The significance of rathayatra reached the far corners of the globe now and especially where ISKCON temples are located ever since Srila Prabhupada organised the first rathayatra in San Francisco in 1967 as briefed below. The rathayatra was scheduled on a Sunday the 9th July. On Saturday, 8th July, Jagannatha Deities were brought from Stinson Beach and draped in cloth. Although some rathayatra posters were the only official announcements, everyone in the Haight-Ashbury was talking about the festival. A Krishna parade to the beach! A love feast! Bring flowers, wear bells, paint up, chant, and get high! Celebrate Sri Jagannatha, Lord of the universe!
On Sunday, 9th July, Shyamsunder Prabhu brought the flat bed truck on which the chariots were mounted and the deities were installed, undraped and garlanded Them with hibiscus. Lord Jagannatha was placed on the right side of the cart beneath the foldable canopy engineered by Jayananda Prabhu. While placing the Deity, the devotees sang jagannatha-swami nayana pathagami bhavatu me, “O Lord of the universe, please be visible unto me.” Subhadra looked out from the rear, and Lord Balarama was seated on the left. On the cart’s four corners were placed Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and ISKCON flags. The ISKCON flag consisted of a Sanskrit AUM and a drawing of a dancing pair of Radha and Krishna.
Srila Prabhupad said, “Actually, each Deity should ride in a separate cart and the carts should be pulled with ropes by the crowds through the streets. But that is all right. May be in the future you can arrange that.” Music and kirtans were sung all way through the parade. The girls were dressed in saris, and the gents wore dotis and kurta. Drums, cymbals, and tambourines were played in rhythm, and the crowd started chanting Hare Krishna. The girls handed out oranges, apples, bananas, chapatis, and puris to all those came near. As Shyamasundar Prabhu drove down the car to Haight, people lined up the sidewalk and flowed out into the street to follow the cart, while Lord Jagannatha kept smiling. Frequently the cart slowed to a halt as people clustered around the dancing devotees in front of the car. Flowers, apples and kisses were distributed to those hippies flocked up and the crowd roared “Radha Krishna Temple ki jai! New Jagannatha Puri ki jai!” The crowd and hippies all chanted the Hare Krsna mahamantra. Finally, the cart reached the Pacific beach of San Francisco with some hitches on the way. Soon Srila Prabhupad also arrived at the beach and together they ate the prasadam and everyone was elated. All listened to Srila Prabhupad about Jagannatha Puri and Vaikuntham while partaking the prasadam. Prabhupadji said, “As long as we are in the ocean of material nature, we will feel anxiety, but not in Vaikuntha. That is what Vaikuntha means, freedom from anxiety. Everyone in the material universe- from Lord Brahma down to the tiny ant- is anxious about something. If you see a bird and make a sudden move, that bird will fly away from fear. He is anxiously thinking, ‘Oh, what will catch me and eat me?’ The Padma-purana says that the smaller living entities serve as food for the larger. So all are in anxiety- even Brahma himself, for although his years are incalculable by our system, there is finally annihilation.”
The Deities are to remain some days at Paradisio before returning to the temple. Then the devotees packed back in the empty truck and their vehicles. Srila Prabhupad said, “That was but the beginning,” Prabhupadji said the following morning. “We will inaugurate many such celebrations all over the world. One by one, I will show you.” That was the beginning of the first rathayatra outside Bharatam. Where rathayatra procession is not held, a special puja followed by great feast will be organised to all ISKCON devotees in memory of the great festival and many visitors too join for the sumptuous Krsna-prasadam distributed and receive the blessing of Jagannatha, Lord of the universe.
It remind us Srila Prabhupad’s childhood pastime in building rathas (carts) and organising yatras (processions). When he was barely six, Abhay (original name of Srila Prabhupad) wanted to organise a brief rathayatra imitating the grand procession held at Calcutta. He was also enthused at Mahaprabhu’s ecstatic dancing before the rathayatra at Puri four hundred years ago. Abhay insisted his father Gour Mohan to buy a decent Ratha for him. The father and son visited many carpenters to see some models they could chose from, but the price was unaffordable. Soon an old woman arrived at home. Seeing the worried Abhay, she enquired, “Why young Abhay is worried?” From Abhay’s mother Rajani, the woman understood about his ardent love for a ratha. The woman said, “I have a cart at home. Come and take it.” Gour and Abhay went and bought it. The wooden cart was small, but of decent size for the kids to smart on. They fixed wooden horses to the carts and painted and decorated them to resemble like the original rathas of Puri. Abhay’s sister Bhavantarini also helped him to ornament the Jagannatha Deities. Abhay collected his friends and organised a rathayatra on streets of Calcutta. It resembled like a fair mini replica of the original Puri rathayatra. It showed the young Abhay’s interest towards rathayatras and it infused confidence in the growing mind to later build upon his talent to organise large scale ratha-yatras all over Bharatam and across the globe. Abhay’s immense love for Radha-Krshna and Jagannatha Deities from childhood was inherent and God gifted, and those holy hands later blessed millions of people to become dear devotees of Gauranga and follow His path to worship Ratha-Govinda and participate in the colourful of rathayatra festivities world-wide.
Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21629
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