Bhaba ra sahare mora bhaba mandira

The more you grow up, the more you see the shades of the world. The more you see the shades of the world, the clearer becomes your vision towards life each passing day, a little more. But not all days are alike. Somedays your mind gets blinded with some bitter past. Somedays your future looks blurred with clouds of uncertainty. You become unable to focus on your present. Perplexity pinches you. You feel that sensation.
You don’t understand how to pacify yourself on your own. You don’t want to open up yourself infront of anyone. You open your music app with the hope that it will pacify your restless soul. No hiphop, no rock, no jazz, no EDM helps. Romantic lyrics fail to make you smile. Motivational music uses all its power to elevate you, but in vain. And suddenly, your playlist gifts you a song which embraces all your fidgety, and you feel calmness flowing in your veins slowly and slowly replacing the anxiety that was draining your energy some minutes ago. A song that makes you believe that there is someone in this world who knows all your feelings, the feelings you cremate inside your tender heart without letting their smell reach near the sophisticated people all around. That someone with whom you feel a connection, who feels like your own. For we odia people, that someone is our king, our guardian, our comrade, our Jagannath. Our faith in Him is hereditary immersed in our blood since generations unknown. And each bhajan dedicating Him sounds divine enough to tingle the tympanum with the reality of life. One such bhajan that tops my playlist to lower the level of my stress is
“Bhaba ra sahare mora bhaba mandira”

“Bhaba ra sahare mora bhaba mandira
Bhaba dore bandha mora kala thakura
Bhaba ku nikata se ta abhaba ku dura
Simahina akasha se simahina sagara”

A place where violent waves make love with the silent sand. Their susurration penetrates your ears, gets implanted in your heart, and burgeons into something called tranquility. Some distance away from that boundless beauty of the Bay of Bengal, you enter a palace, His palace. The sound of waves gets muted. Music of bells, conches, and chants gets loud. And louder becomes the quiet prayers of thousands of souls filled with pain, complaints, happiness, and gratitude. The palace whose each inch is filled with divinity. The palace above which wind becomes weak enough to make the flag move in its direction. The palace whose air carries the aroma of abadha. The palace from where none returns with an empty heart. The palace where He resides along with God Balabhadra, Maa Subhadra, Maa Laxmi and many other forms of Gods & Goddesses. Sitting there, He rules the whole world. With his big beautiful eyes, He sees everything. Nothing can stay hidden from Him. Without questioning His justice when you surrender yourself infront of Him, you feel so ethereal as if all the weight of your burdens vanishes away. He is the God of feelings, who can understand you like no other. Science bows down before His majestic mysteries. You can’t find Him when you clutch to suspicion, pretence, ego and lies. You will feel Him when you loosen your clutch and shed all these from your heart. How can you sense His presence when your thoughts and your deeds involve such shallow things? Because He is infinite like the sky and unfathomable like the ocean. The only way by which you can keep Him with you is your firm faith.

“Bhaba re budiba jie bhaba re hajiba jie
Bhaba re rasiba jie
Ananda ananda
Papa re budiba jie michha re hajiba jie
Maya re rasiba jie
Bisada bisada”

We belong to a generation where being emotional is considered as a weakness. Because if you gift your true feelings to people, in return you get treated as a fool and you make their judgemental mouths work so actively. So you fear. You fear unwrapping your heart so that none can get a chance to watch what is underneath. But in this attempt of concealing your true emotions from others, you chock your ability to recognize your own emotions. That suffocates you. You wanna channelize those. But you can’t. At that moment, you look into His eyes. You see your world revolving around those. How can you hide things from Him? Se para bhaba ra thakura. You feel light. You feel content. You feel proud for being born in His land. In childhood, we were taught to distinguish between right and wrong. But as we grow up, we tend to normalising wrong as everyone around us does like that. We start taking shelter under the lies to avoid instant hardships. We keep on running behind temporary pleasure by forgetting the reality of life. And ultimately it leads us to grief. Sometimes it becomes too late to have this realisation.

“Bhaba re bhaba re chale abhabi sansara
Ananda bisada bhara e bhaba sagara
Dharama karama sata
Janama marana sata
Atma paramatma sata
Michha e jagata
Dhana jaubana michha
Kutumba sansara michha
Kamana basana michha
Sata mo Jagannatha”

Sometimes we see poor people smiling wholeheartedly and rich ones complaining about their tension-loaded life. Sometimes we see handicapped people praising the Almighty and some getting sad for not having expensive sarees, shoes, and goggles. Have you ever wondered why this happens? Most probably because happiness is a relative concept, not absolute. Happiness can’t be felt even a bit, if pain vanishes from life entirely. We often observe that old people are inclined towards intense devotion the most. Maybe after experiencing all the seasons, in the autumn they realise the deep truth of life- how you have come to this earth alone and how you have to leave alone. The assets you accumulate, the gracefulness of youth, the large friend circle you make, nothing is going to accompany you when your soul changes its address by vacating your body. But what remains is your good deeds. And you can involve yourself in goodness only if you wear your faith in Jagannath as armour. Because when your faith turns into your weapon, you realise that whatever you do right or wrong gets captured in His chakadola.

ShreeJagannath occupies a special place in the heart of each odia people. In Him, we see a lover, a listener, a protector and a pathfinder. What else does one need when s/he has the blessings of Him? Because anything that happens in this universe, happens in His will.

©ruchiabhisikta

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