On Thursday 4th of July, the people were blessed by the auspicious appearance of the Lord of entire cosmic manifestation, Shri Jagannath on the streets of Netrakona town in Bangladesh. Srila Prabhupada says, “So this festival, taking part in these festivals, means a step forward for our self-realization. Rathe ca vāmanaṁ drstvā punar janma na vidyate…. Simply by seeing the Lord on the chariot, one makes advancement for stopping the repetition of birth and death.” (SP, Rathayatra address, London, 1972)
The Rathayatra in Netrakona is becoming bigger and bigger every year due to the tireless efforts of the devotees. By the mercy of the Lord, this year’s Rathayatra festival broke all the previous records. 20,000 plates of prasadam were distributed and more than 500 young students joined the festival by wearing a special Rathayatra T-shirt. People from nearby tribal areas came to take part in the festival. Huge crowd and enthusiasm of the devotees transformed the town in to a little Vaikuntha. There were thousands of people on the streets who were chanting the holy name of the Lord: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. Devotees from nearby area such as Gopalpur, Durgapur, Khaliyari, Shyamganj, Atharabari and Madan came in buses to join the annual Rathayatra festival. This year Rathayatra festival was celebrated on the same day as Rathayatra festival in Jagannath Puri Dham.
It was a scorching afternoon and around 1 P.M., Lord Jagannath is respectfully brought from the temple and is made to sit onto his Ratha. Loud sound of Conchshell collect the attention of gathered crowd, then camphor coconut lamps and incenses were offered to the Lord on the Ratha. Mr. Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock was the chief guest of the festival. The Rathayatra was inaugurated with maha yagya ceremony at 11 A.M. by reciting Vedic mantras, invoking auspicious environment. Tumultuous chanting of Hare Krishna mahamantra lead by kirtaniyas, HG Anantadeva Prabhu, HG Ramjivan Prabhu, and HG Sanatana Prabhu vibrated all directions. Happiness prevailed in everybody’s heart. People were immersed in the loud chanting of holy name and even the people of other religion got the mercy. Lord’s mercy comes in the form of Mahaprasadam and common people on the streets relished prasadam distributed by devotees as the Ratha of the Lord marching forward on the streets of Netrakona. Thousands of peoples became spiritually elevated by this single festival. Srila Prabhupada said, “So I am very glad that you have taken so much trouble to come here. Now you will chant Hare Krishna mantra along with the devotees and take part in honoring the prasadam.”(SP, Rathayatra address, London, 1972).
Rathayatra started from Shri Shri Jagannath Ballav temple (ISKCON, Netrakona) and travelled on the main markets and streets of Netrakona. After marching on the streets and distributing lots of mercy, the Rathayatra stops at a local temple, Nagra Shiv Bari. The Lord stayed in that temple for seven days (like in Gundicha temple in Puri Dham). Various cultural programs, prasadam distribution, book distribution continued for seven days. Every day more than 2000 people took darshan and prasadam in the temple and many books were also distributed during festival.
On the eighth day (12th July), the Lord started the return yatra from the Nagra Shiv Bari to the ISKCON Netrakona. The return Rathayatra festival is known as Bahuda Yatra and it rained heavily that day. Despite heavy rainfall during return Rathayatra, thousands of devotees from all over Netrakona and nearby area participated. The raining had not been able to crush the enthusiasm of thousands of devotees gathered for serving the Lord. It was very exciting to see the enthusiasm of devotees and organizers for making the Bahuda yatra very successful. Mr. Prashant Kumar Roy, Chairman District Council, was the Chief Guest of the festival. Other dignitaries present at the inauguration of return Rathayatra were Shri Mangal Saha, President Puja Udyapana Parishad, and Sitanshu Vikas Acharya, President District law council. The excited crowd of devotees pulled the Ratha on all the main streets of the Netrakona and reached to Shri Shri Jagannath Ballav Temple. Huge amount of Ekadashi prasadam was distributed to common people that were eagerly watching the Lord of the universe on the chariot.
Under the divine guidance of His Holiness Subhag Swami Maharaja and increasing support from the locals, the devotees are planning to do even bigger Rathayatra next year. Srila Prabhupada always pushed this festival and he wrote in a letter, “This book distribution and Ratha Yatra Festivals should go on all over the world. I want to introduce this Ratha Yatra Festival program all over the world.” (SPL to Madhudvisa, 7th Aug, 1973)
We thank all the devotees of Netrakona for holding such a
great festival for the Lord’s pleasure. Especially we would like to thank HG Jayrama
das, Tulsi das and Anantadeva das, the leaders of ISKCON Netrakona, who worked
tirelessly day and night for the festival to the place. We offer our humble prayers
unto His Holiness Subhag Swami Maharaja for his blessings and personal guidance and for inspiring all the devotees to do festival more enthusiastically. We would
like to thank all the devotees who came from different places to make the
festival complete.
Jaya Jagannatha, Jaya Baladeva, Jaya Subhadra.
Jaya Srila Prabhupada.