
Lord Jagannatha Devi Subhadra and Lord Balarama painting, folk style 19th century, Orissa courtesy Sothebys
“Na tasya pratima asti yasya nama Mahadyasa Hiranyagarbha” (Yajur Veda 32:3 hymn) /’He Has No Image, His Name is Glorious Hiranyagarbha’.
“Mameibanso jiva loke jiba bhutah sanatanah” (15th Chapter of Gita) ‘The Perennial Part of the God is Present in the Body of Creatures’.

Ratha Yatra in London old poster art
Bondage is the impermanent nature of the universe
Only the everlasting soul dwells in non-duality
Being free and beyond the causation of space-time it appears as everything
It disappears into the golden womb of nothing
Still shining in the void of voids
It is the supreme unity of all operational matrices
The essence or nature from which creation assumes its destiny
A preset asymmetry is then released into the finite
Into the ocean of multitudes branching out the karmic propensities
A single flow of supreme divinity connects them all
Pulsating all timelines of the cycles of yugas
A manifested ocean of space consumes them all *Prajnana Bramha/’Idam Mahadbhutam Anantam Aparam bijnana ghana eba’ (Brihadarankya Upanishad)
A differentiated order of chaos is the original destiny of the unifying godhead
Sacred evolution is the sustaining metaphor of every life in the universe
As the chariot moves creating its own rhythm of dance
A spectacle beholds the passing scenes
From the Hiranyagarbha , it was before the rising sun awake from its slumbering sleep
Deep beneath it was only a radiance of love that overflowed
That connected with itself through all sentient beings
And the wheels of Jagannatha neither dry or wet
Rolled into the essence beyond the machine perfection of human intelligence
Into that where no words can peer or sound vibrate
Or thoughts claw their meaning on mind
Into that ineffable:
‘Hiranmayen patrena Satyasaphihitam mukham,
Tattwampushanapabrunu Satya Dharmaya Drustaye’ (Isha Upanishad)
-J