Rathyatra 2025

Shri Jagannath Rathyatra is a unique festival when the Lord of the world comes out of his temple to meet the devotees. Devotees eagerly wait for this day to have darshan of their favourite Lord. Like every year, this year also Rathyatra took place in Puri Dham. Doordarshan National airs the live video and commentary of Rathyatra every year. The anchors use Hindi, English and Sanskrit language in their commentary. They give very detailed information about the ritual. So I always enjoy listening to it. This time Rathyatra was delayed due to heavy crowd. So the yatra could not be completed on that day. The yatra was finished on the next day when Shri Jagannath, Shri Balbhadra and Devi Subhadra reached Gundicha temple. After seven days, Bahuda yatra, Suna besha, Adhara pana and Niladri Bije- all these celebrations took place generating bliss to the devotees. Many vloggers and live telecast from different media agencies covered all these celebrations during these days. In this way devotees get the chance to experience these special darshans of all the three deities through Rathyatra festival.

Jai Jagannath.

Kul Chhere Eshe- A Bengali Song

Today I am sharing a beautiful song which tells us about the journey of life. It is written and composed by Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh and sung by Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty. 

In this song, life is compared with a river. Any two phases of life are compared with the two banks of a flowing river. The feelings evoked while crossing the river are narrated in the song.

 Many times we feel confused while taking a decision about life. In this song we feel all those emotions which we go through while moving from one phase of life to another. The starting of the song tells us about this feeling.

The known life is always preferable to us. It gives us a sense of security. The first stanza of the song tells us about all these emotions. While taking a decision to move forward in life, we remember the memories of joy and sadness attached with the current situation. It seems very hard for us to leave the cosy place.

Now we come to the middle part of the song. It narrates how the fading images of one phase of life, and the fear of a new uncertain life- both are felt by us at the same time. 

While continuing the journey, gradually we also feel an attraction towards the unknown mysteries of the future life. It seems as if the future is near, it is full of positive hopes, as if it is blessing us with fearlessness. This is narrated in the last stanza of the song.

The song ends with the positive note that fills us with a the hope of a promising future. The concept of the song is very unique. It is the reason it is one of my favourite song. And also the style of singing by Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty is excellent as we all know, which adds to the beauty to the song. I have also listened to another rendition of the song by Bani Konar in the year 1954. 

Do listen to the song and enjoy. 

With lots of best wishes,

Jai Shri Krishna.