{"id":30080,"date":"2016-08-01T11:53:23","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T09:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=30080"},"modified":"2016-08-01T11:53:23","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T09:53:23","slug":"ratha-yatra-celebrated-on-the-streets-of-st-louis-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=30080","title":{"rendered":"Ratha Yatra celebrated on the streets of St. Louis County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

By Jack Suntrup<\/strong><\/p>\n

ST. LOUIS COUNTY \u2022 A chorus of upbeat song and dance reverberated through subdivisions here Sunday morning, as those who practice Hinduism celebrated Rath Yatra \u2014 a holiday in which figures of deities are brought out to the public.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of faithful pulled a chariot carrying figures of three decorated Hindu deities from the Hindu Temple of St. Louis down Weidman Road and on to Queeny Park.<\/p>\n

Organizers said one of the purposes of the holiday is to expose people to the religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo gain connection with God, we go to a place of worship,\u201d said Yamuna Jivana Das, an event organizer. \u201cOne of the things this festival represents is that deities, instead of staying in temple, are taken out in public for the purpose of everyone and anyone being able to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The holiday got its start in Orissa, India, according to the Krishna Balaram Temple of St. Louis. Organizers said Rath Yatra \u2014 or \u201cChariot Festival\u201d \u2014 is now celebrated in cities all over the world. Lal Gopal Das, an organizer, said festivals in India can draw millions of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have is a little peanut compared to that,\u201d he said of the celebration in West County.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t mean participants in the local event were any less faithful. Even as devotees pulled the chariot down the road \u2014 uphill in certain areas \u2014 there was little sign of displeasure.<\/p>\n

Devotees sang the name and praises of Krishna throughout the parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe repeat the God\u2019s name with music and dancing so that you can immerse into his heart,\u201d said Nina Desai, of Chesterfield, \u201cso that you don\u2019t think of anything else \u2014 complete devotion, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the devotees at the event attend the Krishna Balaram Temple of St. Louis on Lindell Boulevard. The temple espouses a \u201cKrishna Consciousness\u201d mantra, which is different from general Hinduism, said Yamuna Jivana Das.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up a generic Hindu, if you will,\u201d he said, \u201cand this is something I really resonated with about 12 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jivana Das said that the movement resonates with people who want to take a deeper dive into existential questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cKrishna Consciousness is a very education-based movement,\u201d he said. \u201cEducation in the sense of understanding what is the self. Who am I? And who is the supreme? What does God mean? Who is God and what are the qualities of God?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jivana Das said that the Krishna Consciousness movement and Hinduism in general have taken root in St. Louis, and the community is growing. He attributed the growth not only to Indian immigrants taking jobs here, but also to those not of Indian descent choosing to explore the religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago we would have about 40 people show up for our weekly, flagship event,\u201d Jivana Das said. He estimates about 100 people show for that event at the Lindell temple.<\/p>\n

Jivana Das estimates the St. Louis-area Hindu population at 1,500 to 2,000 families.<\/p>\n

This is the first time in five years that the Chariot Festival has been celebrated here, he said. In the past, participants celebrated on South Grand Avenue and in Tower Grove Park.<\/p>\n

The Krishna Balaram Temple of St Louis is part of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness and has events on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at 3926 Lindell Boulevard in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/hindu-holiday-celebrated-on-the-streets-of-st-louis-county\/article_a1c9fd09-856c-59de-99c3-db0b415b577c.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Jack Suntrup<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo gain connection with God, we go to a place of worship,\u201d said Yamuna Jivana Das, an event organizer. \u201cOne of the things this festival represents is that deities, instead of staying in temple, are taken out in public for the purpose of everyone and anyone being able to see them.\u201d The holiday got its start in Orissa, India, according to the Krishna Balaram Temple of St. Louis. Organizers said Rath Yatra \u2014 or \u201cChariot Festival\u201d \u2014 is now celebrated in cities all over the world. Lal Gopal Das, an organizer, said festivals in India can draw millions of people. \u201cWhat we have is a little peanut compared to that,\u201d he said of the celebration in West County. That didn\u2019t mean participants in the local event were any less faithful. Even as devotees pulled the chariot down the road \u2014 uphill in certain areas \u2014 there was little sign of displeasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080","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=30080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30082,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080\/revisions\/30082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}