Mayapur Rathayatra (23 min video)
Mayesvara das: After Jayananda was sent to LA to improve his health at the end of the 1976 Historic NY Rathayatra, I coordinated the followup 1977 parade which was also successful, but not as well attended as the one where Srila Prabhupada personally road on Subhadra’s cart! Shortly after that, I went to build the 1978 Kolkata Rath cart envisioning it would be like the parade we had in NY. (Big Mistake!) Some may also know that we have since held Rathcart processions as part of the classical July Fourth parade in Ojai California. The coordinators of that event have told me we are the biggest entry in the parade as well as the most unique so they love our participation. But to understand this clip better one can compare the parade we have in Ojai, to the parade we had in NY, which was obviously bigger, but NOT anywhere nearly as big as what happens when you hold Rathayatra in India! This clip gives the viewer a chance to witness what I had to deal with in 1978 wherein the first ten minutes of the parade the enthusiasm was so great the 7 ft wheels got wedged into a high curb and because there was so much torque from the enthusiastic crowd, the whole front axle immediately twisted and was rendered useless. Those who want to know how we solved that mix up can read about it here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=59544
But for now… just see the incredible enthusiasm of the crowd here which is in the tens of thousands! Readers may also find it interesting to note that the word Juggernaut, which entered into our lexicon by the British and means: “Unstoppable force” came from the word Jagannatha! Upon witnessing the original Rathayatra parade in Orissa Puri where Lord Jagannatha would ride on the huge chariots there, the British rulers would inquire.… “What is this?” and the crowd would respond by simply crying out “Jagannatha!” (Which means Lord of the Universe!) Three million people generally attend this event and when those carts start rolling they are unstoppable! You can get a sense of that on a smaller scale here with this video clip.
“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu desired to meet all the devotees of Bengal every year. Therefore He ordered them to come to see the Ratha-yatra festival every year.”
Madhya 1.137
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/WbYnks