A spectacular event organized in a picturesque valley in the Kumaon Himalayas, attracted a gathering of above 2500 people. It was Indeed a beautiful and serene place to organize Lord Jagannath’s chariot festival, that too with a typical ‘pahari’ flavour. ‘Pahari’ are the people living in the Himalayas.The place being talked about is a quite and a remote valley, with tiny villages atop mountains covered with jungles, situated in the lap of nature. The beautiful river Ramganga flowing down the valley completes a perfect scenery. And it’s not the first time but the eighth time that a huge gathering assembled to celebrate annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra festival in Chaukhutiya, Almora on 1st Sept. 2019. Boys & girls sung and danced for the pleasure of lord Jagannath, village men and women pulled Lord Jagannathās Baladev Subhadra devis chariot to their hearts content.
The words to illustrate the landscape in the valley are no extrapolation. Everyone especially city dwellers certainly would have dreampt of a residence besides a sparkling winding river in the Himalayas. The valley is rendered even more beautiful with the presence of fertile fields laden with fragrant Paddy. A lovely breeze blew during the day carrying the aroma from paddy flowers. As soon as the temperature went little up, the rain would bring it down and clouds would descent to touch the ground early in the morning.
The atmosphere was serene and relaxing, a nice place for a Krishna conscious person to meditate on the Lotus feet of the Lord. Clean crystal clear water dripped down the mountains covered with pine and oak trees wetting the paddy fields and oozing down into the streaming Ramganga river. The atmosphere was also very clean. As the night arrived we could see a different world. Millions of stars evenly spread up to the horizon, and the Milkyway clearly stretching across the sky like a white band, was a perfect spectacle for the eye. One can marvel deep into the vast unknown, the profound prowess of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna.
The preparation for the Rath Yatra began a couple of months in advance. Lord Jagannathās reception was grand and in style. Lordships Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra devi stay here in a local Shivalay temple in Bhatkot, 3 km from Chaukhatiya, and sometimes in a local devotee’s house where they are worshiped nicely. Devotees form different part of India began to arrive in advance for the Rath yatra. They reached Ramnagar, the last stop in the plains, crossed the thrilling Corbett national park reaching chaukhutiya after a 4 hour long mountainous journey. They stayed in a comparatively more comfortable hotel near the temple.
Srila Prabhupada says:
“When a person is Kį¹į¹£į¹a conscious, he continuously hears about Kį¹į¹£į¹a, thinks about Him, worships Him and serves Him as a devotee. If he remains in Kį¹į¹£į¹a consciousness in this way, the darkness of mÄyÄ certainly will not be able to touch him.” ( CC Madhya 22.31 purport).
As long as we are in contact with the Lord and remain absorbed in his service, as much as in Lord Jagannath rath yatra festival where Lord Jagannath is the Cynosure, everyone gets totally embedded in their respective services be it the kirtaniyas or the pujaris, the book distributers, the cooks, the people pulling the rath, the prasadam distributers, the Rath decorators, the managers, and even the traffic policemen helping the procession.They all can feel a spiritual happiness of a divine realm with a satisfied mind.
The kitchen department is one of the most important department in any program.108 bhoga items were prepaid for offering on the Rath Yatra day. It took 2 days to prepare them. All those items were cooked by a brahmachari from Vrindavna. The magnanimity of this service can be gauged from the photographs of the bhoga. Local devotees helped prabhuji in his cooking. Everyone stood completely amazed to see the prasadam and Lord Jagannathās opulence.
Devotees went for harinam sankirtan a day before the rathyatra inviting people for the rathyatra next day. The rathyatra day saw continuous rains since daybreak but fortunately the sky got cleared by noon as though Indra wanted to clean the town for Lord Jagnnath.
After the rain the environment was purified and atmosphere totally clean, and the sun began to shine exclusively setting the stage for the rath to begin. After the bhoga offering the Lordships were brought to the rath with harinam sankirtan. The Rath started with the aarti ceremony and bursting of the coconuts. Many people including village ladies were waiting anxiously for the yatra to begin. Then kirtan slowly picked up the pace. Local boys couldn’t resist getting pulled into the sankirtan. As these passionate young boys began dancing in a huddle, their incessant and flamboyant dancing didnāt let the singers to lower their pitch even for a moment. Along with the dancing the rath passed the market area of Chaukhutiya with loud cheers, then crossed the bridge over the Ramganga and moved towards Maa Agneri temple, the ending point for the Rath yatra, with continues harinam, book distribution, and prasadam distribution. As the Rath neared the destination, the vigour escalated, boys and girls began dancing fervently in separate groups, but with decency. A point here to note is that the villagers here had very nice and genial relations among each other. Also a large group of local people welcomed Lord Jagannath at Agneri temple. The bhandara(love feast) had already started and was ongoing in a compound besides the Agneri temple bordered by the Ramganga. Around 2500 people from different villages in the valley enjoyed the prasadam. Youngsters dancing all along the rathyatra route made the atmosphere exuberant and exhilarating.
Book distribution is the most important preaching arm in Krishna Consciousness. Srila Prabhupada placed a lot of emphasis on it. Around 70 Bhagavad Gitas were distributed in the festival.
Srila Prabhupad says, ” Book distribution is our real business. If we give them a record, they simply hear some magical sounds and take it for sense gratification, but if they receive one of our books and read even one page, they get eternally benefited.” ( SPL to Ajita, 6 Jan 1975.)
The participation of the local people in a festival is very important. The people of the mountains have natural inclination towards worshiping demigods. Their faith and love for Lord Jagannath and his devotees is clearly evident and has increased over a period of 8 years with successive rath yatra. Each morning, village ladies and men use to bring cow milk from far away homes in the mountains and filled buckets of milk in the temple during the festival. A group of young boys were ever ready for everykind of services required. A local boy pursuing final year B.teach. course from a collage in a nearby town took responsibility for inviting, managing and collecting donations from different surrounding villages which had 10- 25 houses at the most. Another boy assisted the brahmacharis. A middle aged local devotee shouldered responsibility for managing bhandara for 2500 people. Couple of village girls served tirelessly assisting a senior devotees for preparing 108 bhog and also enthusiastically cleaned the kitchen.
Srila Prabhupad started Lord Jagannath Rath yatra festival first time outside India in SanFrancisco in 1967, giving a chance to all of us to participate in the glorification of the Lord and make our life successful. Srila Prabhupad encourages us to leave this miserable material world and go back to Godhead to enjoy in the company of Lord Krishna and his Devotees.
Srila Prabhupad said, “Therefore the Vedas says, ‘asto ma sadgamy’ don’t remain here, go to Krishna and enjoy with him life”. (SB 1.7.30, Sept 26,1976, Vrindavan lecture transcript)
Govind Das brahmachari whose birthplace is a nearby village, has been trying to spread this divine message of Srila Prabhupada, introducing people to Krishna Consciousness, feels very very greatful to H.H. Subhag Swami Maharaj for his valuable guidance and inspiration, making him to continue his preaching endeavor and to all his Godbrothers who are always ready to assist him. He requests the blessings of all the Vaishnavas.
Jai Jagannath ! Jai Baldeav ! Jai Subhdra !!!!
All glories to Srila Prabhupad !!!
Hare Krishna.
Aseem Krishna Das