Click above to see the whole gallery
By Gadhadara das
Lord Jagannatha’s chariot moves on to yet another new city in Indonesia. This time Jagannatha chose the city of Binjai in the North Sumatra Province of Indonesia. Located close to the business city of Medan, Binjai earns a name for itself in being a place of historical importance and presently a bustling city with different communities living together quite peacefully. Binjai city is a multi-ethnic city with Javanese, Batak, Chinese, Indian and Malay citizens. This complex ethnic mix gives Binjai a rich cultural and religious life. The majority of the population are Islamic, mainly of Javanese and Malay origin. The Christian population is next largest, and is mainly made up of Sumatran Christians, while the majority of Buddhists are of Chinese origin. There is one Hindu temple in Binjai, located on Ahmad Yani Street, and the Hindu population are mainly made up of ethnic Indians.
“This Rathayatra festival is very dear to me from my childhood days, so I very much appreciate your holding this festival …” Srila Prabhupada letter to his disciples in 1974.
Devotees along with Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra arrived from Hare Krishna Centre, Medan, a day ahead of the festival at Binjai to make the necessary arrangements. The festival was arranged at the Mariaman (Mother Durga) Temple, one of the oldest Hindu temples at the heart of Binjai City. The stage had been prepared; the chariot was going through final adjustments; the devotees, around fifteen to twenty, were eagerly making arrangements for prasadam, bhoga offerings and decorations. So many fruits were placed on the chariot for decoration as well as for distribution. The place still appeared empty considering the scale of the festival. Then it started to rain and would not cease, as if it had not rained for a long time.
In January 2014 devotees went for the first time to Binjai to see the prospects of preaching Krishna Consciousness there. For the team led by HG Srigarbha Prabhu along with his team HG. Mani Welen, HG Sachi Putra Prabhu, HG.Sudakara Prabhu, HG. Ragava Prabhu and Bhakta Gede, without any reference, it was a test of their dependence on the Lord. When they arrived at Mariaman temple they were praying to Durga Devi for her sanction to spread the glories of her Lord, Sri Jagannatha. Soon enough, mother Mariman answered their prayers. They met Dr. Nehru, a well-respected figure in Binjai and Mr. Ir. Rajkumar, leader of Sri Mariaman temple, both turned out to be exceptionally favourable. Dr. Nehru took books and showed genuine interest to follow the devotees. Our team was invited to give lecture at Mariaman temple as well as at the Chinese Buddhist temple, the most famous in the region. They liked our kirtan and class and surprisingly the in-charge of the Buddhist temple gave a donation to aid in our preaching. Hearing of their preaching and the favourable outcomes there, HH Subhag Swami, at that time, requested the devotees to try to have a ratha yatra in Binjai.
To follow up Maharaja’s instruction, H.G Mani welen with some devotees from Medan and Dr. Nehru met the authority of Mariaman temple, Mr. Rajkumar happily welcomed the plan to have ratha yatra and immediately they pledged their support and agreed to facilitate the festival. The preparations began. SrilaPrabupada wrote in his letter that “For the present your endeavor should be to make the ratha yatra 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 devotees in Binjai went to the Government authority of Binjai to seek permission and assistance for the festival. Surprisingly, the mayor of Binjai, Mr. HM. Idaham SH. M.Si, responded with great joy. He expressed that this is a good festival and should be organized annually in Binjai. “Even though Binjai doesn’t have many tourist spots but by the diversity of the ethnic cultures and communities in Binjai has the potential to attract many visitor to Binjai. This ratha yatra festival can enrich the cultural diversity here”, said the mayor when he received the committee of ratha yatra at his office. Officially this meeting was favorably published by the local newspaper a day ahead of the festival thus informing and inviting one and all to the festival.
The rain continued the whole day without any sign of stopping. ‘Would anybody come to the festival in the heavy rain, will the desire of the devotees to glorify Prabhupada bear fruit?’…many thoughts went on…all the devotees were praying. Subhag Maharaj calmed the devotees by saying, “This is just for cleaning the city before Lord Jagannath comes out on the chariot. There is nothing to worry about.” Saciputra Prabhu with Ananta guna Prabhu and others went on with the kirtan desiring to put Indra to sleep.
By early evening, the rain ceased; visitors started to arrive- surprised and amazed to see the magnificient and effulgent chariot, the wonderful kirtan and the blissful devotees who appeared as if they have come from another world. Within a short time the temple compound became packed up with people, mostly Chinese and Muslims and, of course, the local Indians. One striking significance of Binjai City is the way how these different communities of Hindus, Muslims, Chinese, Buddhists, Christians and others have blended so well that they all seem to belong to one family but only wearing variety of dresses. They have so intimate relationship among themselves that one group would happily take part in others festivals. But this ratha yatra was special….all the communities in Binjai was there taking part in the festival of Lord Jagannath. This was certainly a sight to see and remember. Many Srila Prabhupada’s books were also distributed. One gentleman came and after hearing few words about the books from Bhakta Gede Sukarta, who is presently the top book distributor in Indonesia, immediately asked for each copy of all the books and carried with him one carton of transcendental books.
This Ratha Yatra Festival was highly appreciated by informal organization and communities in Binjai as well as government officials and institution. Some of them gave us warm welcome support and also express their gratitude to devotees and festival by sending the big Congratulatory Flower Board [papan karangan bunga CRB] to us on the day before the festival. They put the CRB on the street, just in front of the temple main gate. The appreciations was given by Taoism Community (Perkumpulan Umat Tao), The Binjai Police (Kapolres Binjai, Dandim 0203), Binjai-Tionghoa Ethnical Forum (Forum Etnis Tionghoa Binjai), The Chairman of Binjai Local Parliament (Ketua DPRD Kota Binjai), Head of Desa Lama (Kapala Pusat Desa Lama), Secretary of Binjai City (Sekretaris Daerah Kota Binjai), Paduma Buddhist Temple (Vihara Budha Paduma), Dewi Kwan In Buddhist Temple (Vihara Dewi Kwan In, Dei Tju Seng) and Setia Buddhist Temple (Viraha Setia Budha). This is in fact, for the first time, Jagannath Ratha Yatra in Indonesia is highly appreciated and congratulated by many important organizations and from different faiths and communities.
As Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhada and Sudarshana were getting ready to take Their place on the chariot, the traditional Chinese Lion dance or Barong Sai welcomed Their Lordships and all the visitors. This was followed by another Chinese dance, Traditional Chinese doll dance, which entertained everybody present. Putting aside his busy schedule, the Mayor also arrived and said in his speech that he desire that the ratha yatra of Jagannatha should be held every year which implies that the devotees are also invited to come to Binjai every year because this festival brings together all people raising them above all differences of communities. Other dance troupes also performed for Jagannatha – The Reog Ponorogo (East Java traditional dance), traditional Sumatra dance, Bharat Natyam and others…All the honoured guests were presented a shawl and Subhag Maharaj personally gave a copy of Bhagavad-gita as it is to the Mayor and the guests present. Coconuts with camphor lamps were offered to the Lord and breaking the coconuts marked the start of the procession. At almost around 10 pm Lord Jagannatha came on the street of Binjai thereby bestowing His mercy even to those who would not come to the temple to see Him. Those who could not hold the rope to pull the chariot, went behind and began to push the chariot.
The chariot was decorated, hand-crafted by our artistic-devotees. It was full of flowers and nice lightings, glowing at night time along the way. From the distance they could see the glowing effulgence of the chariot yet could not figure out what it was and just could say “What is that…??” wondering until the chariot came closer to them. The Devotees and public took the chariot approximately 4 km on the main road of Binjai City. A wonderful sight we saw along the way: many old, young, man and woman, little children were very happy to get fruits as Jagannath-mahaprasadam; young boys and girls along with devotees dancing joyfully on the street in front of Jagannath. The Kirtan team sang the mahamantra Hare Krishna loudly in different melodious sweet and fired-up tune. In the middle of the parade, suddenly the local onlookers started to offer fire-works to Jgannatha. Hard to believe, as the chariot moved on so many people came to join the festival…a gross estimate went upto 10,000 people. On the way, again many families presented offerings of flower garlands, fruits, lamps. Around 12 midnight, the chariot arrived back at Mariaman tempe and there ensued a fired up kirtan and all took part in dancing irrespective of being Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Chinese. With the expression of gratitude from the festival committee to all of devotees, participants, peoples and Government of Binjai and Mariamman temple committee the festival came to a close and everybody present there honoured mahaprasad. We could observe a common sight everywhere…..everybody was happy.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank to Binjai City Government and Mr. H. Muhammad Idaham, M.Si, Mayor of Binjai, Shri Mariamman Temple Committee who gave us support and wonderful place for the procession and Dr. Nehru, who gave support and took charge of the festival as the chairman. Devotees were remembering the hard work and sincere preaching by Srigarbha Prabhu six months prior to the ratha yatra who convinced the important people in Binjai to organize the ratha yatra festival. Special thanks goes to Sriman Tapana Mishra Prabhu who has been very instrumental in organizing all these rath yatra festivals.
We hope that Prabhupad is pleased and bless the devotees who organize such a wonderful Ratha-yatra. Srila Prabhupada 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). He also blessed all devotees as he stated in his other letter that “may Krishna bless you all for your sincere service that you may all go on making more and more advancement in Krishna Consciousness.” (SPL to Jayananda das, 19th July, 1976).
Our ever grateful obeisances goes to H.H Kavichandra Swami and H.H Ramai Swami, the GBCs of Indonesia, who have been guiding the devotees in pushing forward the sankirtana movement of Mahaprabhu. Our humble obeisances to H.H Subhag Swami who has been always reminding us of the importance of taking part in Sankirtan and inspiring us with the dedication of Sriman Jayananda Prabhu; for bringing us closer to Srila Prabhupada and keeping us united in family of ISKCON. Our gratitude to Leader of Binjai Hindu Parisad, Leader of SAKKHI Medan, Bhakta Maniwelen Prabhu. And to all Devotees and participants from Medan and Binjai, who dedicated many days, a lot of effort and resources for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Jagannath, Baladev, Subhadra Devi. Our gratitude to Brajanagara das and Bhakta Edy, Our chariot architect and decorator. Sanjaya das, our kitchen manager. Sankirtan team Sridhara das, Sesa das, Sachi Putra das, Ananta Guna das, Narayana das, who lead the wonderful sweet and fire-up kirtan. Our gratitude to Guru caran prabhu for his great support. Our gratitude to committee cairman Dr. Nehru who gave so much time for the success of the festival, Leader of Binjai Hindu Parisad. Our gratitude to Dade prabhu and family, Selwa prabhu, Sindai prabhu, Wiswamitra prabhu, Jayanti mataji, and Rani mataji for their great support. Our gratitude to Sudakara prabhu for being pujari and preparing all the puja necessity. Our gratitude to Nara Narayan prabhu, Acyuta Krishna Prabhu, and Gadhadara prbabhu for contributing their beautiful pictures of the festival.
We offer our humble obeisances to Srila Prabhupada again and again for showering his unlimited mercy upon the devotees and keeping us engaged in the movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Jay Jagannath, Baladeva, and Subadra Devi ki…. Jay!