By Hari Narayana Das
Indonesia is receiving profuse showers of mercy from Their Lordships Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra Devi and is still continuing. In an attempt to glorify Srila Prabhupada to the best of their ability, Hare Krishna devotees hailing from different places of Indonesia under the guidance His Holiness Subhag Swami, took up the most seemingly impossible task of having a Ratha Yatra for Lord Jagannatha in Medan, Sumatera Utara (North Sumatra), Indonesia. This being the second of three Ratha Yatras in series : Batam, Medan and Kendari. Many a concerned well wishers tried to persuade the devotees to refrain from such a childish attempt because there is still no full fledged temple or centre in Medan neither any full time commited devotee and the locals there including the Indians have no idea about Ratha Yatra, so how would it be possible to garner any substantial support for the festival? The determination of these few enthusiastic devotees did not prove futile. Lord Jagannatha was preparing a wonderful plan and He was pushing His own special group of devotees so that He can fulfill the desire of His pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada, who dreamed to spread the holy name to every town and village of the world.
The Medan Ratha Yatra on 19 January’2014 made history in being the largest Jaganntha Ratha Yatra ever to be held in Indonesia till date. Before, Ratha Yatra was confined only to Bali island where the population is primarily Hindus, but recently Lord Jagannatha made His appearance on the Ratha in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, Jember in East Java, and Tolai in Central Sulawesi.
The booming city of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, Indonesia, is an economic hub and commercial center for the region. This is the largest city in Sumatra attracting residents from all over Indonesia. The city has diverse communities, reflecting its history. A highly visible component of Medan’s population is the large number of Chinese. The city also hosts a sizable community of Tamil descendants who are commonly known as Madrasis or Tamilian and have been in Medan for at least 4-5 generations. A well-known Tamil neighbourhood is Kampung Madras in the city center, being one of the busiest part of the Medan Town. Now Medan became witness to the great and spectacular first Ratha-yatra ever.
The devotees in Medan is only 3 families headed by Bhakta Maniwelan who established a small preaching centre there since 2012 and continuing Srila Prabhupada’s preaching programs till date. SrilaPrabhupada wrote in a letter that “It doesn’t matter if you can or cannot establish a temple there, but if you can introduce the Ratha-yatra, surely it will be agreat success. So try to execute this will as far as possible.” (SPL to Yamuna, 27th May 1969). In his other letter Srila Prabhupada wrote “…. If we introduce this festival in all big city in the world olond side with book distribution then in no time we will conquer the whole world.” (SPL to Bhutatma, 7th August, 1973). To the happiness of all the devotees in Medan, Lord Jagannath decided to visit Medan along with His elder brother Sri Balaramji and Sister Subhadra Devi and go around the city in a wonderfully decorated ratha and thus mark the first RathaYatra Festival in Medan.
SrilaPrabupada wrote in his letter that “ For the present you endevour should be to make rathayatra festival grand and successful. You should arrange the procession and procedure so nicely that all the neighborhood people may be attracted to join the procession.” (SPL to Upendra, 1stJune, 1968).
The same group of devotees who made the Ratha in Batam worked tirelessly in Medan starting from searching the chasis for the Ratha, looking for suitable quality wood on which their chisels would work for the next few months. Despite major setbacks devotees continued undaunted and every small breakthrough came like fresh showers. Support came from the Hindu Parishad of Indonesia, from authorities of Balaji temple in Medan, the Mayor of Medan city and from devotees from every nook and corners of Indonesia.
Srimat Subhag Swami was personally present to see that everything was done to meet Prabhupada’s standard. A day before, on 18th of January 2014, devotees organized the first Cida Dahi festival in Medan. Devotees carried Sri Sri Gaura Nitai to the beach where there had enthusiastic kirtan. To everyone’s surprise, the sea came up all the way almost upto the altar and would not go back. Some may say it was high tide, but for the devotees the sea came to touch the lotus feet of Gaura Nitai nd take part in the festivities. Some devotees carried Sri Sri Gaura Nitai on a palanquin for a dip in the sea while some moved the altar to higher ground. Abhiseka, class by Srimat Subhag Swami, arati and an enthusiastic uplifting kirtan followed by prasad distriution made the festival complete.
Next day would be the biggest challenge. Devotees went back from the Cida Dahi festival straight to the spot of the Ratha Yatra in the main City and worked whole night to set up the pandal, assemble the huge detachable altar made of wood and decorate the Ratha. Indeed they forgot sleep. The Deities of Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra Who were carved in Medan itself by His Grace Brajanagar das from East Java, graciously accepted Their place on the altar. A fire sacrifice was held to invoke auspiciousness. Very soon the whole pandal was full of people. The Mayor also arrived there. Offerings of cultural items gave a wonderful taste to the festival: there were a Bharat natyam performance, local Sumatra dance- the Si Gale Gale, the Aigiri and a lamp dance by the local Indian girls.
Mr. Dzulmi Eldin, the Mayor of Medan, expressed that the Ratha Yatra festival serves as a means to bring all the culturally distinct people together on a common platform of peaceful co-existence and mutual understanding and therefore the Government earnestly supports the Jagannatha Ratha Yatra festival. To everyone’s surprise and pleasure, Mr. Irman Gusman, Chairman of the Indonesia Regional Representatives Council (DPD), who is supposed to appear in the upcoming presidential election of Indonesia, also came to the Pandal. He actually came to Medan to visit the victims of Sinabung Montain eruption, but when he heard the ratha yatra festival in airport from his assistant he decided to come to the Ratha-yatra. He also gave short speech, in the opening ceremony. In humility he expressed his apologies for coming in a t-shirt and not in the proper attire to the festival because he had no time to change his clothes from the airport. He further said that Medan was the barometer of diversity and tolerance in Indonesia because the city respected the diversities of the religions and cultures. Through this festival, Medan would spread the unity in diversity to other part of Indonesia.
Other guest who came on to the festival were Adi Purusha Das- the leader of SAKKHI (representative of ISKCON in Indonesia), Head of Medan Tourism Department, Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association, Head of Medan Educational Department, leader of Hindu society of Medan, Mr. Siwaji Raja.
Srimat Subhag Swami, on behalf of the organizing committee, presented a copy of Bhagavad-gita as it is to all the honored guests. Mr. Gusman himself came up to Maharaj to seek his signature on the Bhagavad-gita and expressed his happiness to be meeting all the devotees there. Many devotees from other countries also came to participate in the Ratha-yatra festival.
The Rathayatra started at 17.00 noon local time. The weather was so nice. The golden sunset in the horizon made the day so beautiful breeze made more perfect atmosphere, it was as if everything had been adjusted so nicely to welcome the Lord of the Universe. After Lord Jagannath, Balarama, and Subradra Devi sat on the chariot, They were offered bhogas and arati. After the arati the guest were given coconut with camphor light to offer to the Lord. H.H. Subhag Swami Maharaj along with the Mayor and Mr. Gusman were then requested to play role as representatives of Pratapa Rudra Maharaja and sweep the path of the chariot. Then the chariot was pulled by almost 5000 bhaktas who mostly Indians and devotees with tumultuous kirtan and everyone chanting ‘Jay Jaganntha, Jay Baladeva, JaySubhadra”. Maharaj and the guests were given first opportunity to pull the chariot. They were so joyful. The kirtan party sang the Hare Krishna mahamatra melodiously all throughout the procession. All the devotees were so happy and blissful with the high and unexpected attendance. And to give more mercy, Lord Jagannatha used the plea of wrong direction to travel nearly double the distance of what was originally planned and thus give darshan to more people. The ratha yatra lasted until 12.00 midnight and this may be the first night ratha yatra festifal ever in the world.
The festival was reported by local and National Medias. Some National Media put the Rathayatra festival in their headlines. On the festival devotees also did book distribution and prasadam distribution. We hope that Prabhupad is pleased and bless the devotees who organize such a wonderful Ratha-yatra. Srilaprabhupada mentioned in his letter that “ I thank you all very much for making the rathayatra festival so successful. Please convey my gratitude to all the boys and girls who participated in this great transcendental service.”(SPL to Upendra, 4th July 1968).
