Lord Jagannath And The Beggar Devotee Story: The Great Devotee Bandhu Mohanty

Once there was drought in his area, and people were dying due to want of food. Bandhu Mohanty went to some villages to beg alms, but the people had no food even for themselves-how could they give alms to Bandhu Mohanty? He returned to his house without any food, all the while meditating on the Lord. His wife told him that the children were very hungry. They could not tolerate their hunger pangs any longer. She asked, “Don’t you have some relative who can help us during this difficult time? Let us leave this place and go to some other place where your relatives are staying.” Bandhu Mohanty replied, “I have no relatives to help me, but I do have a friend. But He lives far from here. He is the best among all the people. There is no one equal to him. He lives in Sri Kshetra Puri dham. If some how or other we can manage to reach him, our problems will be solved.” His wife was very happy to hear this. She said, “Then let us go there immediately. I will carry one child. You will carry the other. Let us go there now without any delay. Otherwise all of us will die.” Bandhu Mohanty was very happy to hear this from his wife. He thought it would be very nice to go to Sri Kshetra Puri dham and take darshan of Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra.
They started their journey to Sri Kshetra, arriving four days later. They approached Jagannath temple at the Lion Gate. Thousands of people were visiting the temple, and security was very tight. Many guards were there with sticks in their hands. As it was not possible for them to enter the temple, they took darshan of Patita-pavana, the deity of Lord at the entrance of the temples eastern gate. Whoever is not allowed to enter the temple can take darshan of this deity. Then Bandhu Mohanty went towards the southern gate near Peja Nala, where all the starch from the cooked rice from Jagannaths kitchen gathers. The cows drink this liquid known as peja. Bandhu Mohanty was very tired. He sat down there near the south gate. His wife said, “Why are you sitting here? It is getting late. Now it is already evening time. Let us go to your friends house to get refreshed and eat something. We all are very tired and hungry. Where is your friends house?” At this time all the children also started to cry, saying, “We are very hungry. We cannot tolerate our hunger any more. If you do not feed us, we will die very soon.”
Bandhu Mohanty said to them, “Today there are many guests at my friends house. The gate-keepers are allowing only selected guests inside. If anyone tries to enter by force, they’ll be beaten. Let us sleep here tonight. We can drink some starch from Jagannaths kitchen and spend the night here. Early in the morning we will go to meet with my friend and ask him to give us shelter and food. My friend is very merciful.” His wife agreed to the proposal. They arranged a broken clay pot, and all of them drank the rice-starch water, and got a little relief from their hunger. All the members of the family were very tired and soon fell asleep. Bandhu Mohanty started to offer his prayers to Lord Jagannath: “O Lord of the universe. You are maintaining everyone in your creation. Am I out of your creation? We are dying here due to want of food. Please bless us. Otherwise we lose our lives. Please consider our case.” While he was praying to the Lord in this way, he fell asleep.
In the meantime the Lord Jagannaths pujari completed the evening offering to the Lord. After finishing the puja, he locked the temple door, and with the key in hand, headed towards his home. During the night, Lord Jagannath became very worried that His devotee was sleeping without having eaten anything.
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Music Credits : -Akshay Chowdhary
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