Visit to Famous Temple of Lord Krishna at Jagannath Puri in India

The tourists visiting Eastern side of India, anywhere near to Calcutta make it sure that they visit the most famous place of pilgrimage of Jagannath Puri, which is situated near to the city of Bhuveneshwar. There is a famous temple of Lord Krishna here at Puri along with the statues of Balramaji who was the elder brother of Lord Krishna and Subhadradevi who was the wife of Lord Krishna. All the Hindus, Vaishnavs in particular, have inner desire in their hearts to visit this holy place at least once in their life time.

You can reach Puri from Bhuveneshwar, which is very well connected by rail, air and road. There are regular flights and trains from Delhi, Mumbai, and Calcutta for Jagannath Puri. Puri is located within area of 20 square kilometers and is having population of around one hundred thousands. The weather here is very nice all through out the year as it is situated on the sea shore. The sea beach of Jagannath Puri is superb and attracts lot of tourists, also from all over the world. It is very safe to take bath here in the sea as the sea is very shallow here and is having crystal clear water. There is a historical and famous Lord Jagannathji temple here at Puri. The engraving inside this temple is extremely fine and worth seeing. The interior of this temple remains very dark due to lack of day light. Hence, make sure to carry your hand torch or some portable light. There are four sections of this temple. They are Garbhmandir, Meeting hall, Natmandir, and Prayer temple. The most beautiful and eye catching statues of Lord Krishna, Balramji, and Subhadraji can be seen inside the temple. The temple offers Mangala darshna at 7 am, bhog darshnas at 11 am, evening arti darshnas at 7 pm, Sandhya Bhog darshnas at 10 pm. Chandan lap Darshnas at 11 pm, and Shayan darshnas at 3 am in the early morning hours. There are regular dances going on in order to please Lord Krishna in the Natmandir, all through out the day. These dances are performed by the Devdasis working for the temple. Such devdasis are staying in the temple on permanent basis only.

The big procession starts from this temple on the auspicious day of every Ashadhi Beej and goes up to the temple of Gudicha, which is around 2 miles away from this main temple. Millions of the pilgrims come here to see this famous Rathyatra every year. The entire city becomes full of tourists during these days. This procession is generally around 1 mile long and consists of the main ratha of the Lord Krishna, which is pushed by thousands of pilgrims. This pushing to the Ratha of Lord is considered very holy and large crowd is always in the line to perform this holy act. There is a small water reservoir near Gudicha temple, known as Indra Kund. Some other temples like Hanuman temple, Mataji temples etc are located near the famous Gudicha temple.

While you are at Puri, you must visit the famous sun temple of Konark that is only 14 miles away from the main Puri temple. The hired cars and taxis are easily available from Puri for going to Konark temple. This sun temple is situated on the bank of River Chandrabhaga. The stone engravings done on the walls of this temple are superb and it contains various sexual postures, in which various explicit forms of the sex can be viewed. It may not be required to stay overnight here at Konark. You can easily return back to Puri on the same day evening. The local people strongly believe that any person suffering from any type of diseases can be fully cured by doing darshnas here at the Konark sun temple.

There are many luxury hotels available here at Puri to stay. Some of these hotels are Hotel Grand, Bay view Hotel, Hotel Sagarika, Hotel Sea View, and Ocean Hotel. All these hotels provide 3 star accommodations at the rates of around Rs.2400 ($60) per day for a nice double room. All these hotels are situated in the middle of the city and hence, very convenient to stay. You may be required to stay at Jagannath Puri for around 3 to 4 days. Though, the season is very pleasant here all through out the year, the best time to visit Puri is during winter months from October to March.

Many foreigners fond of visiting nice and sunny sea beaches would love to visit Jagannath Puri as it is both a religious place as well as having the most beautiful sea beach.