Puri: After a long interval of almost four years, the four gates of Lord Jagannath Temple, Puri, have been opened for all devotees on Thursday.
The gates of the holy shrine were opened to the public as promised in the election manifesto by the newly formed BJP Government in Odisha.
The Chief Minister of Odisha, Mohan Charan Majhi, accompanied by two of his deputy CMs, MP (Lok Sabha) for Puri Sambit Patra, and other senior leaders of the state government did a parikrama of the temple, after opening the four gates on Thursday morning.
On the other hand, the ardent devotees of Lord Jagannath went euphoric after being able to enter the temple from any of the four gates, reducing the hustle of pushing through Singhadwara for the darshan of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra.
A devotee from Koraput got emotional and said, “Previously, we used to stand in long queues and had to wait for more than 10-12 hours for a glimpse of Lord Jagannath, which was extremely tiresome, especially after travelling in the bus for 18 hours.”
Whereas another bhakt of Lord Jagannath showered praises for the newly formed BJP government in Odisha and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling the opening of four doors historical. He said, “The opening of all four gates of Lord Jagannath temple is equivalent to the opening of four gates of Odisha.”
Four different types of animals represent the four gigantic gates guarding the Holy adobe, ‘Lord of the universe’, Lord Jagannath.
The main entrance gate of the temple on the East is represented by lions named ‘Singhadwara’. The gate facing the West direction is represented by tigers and is called ‘Vyaghradwara’.
Similarly, the gate facing the North direction is represented by elephants called ‘Hastidwara’, whereas the gate facing South is called ‘Ashwadwara’ being represented by the horses.
Three gates, except the Singhadwara were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic to prevent crowding inside the temple.
