By Basu Ghosh Das

 

The annual Jagannath Rathayatra festival, help on aashaadh shukla dvitiya, famous here in Gujarat as “aashaadh sud bij”, Saturday July 18, 2015, organized by ISKCON Baroda was once again highly successful.

 

The Jagannath Rathayatra festival was seen by approximately four lakhs (400,000) local residents.   Many devotees commented that the size of the crowds right from the Railway Station were noticably more than in past years!

 

Before the Rathayatra procession began in the afternoon, prominent elected leaders of society visited the Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar Mandir at ISKCON Baroda in the morning for darshan of the Deities.

 

The dignitaries included the Honorable Mayor of Baroda, Sri Bharatbhai Shah, Deputy Mayor Smt. Sunita Shukla, Baroda City President of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Sri Bharat Dangar, Leader of the opposition Congress Party in the Baroda Municipal Corporation, Sri Chandrakant (Batu) Shrivastava, Vuda (Vadodara Urban Development Corporation) Chairman Sri Naranbhai Patel, and Municipal Commissioner, Sri H.S. Patel (IAS).

 

Also present at the temple in the morning were Congress party leader and ex-Mayor Sri Dalsukh Prajapati, Sri Chirag Jhaveri, and Baroda City Congress Party President Sri Ranjitsinh Chauhan.  At 2:30 PM, the Mayor of Baroda, Sri Bharat Shah swept the road in front of the Rath, in the tradition of the Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, at Jagannath Puri, to inaugurate the Rathayatra.  

 

A huge crowd of thousands gathered at the Baroda (Vadodara) Railway Station, where the Rathayatra procession began.  Most of the very same political leaders mentioned above, as well as Baroda Member of Parliament, Smt. Ranjanaben Bhatt, Gujarat State Minister for Energy and Industries, Sri Saurabh Patel, District Collector Avantika Singh (IAS), MLA Jitubhai Sukhadia, ex-Minister/ex-MLA Sri Bhupendra Lakhawala, ex-Mayor and Gujarat State BJP General Secretary Sri Shabasharan Brahmbhatt, Standing Committee Chairman Dr. Hitendrabhai Patel and others came onto the Rath and offered garlands to Sri Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadradevi. 

 

Later on during the procession BJP MLA’s Yogesh Patel, Manisha Vakil, and Madhu Srivastava also joined the procession. A host of media personnel were also present filming the inaugural period of the Rathayatra, and the Rathayatra got very good local and possibly all India electronic and print media coverage. 

 

ISKCON senior leader Bhakti Vikas Swami and ISKCON Gujarat Chief Jasomatinandan Prabhu participated in the Rathayatra.  Also Murlimohan Das, Co-TP of ISKCON Vijayawada, Bhaktivinode Das, Co-TP of ISKCON Chandigarh, Sachidananda Das, President, ISKCON Vallabh Vidyanagar, Damodar Dulal Das, ISKCON India Minister for Cow Protection and head of the Nilachaldham Goshala run by ISKCON Juhu, Narahari Das, Guesthouse Manager at ISKCON Juhu, Radharanjan Das, Vice President of ISKCON Kanpur, and Sachiputra Das of ISKCON New Delhi also attended.

 

Also, five five (55) boys from the Bhaktivedanta Academy (gurukula school) at Sridham Mayapur also participated, headed by school Principal Priti Vardhana Das, Samba Das, and senior student Krishna Chaitanya Das.  

 

From Dubai Bhaktisiddhanta Das and his family, Navnit Taskar Das and his family, and the family of Nityananda Prasad Das attended.  Balkrishna Das’s family came from Poland to attend the festival.

 

Bhakti Vikas Swami led kirtan for more than an hour, showing renewed enthusiasm desipte having battled voice problems in the past.  A large contingent of devotees Vrindavan, headed by Narsingh Das, engaged in harinam sankirtan from the beginning of the procession until the end.  ISKCON Baroda Congregational devotees also led kirtans, as did the BA gurukula boys.

 

ISKCON Baroda bhakti vriksha leader Mantresh Gauranga Das, and IYF leaders Vamsidhari Das, and Nimai Nitai Das headed up book distribution efforts that went on throughout the Rathayatra procession.   Ladies headed by Smt. Lalit Govinda Das collected donations on the sidelines of the procession.

 

A large group of thousands that accompanied the Rath from the Railway station, through Sayajiganj to the Kala Ghoda (“black horse”) Circle, near the Sayaji Bagh (public garden, named after Maharaja (King) Sayaji Rao Gaekwad.

 

From there the procession was met by one group after the other, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Muslims of Macchipith, Bharat Maharaj of Santram Mandir, Ashok Pawar at Raopura, who released doves in what has become an annual event.

 

Mataji of Dhuliram Pedawala, Raopura businesmens association at Raopura, Jubilee Bagh, Sri Padmavati Shopping Center/Sur Sagar, Sri Ghani Kureshi Muslim BJP leader, the Lawyer’s association in front of the City & District Courts, “Nyaya Mandir”, unofficial municipal employees greeting in front of Khanderao Market, the Muslim community of Dudhwala Mohalla, near Bhagat Singh Chowk, Mahant of the Ramji Mandir, Madan Zampa Road, Kahar Samaj at Pattar Gate, Siddhi Vinayak Mandir near Jairatna Building and Kevda Bagh.   There were others who greeted the Rath at various places who’s names are too numerous to mention.

 

There were countless residents of Baroda who, along the way, also greeted the Rath and offered fruits, garlands, sprouted mung, and sweets to Lord Jagananth, Baladev, and Subhadradevi. 

 

Once again the festival passed off peacefully.   The Police and RAF [Rapid Action Force] SRP and other paramilitary forces who were deployed in large numbers served “above and beyond the call of duty” during the Rathayatra.

 Bhakti Vikas Swami performed arati and lectured to more than a thousand persons who were with the Rath at the end of the yatra and were too excited by the festival to just leave even after the procession was over.

 Afterward the Rathayatra , thousands of residents of Baroda were served full plates (bhojan) prasad at the ISKCON Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar Mandir.   This year, the numbers were more than in the past due no rain despite this being the monsoon season!.

 ISKCON Baroda Vice President Nityananda Ram Das, ISKCON Baroda Govinda’s Manager Ram Das, Bindu Madhava Das, Shyamsundar Das, Head Pujari Seva Vilas Das and the rest of the ISKCON Baroda devotees worked tirelessly to organize the festival, and participated in the festival procession as well.

The following volunteers and donors rendered exceptional services to the Rathayatra festival and it is fitting that their names be mentioned here: Gopal Shah, Chirag Thakkar, Mayur Shah, Ketan Patel, Chirag Barot, Bharat Patel, [both municipal councilors from the temple ward] Dhirubhai Patel, Nrupesh Patel, Jaimin Patel, Manish Patel, Shivlal Goyal, Dinesh Dalal, Kailas Agawarl, Kamal Agarwal, Purushottam Agarwal, Chandrika Patel, Rasikbhai Kotak, Narendra Vyas, Suresh Bhogilal Patel, Dr. Rakesh Bhandari, Manish Patel, Pradip Agarwal, Tansukh Gaur, Bhavarlal Gaur, and Chandrakant (Batu) Srivastav.

Again the festival was a grand success, and enlivened hundreds of thousands in Jagannath Consciousness here at Baroda!

Jagannath Swami ki jaya!  Jagannath Rathayatra Mahotsav ki jaya!  Jagannath, Baladev, Subhadra, Sudarshan chakra ki jaya!

Pictures of the festival posted on the internet at these links:

http://tinyurl.com/p68vad4

http://tinyurl.com/ofh3shp

http://tinyurl.com/pwuutey

 

Pictures of mass prasad distribution:

http://tinyurl.com/nqy22oj

Scanned print media (newspaper) clippings also posted on the internet:

http://tinyurl.com/qzzx4cj

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