Mayapur: Departure of our bull “Jagannath”!
One of the attraction of our Saturday elephant procession is our beautiful big horned black bull Jagannath, majestically pulling the bullock cart of Gaura Nitai. It is a usual sight that the visitors would somehow sneak in to have a snap with him. He is a very gentle, very friendly bull, who has been doing this service for years for the pleasure of Gaura Nitai. Sometimes he also pulls the Goshala bullock cart that used to run from Govinda’s to Goshala. Recently he was ill, became very weak and on 2nd February he left his body. The way he departed was amazing, which shows that he is a very special soul. Though normally the cows deny taking its food prior to its departure, Jagannath voluntarily gave up having food for 14 days and was taking very little water, without showing any sign of tiredness. He was very peaceful and grave and didn’t accept service from anyone. On the early morning Brahma muhurta hours, he left his body facing the north direction. His departure reminds of the great Mahajan Bhishma deva. His body was peacefully laid with garlands of Narasimhadeva, Radha Madhava covered by the dust of the holy Dhama in the midst of Kirtan by devotees. Every soul in the dhama is special and Jagannath is undoubtedly one of those special souls. Now he has gone back to continue his eternal service in Goloka Dhama. We also thank the devotees who served Jagannath by bringing garlands, caranamrita, cleaning his place and playing non-stop Prabhupada chanting box. We pray to him that may we also be blessed with the opulence to leave our body in the dust of the holy Dhama. We will forever miss his association in the elephant processions.