Puri, June 6: The Alarnath shrine at Brahmagiri in Odisha’s Puri district becomes overcrowded during the Anabasara rituals of Lord Jagannath.
Devotees anxiously visit the Alarnath shrine and offer obeisance to the presiding God Alarnath here for a fortnight after the Snana Purinima rituals of the deities in Puri Shreemandir.
The deities go on a fortnight-long hibernation known as ‘Anasara’ or ‘Anavasara’ after they fall sick following the bath with 108 pitchers of holy water. During this period, devotees seek blessings of the deities at the Alarnath Temple, a 13th-century shrine. The devotees made a beeline to this temple since early morning. However, they fail to have the darshan of Lord Jagannath and his siblings neither in the temple nor elsewhere directly, on the temple complex. It’s due to a fortnight long quarantine of the deities following illness for the grand and open bath. Only the replicas known as Pati Dian are placed before the quarantine home of the deities, for the sake of darshan of the devotees.
Devotees in the hibernation of the sibling deities, gather at the Alarnath shrine, famous for its unique idol of a four-armed standing Vishnu made of black chlorite for darshan becase they believe Alarnath as an incarnation of Lord Jagannath.
In this period tens of thousands of devotees reach here to have darshans and offer prayer to Lord Narayan, who is considered as one of the forms of Lord Jagannath.
Apart from it, the pilgrims gather at Brahmagiri to worship other Gods and deities which are also considered as the Parswa Devata(Adjoining Deities), also worshipped in Puri Jagannath temple.
It is believed that the Alarnath temple became the devotional destination during Anabasara ever since saint Chaitanya visited it after he failed to have a darshan of Lord Jagannath in Puri.
Along with Lord Alarnath, the devotees also have the darshan of Lord Ananta Basudev in place of Lord Balabhadra and Devi Bhubaneswari in place of Devi Subhadra.
This apart, the idols of Lord Dolagobinda, Lord Nrusingha, Lord Madanmohan, Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Goddess Bhudevi, Goddess Sridevi and the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu are also being worshipped at the Alarnath shrine.
Devotees, visiting Alarnath temple can also get ‘Mahaprasad’ at the ‘Ananda Bazaar’ here like in the Puri Jagannath temple.
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