JAGANNATH PRABHU AND BANDHU MOHANTY

 In Jajpur (Odisha) lived a great Bhakta of Jagannath Prabhu. His name was Bandhu Mohanti. Bandhu was very poor but always reassured his wife that he had a great friend who would take care of them.




Once, Bandhu had to face extreme hardships. His wife asked him to go to his rich friend. She did not know that Bandhu saw Jagannath Prabhu as his greatest friend. Bandhu had no option left but to take his family to Puri. They reached Puri with great discomfort.




As it was night, Bandhu told his wife that it was not right to go to someone’s house at that hour. So they stayed on the pavement. While Bandhu was asleep, a beautiful, dark man came to his wife with lots of food on a gold tray and disappeared.




When Bandhu came to know this, he was ecstatic with joy. However, in the morning aarti, a gold tray was found missing in Puri Mandir. It was found with Bandhu and he was put in prison. Same night, the King had a dream in which Jagannath Prabhu asked him to release Bandhu.




Prabhu asked the King to take care of Bandhu. The King released him and gave him the service of Prabhu as a cook in the Mandir. Even now, descendents of Bandhu Mohanty are the main cooks in the Mandir kitchen and daily offer food to Jagannath on a golden Tray.


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