{"id":8304,"date":"2010-03-23T08:53:20","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T07:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=8304"},"modified":"2010-03-23T08:53:20","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T07:53:20","slug":"ramnavmi-rathayatras-at-iskcon-ahmedabad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=8304","title":{"rendered":"Ramnavmi Rathayatras at ISKCON Ahmedabad"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
\nBy Basu Ghosh Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/picasaweb.google.co.in\/106959775035518989656\/RamnavmiRathayatrasAtAhmedabad#<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20, ISKCON Ahmedabad organized Rathayatras in different parts of Ahmedabad on both days.<\/p>\n

Friday’s Rathayatra began in the “old section” of Ahmedabad, in front of the Ranchodji temple at Sarangpur, near the Ahmedbad Railway Station, at 5:00 PM.<\/p>\n

Sri Lavleshbhai, trustee of the Ranchodji temple, along with other temple trustees inaugurated the Rath procession by sweeping the road in-front of the Rath, following the ancient tradition at Jagannath Puri, where the “Gajapati Maharaj” (the King of Puri) sweeps the road in front of the Rath of Lord Jagannath, in a sign of supplication to Jagannath, the Lord of the Universe!<\/p>\n

Jasomatinandan Das, ISKCON’s zonal secretary for Gujarat, inaugurated the function by offering arati to Deities of Jagananth, Baladev and Subhadradevi. Also present on the Rath (cart) were Deities of Sita Ram Lakshman and Hanuman, as well as Deities of Radha Krishna.<\/p>\n

Jasomatinandan Das also spoke to the crowd before the procession, from on top of a ladder in-front of the Rath (cart). Deena Bandhu Das of ISKCON Vrindavan, addressed the assembly in Hindi. Basu Ghosh Das recited the first verse of the Jagannath Astakam, and then led the crowd in the responsive chanting “Sri Rama, Jaya Rama, Jaya, Jaya Rama. Jasomatinandan Das was also interviewed by reporters from local cable TV stations in-front of the Rath.<\/p>\n

A large group of foreign devotees of ISKCON, including devotees from Russia, Ukraine and the USA joined with local ISKCON Ahmedabad, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Surat and Baroda temple and congregational devotees in participating in the Rathayatra. Nityananda Ram Das of ISKCON Baroda, Jasomatinandan Das and Deena Bandhu Das led long harinam sankirtans, of over an hour each, during the Rath procession.<\/p>\n

Sarvopama Das, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who resides presently at ISKCON Vallabh Vidyanagar, Basu Ghosh Das, President of ISKCON Baroda, Satchidananda Das, President of ISKCON Vallabh Vidyanagar, and Vrindavan Das, Vice President of ISKCON Surat were amongst the ISKCON devotees from throughout Gujarat who participated in the Rathayatra. Damayanti devi dasi, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada visiting India from Hawaii, USA, also participated in the festival.<\/p>\n

The Rathayatra proceeded from Sarangpur to Khadia, Panch Kuva, Ahmedabad Railway Station then back to Khadia char rasta (crossroads) and returned to the Ranchodji temple at around 9:00 PM. The Rathayatra was witnessed by thousands of residents of Ahmedabad in the narrow streets of the “old areas” of the city through which it passed. Prasad packets were distributed from the Rath Cart and devotees headed by Radhesh Das from ISKCON Surat distributed books throughout the procession.<\/p>\n

Prasad was served to all at the conclusion of the Rathayatra.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, a second Rathayatra, one that followed a longer route in the “developing” Western area of Ahmedabad, began at the Bhuyangadev Hanuman temple at 5:30 PM.<\/p>\n

Braving extremely hot, unseasonal temperatures, a large group of devotees assembled for the Rathayatra.<\/p>\n

Rakesh Karsanbhai Patel, Vice Chairman of the Nirma Group inaugurated the function by sweeping the road in front of the Rath.<\/p>\n

A large group of ISKCON temple and congregational devotees from ISKCON Rajkot, headed by Vaishnavaseva Das and Gaursundar Das joined the festival, as well as all the assembled devotees from the day before.<\/p>\n

From Bhuyangadev, the Rathayatra procession went to Subhash Chowk, Swaminarayan Gurukula, from there on to the famous “Drive-in” road, then to Sunrise Park Society, Vastrapur fountain, Judges Bungalow Road, Devashish school and the last part of the procession was from the S. G. Highway to ISKCON temple, Sri Sri Radha Govindadham.<\/p>\n

The procession reached the temple at 10:00 PM, and was followed by prasad distribution to all the participants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Basu Ghosh Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20, ISKCON Ahmedabad organized Rathayatras in different parts of Ahmedabad on both days. Sri Lavleshbhai, trustee of the Ranchodji temple, along with other temple trustees inaugurated the Rath procession by sweeping the road in-front of the Rath<\/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-8304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304","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=8304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}