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Contents
Note rom Publisher 3Rath Yatra comes to the West 4Prabhupadas Childhood 7Jayananada Prabhu 9Fact about Carts 11Why Rath Yatra ? 12Credits 15
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Note from Publisher
By the mercy o Sri Sri Guru & Gauranga we are able to bring youanother volume o the JPS Archives Multi-media Magazine.
Tis Special Edition spotlights the Ratha Yatra Festival o LordJagannatha, Te Lord o the Universe.
Here you will find inormation about the History o the Ratha
Yatra, how it came to the West and the importance o the Festival.Tere are also many links to videos o Ratha Yatras around theworld.
We are grateul to all the devotees who have helped to put thistogether to increase the joy o the devotees,
Our gratitude extends to those who videoed the ootage thatwe now present to you. Te devotees who did the reasearch andcompiled the inormation. And our eternal gratitude to all o thedevotees who have helped to increase and improve this estivalaround the world.
May Lord Jagannatha kindly reveal Himsel to all o the devotees
and ortunate souls who happen to see, engage in or help with thisestival world-wide.
Your humble servantsJPS Archives Media Department
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Te first time the Festival oChariots was perormed outsideo India was on July 9, 1967 in SanFrancisco, under the supervisiono His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada(1896-1977).
Srila Prabhupada, as he ismore affectionately known, isthe Founder-Acarya o theInternational Society or KrishnaConsciousness (ISKCON) and isthe tenth generation rom LordChaitanya. Srila Prabhupada led
the Hare Krishna Movement,guiding his disciples to opentemples and perorm estivals allover the world.
Rath Yatra comes to
the West
Te first Deities o Jagannatha,Baladeva, and Subhadra in ISKCONwere discovered in San Franciscoin 1967. One o Srila Prabhupadas
early disciples, Malati dasi, sawa small figure in an import store,Cost Plus, and brought it to SrilaPrabhupada.
When Prabhupadasaw the figure, his eyesopened wide. He oldedhis palms and bowed hishead in respect. Ten hesaid, You have broughtLord Jagannatha, theLord o the universe.He is Krsna. SrilaPrabhupada mentioned
that Lord Jagannathawas worshiped withtwo other Deities: His
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brother, Balarama, and sister,Subhadra.
Malati confirmed that there wereother, similar figures at the store,and Srila Prabhupada asked her togo and buy them. So she and herhusband, Syamasundara,immediately went andbrought the other two
figures. Placing them withLord Jagannatha on hisdesk, Srila Prabhupadatold the devotees aboutJagannathas appearancein India thousands oyears ago, and how even
now He is worshiped ina great temple in Puriand taken in an annual
procession with His brother andsister, each in a huge chariot, in theRatha-yatra estival.
Prabhupada chanted, Jagannatha-svami nayana-patha-gami bhavatume: O Lord o the universe,kindly be visible unto me. And hesaid that henceorth San Franciscoshould be called New JagannathaPuri.
Prabhupada asked i any o thedevotees knew how to carve, andSyamasundara volunteered that hedid. Srila Prabhupada requestedhim to carve three-oot-highreplicas o the small Jagannatha,Balarama, and Subhadra. Ten
Syamasundara got three largeblocks o wood, and ollowingthe sketches and directionsthat Prabhupada gave him, hecarved the first large Deities
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o Jagannatha, Baladeva, andSubhadra in the Western world.Ten Prabhupada said that thedevotees should hold a Ratha-yatra estival.
So, ollowing Prabhupadasinstructions, Syamasundara andthe others arranged a flatbedtruck on which they erected fivetall columns, which they coveredwith cloth to serve as a canopy
over the Deities. And thenthey decorated the chariot withflowers. Te devotees didnt havemany vehicles then, and thosethey did have were pretty old anddilapidatedand unpredictable intheir perormance.
At the time o the first Ratha-yatrain San Francisco, Srila Prabhupadawas unwell, and the devotees hadrented a place or him at nearbyStinson Beach, where he couldrecuperate. Although Prabhupada
himsel was unable to attend theestival, the next day the devoteesalong with the Ratha-yatra truck,the Deities, and some hippies,came to visit him. Te devoteeswere excited and eager to report.
Syamasundara explained thatwhile he was driving the truck upa steep hill, the truck had stalled.
Although he had tried to start theengine, he couldnt. Ten the brakesailed, and the truck began to rollbackwards down the hill.
Finally he was able to stop it, butwhen he tried to move orward,
the engine stalled and the truckrolled backwards again. Againand again he would get it started,the truck would go orward, theengine would stall, and the truckwould roll backwards. Te situationseemed hopeless, and the devotees
wondered i they would even finishthe parade.
But finally by Lord Jagannathasmercy they were able to getthe truck moving orward andfinished the parade by driving Lord
Jagannatha all the way to see SrilaPrabhupada.
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Prabhupadas Childhood
Abhay (Srila Prabhupadas name)as a child always wanted to havehis own cart and to perorm hisown Ratha-yatra, and naturallyhe turned to his ather or help.
His ather, Gour Mohan agreed,but there were difficulties.When he took his son to severalcarpenter shops, he ound thathe could not afford to have acart made. On their way home,Abhay began crying, and an old
Bengali woman approached andasked him what the matter was.Gour Mohan explained that theboy wanted a Ratha-yatra cart butthey couldnt afford to have onemade.
Oh, I have a cart, the womansaid, and she invited Gour Mohanand Abhay to her place and
showed them the cart.
It looked old, but it was stilloperable, and it was just the rightsize, about three eet high. GourMohan purchased it and helped torestore and decorate it.
Father and son together constructedsixteen supporting columns andplaced a canopy on top, resemblingas closely as possible the ones on thebig carts at Puri. Tey also attachedthe traditional wooden horses anddriver to the ront o the cart. Abhayinsisted that it must look authentic.
Gour Mohan bought paints, andAbhay personally painted the cart,copying the Puri originals. His
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enthusiasm was great, and he becamean insistent organizer o variousaspects o the estival.
But when he tried makingfireworks or the occasion roma book that gave illustrateddescriptions o the process, hismother, Rajani, intervened.
Abhay engaged his playmates inhelping him, especially his sister
Bhavatarini, and he became theirnatural leader. Responding to hisentreaties, amused mothers inthe neighborhood agreed to cookspecial preparations so that he coulddistribute the prasadam at his Ratha-yatra estival.
Like the estival at Puri, AbhaysRatha-yatra ran or eight consecutivedays. His amily members gathered,and the neighborhood childrenjoined in a procession, pullingthe cart, playing drums and hand
cymbals, and chanting. Wearinga dhoti and no shirt in the heat osummer, Abhay led the children inchanting Hare Krishna.
Abhay never lost his love or RathaYatra estival and would later sharethat love throughout the world withdevotees rom every continent.
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One Devotee who really loved
Ratha yatra was Jayananda Prabhu,he was the backbone o the BayArea Ratha-yatra or years, andhis experiences at each one aresummarized in the 1977 Ratha-yatra edition o Back to Godheadmagazine.
Behind the scenes, Jayananda wasdoing everything in preparationor each estival. He would begood, flowers and unds, buymaterials and build the carts,advertise, arrange or permits,and organize the cooking andserving o prasad.
Jayananada PrabhuAlthough things always wentright down to the wire, he wouldconsistently succeed in ulfilling allhis plans every year.
Afer the estival, Jayanandapersonally brought a prasadamcake or pie to each and everyperson who had helped in some
way or another. Because ohis efforts, the devotees in theBay Area enjoy, to this day, anamazingly harmonious relationshipwith the city officials.
During the weeks beore the
estival, Jayananda would sleep atthe site where the Ratha carts wereunder construction. He would riseevery day at 4:00 A.M. without ail,even i that meant he was gettingonly three hours sleep or less.
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o keep his crew enlivened, hewould cook antastic prasadam
on a tiny gas stove at the site. Tepreparations were always careullyoffered, and each was filled withso much bhakti that the templedevotees would sometimes sneakdown to the cart site just to getsome.
Jayananda regarded his final Ratha-yatra, the 1976 estival in NewYork, to be his most successul.
Here is how he described the eventin a letter to Keshava Das:Somehow I got the good ortuneto work on the New York Ratha-yatra. It was such an auspiciousopportunity. Prabhupada wascoming, there was finally a first-class center in Manhattan, andsomehow oshan got an O.K. touse Fifh Avenue or the parade
route. Jambavan was here and wehad a couple o other boys whoworked very hard. I was praying
that somehow we could just get thecarts finished.
Somehow by Krishnas grace it
worked out. You wouldnt havebelieved some o the events. Tenight beore the estival, Saturday,at about 5 or 6 P.M., we wereraising Balarams dome and it wasat the top when a huge gust owind caught it and blew the whole
thing over. Te ramework was allbusted, the tubing twisted, etc. Ididnt see how we could rectiy thesituation as there was so much todo on the other two carts.
But two devotees who are expertbuilders vowed theyd somehowget it back together. I had someextra pipes, etc., and they workedall night and by Krishnas grace allthree chariots were at Fifh Ave.and 59th St. by 6:30 A.M. Sundaymorning.
Teres no place like New Yorkor Ratha-yatra. Te parade wastremendous as was the scene inthe park. Even when we pulledthe carts back to the constructionsite people would come out otheir apartments and bars and
chant Hare Krishna. I guess thatoccasion was the perection o mycareer in Krishna consciousness.
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An amazing eature o theRatha Yatra processionbesides the multitude isthe incredible size o the
Chariots; each Chariothas a name and differentdimension as per the deityon it.
Lord Jagannaths Chariot isknown as Nandigosh rath, itis 45f (13.71mts) high and
having sixteen wheels. Teabric o the roo is in Red and Yellowand a wheel is placed on the top o thechariot.
Baladevas chariot is known asaladvaja rath, the height o thischariot is 44f (13.2mts), and consists
o ourteen wheels. Te abric color othe roo is Red and Green. ala ruit isplaced on top o the chariot.
Te third and final Chariot is LadySubhadras chariot which is known
Fact about Carts
as Padmadvaja rath; this is LadySubhadras chariot. It is 43f (12.9mts)in height and consists o twelve wheels.Te abric on the roo is Red and Black.
Most amazing o all is that these
chariots have no steering ormechanism but simply pulled by ropesdrawn by the multitude that turns upor the event.
Te ratha yatra estival has so muchsignificance. Tis procession isactually Te Lords causeless mercy
as he comes out in the streets oreveryone to see him irrespective ocaste, aith, nationality etc.It is also a day when the lord takesa vacation in midsummer to relaxalongside his brother and sister.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xgIYmWB84Y&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLR00t2ZT0&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLR00t2ZT0&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLR00t2ZT0&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLR00t2ZT0&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLR00t2ZT0&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLR00t2ZT0&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xgIYmWB84Y&list=PLD6AAD976105A3F098/12/2019 Jagannath Rath Yatra-Around the World
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Why Rath Yatra ?
Te Festival o the Chariots issometimes reerred to as RathaYatra, literally meaning ChariotFestival. Ratha Yatra originated5,000 years ago in India, on theEast Coast state o Orrisa, in a citycalled Jagannatha Puri.
Te Festival celebrates LordKrishnas return to Vrindaban and
is held annually in the monthso June-July to honor LordJagannatha, which means Lord othe Universe.
Lord Jagannatha is a particularDeity orm o Lord Krishna,
ashioned rom neem wood andbrightly painted.
Te residents o Puri have beenworshipping this orm or manycenturies.
Five hundred years ago, LordChaitanya, the most merciulincarnation o Lord Krishna usedto daily visit Lord Jagannatha inthe temple and see Him in a moodo intense separation, much like
Srimati Radharani who was partedrom her beloved Krishna most oher days.
For the estivities; there are threechariots, one or each o the threedeities; Lord Jagannatha, Lord
Balarama and Lady Subhadra.
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Te canopied chariots are
decorated with flowers andballoons and are pulled withlong, thick ropes by hundredso people. Te chariots areaccompanied by a processiono devotees who are ecstaticallydancing and chanting the Lords
Holy Names.
Tis wonderul estival is not
limited to India alone as it nowhas a worldwide participationwith hundreds o thousands odevotees, all this has been madepossible by the mercy o HDG ACBhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
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Credits
Artwork [or photos, or text] courtesy ofThe Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Interna-
tional, Inc. www.krishna.com. Used withpermission.
www.krishna.com
Videos rom JPS Archives,
NIMAINIAI Youtube Channel
Researchers
Yamunajivana Das (BTS, BCS)
Chaitanya Tirtha Das (JPS)Dharmaraja Gaura Das (JPS)
Graphics & layoutJaiprakash
http://www.krishna.com/http://www.youtube.com/user/NIMAINITAI?feature=watchhttp://www.youtube.com/user/NIMAINITAI?feature=watchhttp://www.krishna.com/8/12/2019 Jagannath Rath Yatra-Around the World
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