Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-08-10
The Real Worship OF Juggernaut.

Jagannatha's relation to the Hindu
mythology will partly explain his true
! nature. He is one of the mantle stations
of Vishnu, and is supposed to be the
same as Krishna. The forms under which
| Vishnu is worshipped are more or less
connected with love, while the mani
feStatiOns of silva are, on the contrary,
of fierce and terrible kind. Had the
character given to Jagannatha been
attributed TO silva, something like justi-
tication might be found for it. There is
| a well-known legend which illustrates
the character of these deities. Among
the innumerable gods of the Hindu Pam
theon a discussion had arisen as to the
principal personages. One of the Devas
at last proposed to try a practical test
by which the matter might be settled.
So he went up and kicked silva. The
result was terrible: that god burst into
wild passion and destroyed some mil
lions of worlds before he Gained down
again. The Deva then kicked Brahma.
This deity became angry, and grumbled
and growled little, out did nothing in
parti ,ular. The Deva then approached
Vishnu, who was asleep, but awoke in
stantly on being kicked. He caught the
foot that had given the blow, and strok-
ing it with his hand, said he hoped it
was not hurt, at the same time mani
testing warm anxiety as if he had
been the cause of pain to the Deva, or
as if he had done him an injury.
The feeling against taking life, even
of the most insignificant insects, which
the HinduS carry at times to very ex-
.travagant- extremes, is somehow con-
nected with the worship of Vishnu, or is
derived from Buddhism, two forms of
faith which are thought to have been
closely related, and both of which seem
to have had something to do with the
origin of the worship of Jagan-
natha at Puri From this it will be seen
that the destruction of life must be utterly
opposed to such attributes, and that it
would be out of harmony with the spirit
which ought to guide in the worship of
Vishnu and Jagannatha. The Temple
services present us with an illustration
of this. Should by accident any person
die within the temple walls, the cere-
monies are at once stopped, the offer
ings are considered as polluted, and
have to be carried away, and the
whole place is looked upon as being un-
clean till it has been purified. IS
Vhenthe Ratha Yatra, or Car Festi-
there are thousands pulling the ropes by
which the cars are moved. 1t is impos-
sible to stop such mass, and if any one
should fail, he may be trampled upon
by such surging crowd, and the wheels
of the car may also 90 over the body:
but the frequency of such events has
been exaggerated, and if there is blame,
it is doubtful if Jagannatha should be
made answerable. 1t has often hap
pened when the Queen or the Prince of
Wales has made state visit to the city
that very serious accidents have occurred,
attended with loss oflife; as a matter of
fact such state professions through the
streets of London have seldom taken
place without some one in the crowd
losing his life, yet no one ever dreams
of ascribing to the royal parsonage just
named such character as has been
given to Jagannatha. During the Car
Festival self-immolation takes place.
This, also, has been very much exagge-
rated. Hamilton, in his Gazetteer,
states that during the four years prior to
1920 only three cases occurred, one said
to be accidental, and the other two to
get rid off excruciating diseases with
which the victims were tormented." If
this is anything like fair estimate of
the death rate, there need be no hesita-
ton in asserting, on the basis of statis-
tics, that the British cab is a much more
bloodthirsty institution than the car of
Jagahnatha.-F rdser's ,Magazine.
F.