Deva Snana Purnima

Snana Purnima or Deva Snana Purnima is an annual bathing festival celebrated on the Purnima tithi or full moon in the Vedic month of Jyeshta. This day devotees are allowed for the divine darshan of Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra, and His divine siblings at the Snana Mandap of Shree Jagannath Temple, Bhubaneswar. This full moon day of Jyestha masa is the birthday of Lord Jagannath.

Deva Snana Purnima 2023

Sun , 4th Jun 2023

Significance

Deva Snana Purnima or Deba Snana Purnima is a ceremonial holy bath of Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra, and Lord Balabhadra. Mahaprabhu Jagannath is the Divine lord of the Cosmic universe. Lord Jagannatha is an avatar of Lord Krishna and Lord Balabhadra is His brother Balarama and Devi Subhadra Devi is His sister Subhadra. The word Jagannatha is a compound word, Jagat- Natha, meaning the Lord or Natha of Jagat or God of the Cosmic Universe. Lord Jagannath is a popular deity worshipped across Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, and areas of Assam, Manipur, and Tripura. It is mentioned in Skanda Purana that the King Indradyumna established this temple at Puri creating a divine space for people to worship all the three deities along with Sudarshana, Sun God in the temple.

Rituals

Special Ratha yatra is organised on this day, devotees from all over India visit Bhubaneswar for this special event. The day ahead of snana yatra, all the three deities along with Sudarshana are brought out from the inner sanctum of the temple to the snana mandapa, located at the Ananda Bazar of the large temple complex. This place sets the dias for the devotees to view the snana purnima without having to enter the temple premises. Holy Priests use 108 pitchers of water that is taken from a well located in the Sitala temple near Lord Jagannath Temple. After the holy bath, the deities are colourfully dressed up in the Gajanana or the Ganesha Besha. Special food offering called Bhogalagi is prepared in the same Snana Mandapa. Holy water is poured over the deities while intense mantra chanting and music instruments including conch are being played. It is believed that witnessing this snana Purnima cleanses devotees’ bad karma. After this holy event, Rath Yatra is organised. Next day, the temple premises and the inner sanctum remains closed for 15 continuous days as the deities will be in ‘Anasara’ or isolation phase. As per the temple belief, after the ritualistic bath, the deities tend to develop fever and do not return to the sanctorum.

The actual cause being immense cleansing process the deities go through which in-turn cleans the aura of the whole city and the devotees who participated in holy bathing ceremony. During Ansara period, the deities are offered only fruits and Dasamula water, herb infused water with medicines. After the ansara period, the deities are repainted before installing into the inner sanctum, this day i.e the 16th day, is celebrated as Netrotsava or Nava Joubana Utsav. This festival celebrated the festival of evergreen youth of the three divine idols. Only from this day, the devotees are allowed to enter the temple premises.

Mantra for Lord Jagannath

Nilachala Nivasaya
Nityaya Paramatmane
Balabhadra Subhadrabhyam
Jagannathaya Te Namah

Benefits

Being part of this holy bathing ceremony of the Devas render grand prosperity benefits.
By observing fast on this day, one can achieve absolute physical and mental awareness as the bathing ceremony is believed to cleanse the devotee’s bad karma.
All types of charity on this day grants multifold blessings ensuring goodness and wellbeing of the whole family lineage.