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Home , Jagannath, Ratha Yatra, Ratha Yatra (Puri)

First - in Minneapolis

Date: 2003-05-05 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das

Hare Vaishnavas, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

Their Lordships Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev and manifested Themselves out of their causeless mercy in Minneapolis and also inspired the devotees to perform the first ever Ratha-yatra in the history of the Hare Krsna movement in Minneapolis on Sunday the 4th of May 2003.

Flashback: There is a simple and sincere group of devotees practising Krishna Consciousness for several years in the twin-cities of Minneapolis/St Paul. The group has been growing slowly but steadily. There is no full-time devotees or established temple in the city. The handful of devotees living here are and are either part-time or full-time employed. Even under these limited circumstances, they follow the principle of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu - "grihe thako, vane thako, sada ‘’ bole’ dako," - chant the names of Hari whatever the circumstances may be. Although Minneapolis has had several attempts to run centers and temples in the past.., in the last 5-6 years, the devotee community has been 'thriving' with a growing enthusiasm in spreading the holy names, celebrating big festivals like Janmashtami, Gaur-, Govardhan etc, organizing trips to nearby temples and also welcoming regularly visiting sannyasis to give us the spiritual wisdom and an opportunity to render devotional service.

Inspiration: In July '2002, a group of devotees from Minneapolis went for a trip to Chicago Ratha-yatra. Among them was Anand Prabhu and his family (his wife and his 4 kids). This was their first ever Ratha-yatra and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Anand Prabhu, being a spontaneous technician, having multi-faceted qualities like carpentry, car-mechanics, house- building so on and so forth had this seed sowed in his heart ..."We should celebrate Lord Jagannath's Ratha-yatra festival in Minneapolis". He expressed this desire to other devotees and later to H H Goswami Maharaj when he visited the twin-cities last year in August. Maharaj gave his blessings and told him - "This is your service to Minneapolis yatra!".

Since the last two months devotees were making plans on how to perform this festival. As it is there is lot of hassles getting the govt. permission, building the cart, advertising and so on. There is a May day parade that is conducted in the city during the first week end of May every year and devotees have been distributing thousands of sweets and lots of Prabhupada's books, and also distribute the holy name in plenty. HH Ganapati Maharaj, who has been the inspiration behind all the activities in the twin-cities for several years, had taken advantage of this opportunity to distribute the transcendental books of Srila Prabhupada to all the visitors. Somehow by Krsna's mercy, this year devotees got the idea to conduct the Ratha-yatra as part of the parade.

Building the Rath: The plans being made for the parade now came the question of building the Rath cart. Building big ones are out of the question because of the enormous amount of labor and lack of man-power. Lord Jagannath blessed Anand Prabhu with amazing ingenuity to build the Rath out of PVC pipes! He made the frame 12 feet tall in no time and also built the base with nice wheels and a wooden platform. HG Purnendu Prabhu and HG Anasuya mathaji helped them with nice cloth for a canopy and decorating the dias for the deities. Then Anand Prabhu's daughters stitched the cloth very nicely to make a wonderful canopy. Devotees like Jimmy Prabhu, Terry Mataji, Susan Mataji, Atma Prasad Prabhu, Tammy Mataji, and others also helped with nice ideas for putting on the flag, making decorations on the canopy and so many other things. The interesting thing with his design is that the cart can be so easily built and dismantled that it takes less than an hour to do that. Pastime of Lord Jagannath's manifestation: In Minneapolis, devotees have their own deities at home and worship nicely. There are -Krishna deities, Bal Gopal deities, Gaur- deities, but interestingly nobody had Jagannath-Baladev-Subhadra deities. Initially, the devotees were thinking of having the picture of Their Lordships in the cart and were almost decided on this plan. Seeing the enthusiasm and sincerity of the devotees, the Lord decided to give them more mercy. He inspired one of the congregation members to try get a set of deities back from through his wife who was traveling to Minneapolis in less than a week's time. He expressed this to his parents back in India and they started running around day and night to get a set of deities before their daughter-in-law starts flying to Minneapolis. To their surprise, they could not contact any devotee in the nearby temple and whoever they contacted said they don't have a way to help them out. All their attempts were in vain. It is a common understanding that "Lord Jagannath gives Himself to us only after taking us thru a lot of effort". This is His pastime to purify the hearts of His dear devotees and also show to the world, how intense is His devotees in their love for the Lord. This was 100% true in the case of their attempts to get His deity. Until the day before travel, their attempts were in vain. As a last try, this devotee's father went to one shop and to his amazement found a nice set of Jagannath-Baladev-Subhadra deity and got them immediately. He also painted the deities nicely and his mother stitched make-shift dresses. So, finally..., Lord Jagannath decided to manifest Himself in the twin cities of Minneapolis-St Paul. Their Lordships arrived 10 days before the parade.

First ever Ratha-yatra in Minneapolis: The devotees, spent every minute at their disposal, enthusiastically working on getting the Ratha-yatra performed for their dear Lord, making prasadam, decorating the cart, making dresses for the deities, making garlands, inviting friends and relatives to receive the causeless mercy of the Lord by pulling His Ratha-cart. H H Ganapati Maharaj also arrived on the day of the parade and gave his invaluable association to all the devotees. Having done the least amount of service, I had a lot of time observing the devotees untiringly serving the Lord in so many ways and do nothing but just wonder in amazement - "Is there anyone in this world who can get so much done from people just out of love ?!!". But for the Lord, none can do that, because He is showing unlimited love towards us all living entities with ZERO Expectation!.

Lord Jagannath also inspired quite a few devotees from Chicago and Kansas city drive down to observe this most important festival. The parade started just afternoon with the threat of rain looming large. There were dense clouds but the Lord will not stay away from giving His mercy. In His pastimes, He had challenged in His own way by lifting the to smash his pride. In the history of the Ratha- conducted all over the world, most of the time Lord Indra does not affect the procession. But, on seeing the enthusiastic celebration by the devotees, he also wants to join the festival. He wants to pay obeisances to the Lord by falling at His lotus feet and clean the pathway of the Lord's procession with his rains. He did that service at this festival too. Halfway thru the procession, there was light rains, just enough to wet the roads. The devotees continued with their enchanting and exuberant dance, thereby pleasing the Lord and also enticing the public. Knowingly or unknowingly, the public was attracted by the Lord's procession and His glorification. No wonder Krsna is called "All-Attractive". The Lord, in His most merciful form, came out and showered His mercy to all the living entities.

When the procession ended, there was a downpour. And then it stopped for a while. Devotees took the chance to distribute some books and prasadam and also do pleasing harinam which attracted the bypassers. Small children were dancing to the soothing kirtans of HG Tusta Krsna Prabhu, HG Dwrakadish Prabhu, HG Sridham Prabhu and others. Whoever came to the parade this year, had their best ever day in their lives - getting the causeless mercy of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra !!!

It is really amazing to just stop for a moment and think what a wonderful service Srila Prabhupada has done to the whole world!!! If not for him, Lord Jagannath's mercy would not be distributed all over the world. Lord Caitanya's predictions have come true - "Every town and village will chant the names of Krsna" - Lord Jagannath's Ratha-yatra is the obvious proof!

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev, Kalacakra Krsna das.