{"id":12985,"date":"2014-06-29T07:13:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T07:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=12740"},"modified":"2014-10-08T19:13:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T19:13:35","slug":"the-glories-of-ratha-yatra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=12985","title":{"rendered":"The Glories of Ratha Yatra"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWhen Srila Prabhupada was five years old, he desired to hold a Ratha Yatra festival like the one held annually in Jagannatha Puri, attended by millions. When he heard his father could not afford a new wooden ratha, he began to cry. This attracted the attention of a passing Bengali women who kindly let him buy her old ratha. Srila Prabhupada enlisted the help of the neighbourhood children and their mothers in an elaborate eight-day spiritual festival that he continued annually during his boyhood. This same festival would eventually be established by Srila Prabhupada on five continents.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rath Yatra is held once every year in the month of Asadha (rainy season that falls in June-July). Jagannath, Balabhadra (elder brother of Lord Krishna) and Subhadra (younger sister of Lord Krishna and Balabhadra). The three chariots are coloured with green, yellow and red. Jagannath rath is coloured in yellow, Balabhadra in green and Subhadra in red.<\/p>\n

The Rath Yatra in Puri is a 9-days festival where the three idols visit Gundicha (their aunt) and then return back. The huge chariots are well-decorated with flowers and are adorned every year.<\/p>\n

There is a common tradition that is going on since ages. The Gajapati King wears the dress of a sweeper once the idols are placed on their chariots. He sweeps the road with a golden broom and then cleans and purifies it with sandalwood water.<\/p>\n

The Narada Purana (uttara kanda 52.12) reveals the conversation between Lord Narayana and Lakshmidevi about Purushottama kshetra (Jagannatha Puri),<\/p>\n

pratimam tatra tam drstva svayam devena nirmitam<\/p>\n

anayasena vai yanti bhavanam me tato narau<\/p>\n

\u201cA person who sees the Deities there built by the Lord Himself will easily find the path to reach My abode.\u201d Anyone seeing the Deities of Lord Krshna, Balarama and Subhadra at Jagannatha Puri during their leisure outage of Rathayatra means buying a ticket to reach the Supreme Abode of Vaikuntha, the eternal world of no worries. The Lord promises that His devotees who take all pains to gather at Puri during the Rathayatra will be rid off their miseries and may reach the eternal abode of Goloka Vrindavana and enjoy their life in association with Lord Krshna, Radharani and their close accomplices.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person who sees the Deities there built by the Lord Himself will easily find the path to reach My abode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who sees the Deities of Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra during their Ratha yatra procession will be quickly rid of his miseries and is bound to reach Vaikuntha-loka, the eternal, spiritual world where anxiety does not exist.<\/p>\n

Rathe ca vamanam drstva punar janma na vidyate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimply by seeing the Lord on the chariot, one makes advancement for stopping the repetition of birth and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimilarly, Krishna and Balarama and Their sister Subhadra, They also came in royal fashion, with so many soldiers, and so many\u2026, just like king. So these residents of Vrindavana, they met Krishna, and especially the gopis, they saw Krishna, and they lamented that \u201cKrishna, You are here, we are also here, but the place is different. We are not in Vrindavana.\u201d So there is a long story how they lamented and how Krishna pacified them. This is a feeling of separation, how the inhabitants of Vrindavana felt separation from Krishna. So this\u2026 When Krishna came on chariot, that is called Ratha-yatra. This is the history of Ratha-yatra. So any pastimes made by Krishna, that is observed in ceremonial form by the devotees. So that is Ratha-yatra.\u201d (Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Seattle, October 18th 1968)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jagannath Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Srila Prabhupada was five years old, he desired to hold a Ratha Yatra festival like the one held annually in Jagannatha Puri, attended by millions. When he heard his father could not afford a new wooden ratha, he began to cry. This attracted the attention of a passing Bengali women who kindly let him buy her old ratha. Srila Prabhupada enlisted the help of the neighbourhood children and their mothers in an elaborate eight-day spiritual festival that he continued annually during his boyhood. This same festival would eventually be established by Srila Prabhupada on five continents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13477,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985\/revisions\/13477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}