kind of event which is only observed at Jagannath ji, and nowhere else!

5. The SinghaDwaram

There are total 4 doors in the temple, SinghaDwaram being in the front.

The moment you take your first step into the temple from Singha Dwar, all the sounds of the ocean waves will become mute. You’ll not hear them anymore, unless you take a step out of the temple.

So basically, that one entrance and exit step of yours through the Singha Dwar would command the audibility of the ocean waves! (with no logical or scientific explanation)

6. The Sensational Engineering

Doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, the 65 feet high structure of the Jagannath temple never casts its shadow from any direction.

Either the architectural expertise of our ancestors is on another level, or it is simply because of the Divine force! Anyway, Jagannath Dham is an exception of its own kind!

7. Wind Is In The Sixth Gear (Reverse)

We all have learnt this in our elementary school that during the daytime, the breeze flows from sea to land and in the evening, it flows from land to sea.

But in Puri, the sea just doesn’t follow the suit. It contradicts this theory and picks up the exact opposite direction, thereby disgracing the scientific principles.

8. Magical Cooking Methodology

The cooking methodology of Prasadam followed in the temple kitchen is completely traditional and preserved by the priests till now. Accordingly, the food is cooked on fireworks and 7 pots of meal are put one on another.

By logic, the food in the lowest pot should cook first. But Heyy!! we are discussing about Jagannath temple, remember… how can you think of it being that simple!

The pot on the top gets cooked first. Yes. The one placed on the TOP.

9. Just The Sufficient Food Supply Everytime!

The number of devotees visiting Jagannath Ji ranges from 2000 to 20,000 on normal days, and goes up to lakhs during festivals and special events.

The quantity of food cooked, however, is miraculously the same everyday. Still, it never remains insufficient or gets wasted! So, a constant food supply, irrespective of the footfall.

10. Mystery Of Food Scent

It is observed that when the food is prepared and offered to the Deities (for it to become MahaPrasadam), it lacks smell.

But, once it is blessed by Balarama, Subhadra and Jagannath ji and is moved to Anand Bazaar for selling to the devotees, the MahaPrasadam starts smelling Godlike!

(Comment down if you didn’t know about this secret)

11. The Age-Old Daily Ritual

Practiced religiously since the past 1,800 years, every day a priest climbs up the temple (which is almost as tall as a 45 story building) to change the Holy flag at the Shikhar. Surprisingly, the priest climbs the temple with no protective articles and the complete flag-changing process is done with hands.

Indeed a source of regret for any professional climber, considering the mastery and flexibility of the priests!

12. Disintegration Of The Deities

The disintegration of the deities takes place from every 14 to 18 years, where they are buried one above another. These are then replaced by new ones made of neem wood.

13. The Beating Heart Of ShreeKrishn

What follows next is the Praan Pratishtha of these new deities wherein it is believed that the living Heart of ShreeKrishn is transferred from the old deities to the new ones.

This event takes place whereby the electricity supply of the entire city is cut down and the priests blindfoldly transfer the Heart in the new deities.

There’s a separate story of the Heart of ShreeKrishn which I would be covering in the future, hopefully.

Faith has various faces in India, Jagannath puri being the most mysterious one!

This temple very beautifully makes us understand that there is a force more powerful than science, and not everything will have a scientific explanation always.

Try to learn and accept the reality instead of justifying it through science.

Because science is a byproduct of Sanatan, and not the other way round!