Niladri Bije: Lord Jagannath to Offer Rasagola to Appease Goddess Laxmi

Puri: With Niladri Bije, the concluding ritual of Rath Yatra, Lord Jagannath, and his siblings are all set to return to Ratna Singhasana of Srimandir on Saturday.

As per legend, Goddess Laxmi gets upset with Lord Jagannath as during Rathyatra He took His siblings to His aunt’s abode Gundicha temple, leaving her all alone in Srimandir. To show up Her marital angst, She locks up the Jai Vijaya Dwar in a bid to stop the Holy Trinity from re-entering Srimandir.

To please and pacify Devi Lakshmi, Lord Jagannath offers rasagola as a peace offering to soothe her anger and requests her to forgive him. After a long conversation, Mahalakshmi finally gets calmed down and accepts Lord Jagannath’s apology and opens the temple gate to allow Lord Jagannath to enter the temple. Before entering the main temple, a ritualistic reunuin of teh couple also takes place at the Jaya Vijaya Dwar of the temple. Lord Jagannath is made to sit beside Lakshmi where a ritual of reunion is enacted and finally Lord Jagannath enters the temple to ascend the Ratna Singhasana and rejoins his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra.

This day is also celebrated as the Rasagola Dibasa to celebrate the fact that this famous sweet originated in Odisha and it is a ritualistic offering at Sri Jagannath temple since generations. Famous poet saint of Bhakti era Balaram Das has mentioned about Rasagola in his writings.

Since 2015, Odisha has been Rasagola Dibasa on Niladri Bije, marking the end of the 12-day Rath Yatra festival, to let people know the history and origin of the sweet dish.