Episode 20: New & Improved 1979 Chariot
“Now you must all three, along with the other sannyasis, GBC members, and other leaders become very serious to actually give the human kind the greatest welfare, namely, this Krsna consciousness movement. Your task ahead is very huge, but it will be quite simple and easy if you simply do as I am doing. You must become conversant in every feature wherever it is needed throughout the society. Our first business is to preach to the devotees and to maintain the highest standard of Vaisnava education. Management must be there as well, just as I am preaching daily from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-Gita, but I am also going to the bank, making investments, seeing the trial balance making letters, seeing how things are going on, like that. So you must become expert in all these matters, just as I am giving you example.” - (Letter to Hrdayananda, 9th July, 1972)
That next year I studied the problems we encountered and recalled the miracle that made it possible for the Rath Yatra to proceed safely through the streets of Calcutta. Had Lord Jagannatha not intervened by immediately destroying the front axle there would have been no way to control the two-ton chariot. Property would surely have gotten damaged and someone could have easily been hurt. I realized that it was time to retire the parallel pipe steering system, which simply would not work in Calcutta. That led to the idea of putting a big ship steering wheel up on the deck where the driver could navigate the cart gracefully without being consumed by all the pandemonium that went on using the steering bar concept that occurred at street level.
I had the rear axle shipped to Mayapur because the one wheel was so torn up on the inside of the hub that a huge burr had made it impossible to pull the wheel off. After trying everything I could to remove it I ended up asking the garden crew to dig a 13 foot hole in the ground leaving all the other residents at Sri Mayapur Chandradoya Mandir who was watching me thinking I was digging a well. I was actually struggling with how to get the wheel off the end of the inch steel axle and I finally decided to suspended the wheel over the hole so the axle hung down into Mother Bhumi. Then with the help of a large block of wood to protect the end I pounded on it with a 10lb sledgehammer like Bheema pounded the thighs of Duryodhana. It sounded like hell and everyone thought I had gone mad but after battling with the axle for several days the wheel finally came off. I then cut two very deep opposite spiraling grease grooves on both sides of the axle to ensure the wheels would never lock up again.
When I searched for a new front axle I got one that was designed for a much heavier truck and I discovered that it was equipped with big air calipers to activate the brakes. In this way I understood that Lord Jagannatha was telling me that if I equipped the cart with air brakes I would solve all the problems related to stopping the cart. I did exactly that and the results were remarkable!
With the addition of an air tank to drive the air brakes, I realized I had a pressured air supply that could easily move one of those extremely loud air horns big tractor trailer trucks are equipped with. So I purchased one and mounted a switch on the steering triangle that was used to hold up the big eight handled round wooden steering wheel, which was now mounted off to the side on the top of the cart. This was a huge improvement because it gave the driver full view of the road and full control of the cart. The air breaks made it possible to stop the cart on demand, and whenever we needed to get the attention of the crowd a quick tap on the switch that controlled the air horn immediately got everyone's attention.
The next year Chaitanya Jivan came to help me rebuild the cart with all the “New and Improved Features” that I had worked out. When it was time for Lord Jagannatha to make his annual visit to Shyam Park the chariot had been completely rebuilt with several innovations that had never been done before. In 1979 I was ready with high-pressure air brakes and a very loud air horn to blast for both safety and celebratory reasons. The steering wheel on the deck worked marvelously and all the driver had to do to stop the cart was turn a simple lever which expanded the air brake calipers and stopped the rotation of the wheels regardless of how many exuberant devotees pulled on the ropes.
The public was further protected by two paper mache wheel guards that sat on a deck that I had extended out and in front of the huge wheels on each side of the cart. They worked like a cowcatcher on a train. The idea was that as the chariot rolled forward the leading extra decks forced people out of the way from the danger of the approaching steel wheels as the rath rolled forward.
For more details E-mail at : mdjagdasa@gmail.com
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