Melbourne’s First Rathayatra Festival, Monday, 17 July 1972.
“Prabhupada was convinced that the festival was an important part of Krsna consciousness culture, and had personally told Madhudvisa that the Rathayatra parade was so spiritually potent that just by following the chariot of Lord Jagannatha as it passed down the road, one would be liberated from repeated birth and death.
Madhudvisa also had his own, special, personal experience of the potency of the Ratha-yatra festival – it had first attracted him to become a devotee, and later he had helped organize the 1969 and 1970 Ratha-yatra festivals in San Francisco.
Madhudvisa was well aware of the enormity of such an event, and he inspired others. May and June 1972 saw devotees in Melbourne work tirelessly on the multifarious aspects of Ratha-yatra – fund raising, purchase and acquisition of materials, publicity, planning the actual parade, hiring a hall for after the parade, and organizing a feast for thousands
Vaibhavi, now an accomplished artist, drew up plans for the cart from studying pictures of the massive chariots in Jagannatha Puri. After corresponding with Nara-Narayana who had designed the first carts in America, she came up with an especially scaled-down version that would fit into a single Melbourne traffic-lane. Notable also would be a special, custom-made mechanism to lower and raise the silken canopy to avoid the overhead tram lines that spanned the city streets.
Vaibhavi decided on the final color scheme, the position of the colorful blue and white swan motifs, the size of the Deity platform, and the location of the fencing. She tended to even the smallest details – the dimensions of the spire, the design of the kumbha, the parrots, the length of the flag, and even the angle of slope for the multicoloured canopy.
Work began under extreme weather conditions – the Melbourne winter of 1972 was a severe one. A vacant lot in Carlton was donated for the duration of the construction. Devotees labored day and night. Sometimes unknown men and women would turn up on the rugged, muddy site and volunteer their services for painting or construction.
Once, an old staggering drunk insisted on holding a kerosene lamp for hours so the devotees could work through the night. To the devotees, it seemed that Lord Jagannatha – Krsna, the Lord of the Universe – was personally, causelessly engaging these persons in His devotional service. Some of these men and women became so inspired that they actually became devotees.
And where was Lord Jagannatha? A Ratha-yatra parade held no meaning without the smiling, angular-faced Deities of the Lord and His brother Balarama and His sister Subhadra.
Dipak recalls: “One grey, overcast day I was out driving when I came upon an old sawmill. There I saw a huge seasoned log of hardwood lying on the ground. I purchased it and had it cut into three pieces then drove them back to the newly acquired Hare Krsna shop in Little Lonsdale Street and set them up in the chilly loft. The Lord had come to Melbourne!”
Dwaipayana Das recalls: “I had a desire and one day it was fulfilled. Vaibhavi asked me if I would like to help carve Lord Jagannatha! I was thrilled and honored.
Dipak came back from the sawmill with three logs and we carried them upstairs to an area partitioned off from the Mighty Apollo Gymnasium. We started with a chainsaw and then continued with hand tools. Dipak carved Lord Balarama and I carved Subhadra and Jagannatha. Finally, Nartaki painted them.”
Dipak: “I remember daily entering that freezing loft. There was such a holy atmosphere. Each morning we would come and offer our obeisances to the unfinished Deities and then commence our work. It had such a powerful effect on us. To this very day, I have a deep attraction to Lord Jagannatha.””
From The Great Transcendental Adventure, by Kurma dasa