Jagannath Damodar Das: This year Surat witnessed the largest and grandest ever Rathyatra since last 25 years, people rushed to see Lord Jagannatha as moths rush towards fire. The day started with gloomy black clouds hovering around the Rath, but as soon as Lord Jagannath mounted the chariot, Indra greeted Him by sprinkling drops of rainfall and then ceased. Thus Lord Jagannath started His 15 km long journey. The soldiers of Prabhupada army with books in their hands appeared to have been lost among the crowds, but after 6 hours of book distribution, they emerged victorious with a highest ever book distribution during any Rath Yatra mahotsav in the whole of Gujarat. The devotees especially arranged a 14 day Marathon book distribution on this Rath Yatra occassion starting from 1-7-18 and ending on the Rath Yatra day and distributed books like madmen and thus achieved an awesome score:
62-Srimad Bhagvatm Set(18 Vol Set),
1484-Maha Big Books,
88-Midum Books,
775-Samall Books,
454-BTG Subscription,
985-Loose BTG,
1-Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta (9 Vol Set).
HG Jashomatinandan prabhu ( President) and
HG Vrindavan Prabhu ( Vice President) nicely administered the whole Rathyatra.
Also all other senior devotees from Surat attended the Rath Yatra. Book distribution parties were managed by HG Radhesh Prabhu and HG Arvindaksh Prabhu.
All glores to Srila Prabhupada transcendental book distribution.
Link To photos:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hmg1nH_x4vF-6HOo6VEmtbg40dWo8hdX?usp=sharing