About five hundred years ago, Sri Chaitanya on his pilgrimage to Puri from Nadia Navadweep visited Gopinath Temple at Remuna, situated in the Balasore district of Orissa. During the aforesaid pilgrimage, the Lord stayed for some time in the tiny Gadjat kingdom of Mangalpur, about 30 km away from Remuna. The king of the said tiny kingdom was initiated by Sri Mahaprabhu into the Vaishnava cult. The successors of the king later on took the pioneership in spreading the Vaisnava cult in the region by constructing several temples, of which Sri Chaitanya temple was one of them. Here, the life-sized Deities of Sri Nitai and Sri Gouranga have been kept.
A great historian of Orissa and a retired professor of Utkal University, Dr. Prahallad Mohanty, has done extensive research work on the historical events pertaining to the Vaishnava cult of the region. The history depicts that Sri Chaitanya during his stay at Mangalpur presented the king his wooden sandal in reciprocation of the hospitality shown by the king. The wooden sandal was worshipped for several years and later moved to Vrindaban by an unknown Saint. Presently the temple is affiliated with the Namahatta Sangha of ISKCON Bhubaneswar.
To keep the atmosphere surcharged with divinity forever by following the footprints of the great master Sri Chaitanya, the successors of the king built several temples, and the Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu temple was most prominent of all. The successors made all provisions to meet daily expenses of the temple as well celebration of all major festivals in the form of landed properties, without any provision for the temple maintenance.
Immediately after the Abolition of Jamindari, while the properties of the all the kings and Jamindars were curtailed, not much attention was given for the maintenance of the Mangalpur temple.
The chorus of pious Gita-govinda, with enchanting combination of various musical instruments which were reverberating throughout the atmosphere experiencing the cosmic consciousness with divine joy, became gradually feeble. The temple turned into a deserted monument and the unattended idols were deprived of day-to-day rituals.
The sanctified souls of the pious royal family might have screamed and shed tears to see their beloved Lord being neglected. Now, the temple is in a dilapidated condition. The massive entrance, “Nata mandir”, is going to be collapsed at any moment. The interior “Garva Griha”, having several weep holes, allows sun and rain water into the temple. Due to paucity of funds, only some minor repairs have been taken up on the sacrifices of some devotees. Now we wish and aspire, if we could take up a major revamp of the temple.
In this world of illusion and hallucination, every one of us at any given moment has a hundred desire struggling for their fulfillment. This is an ongoing process and with this process of struggle for existence, we do not know when the limited span of life will come to an abrupt end. For the great master Sri Chaitanya, an exquisite thinker, a brilliant intellect, a personality scintillating with Prem Bhakti for the almighty sweetly emotional in bliss, we beg with stretched hand to sacrifice in the form of donation for renovating the temple for which let the blessings of God shower on you.
