Parboni by BHF- Rath Yatra Week- Jai Jagannath! (July Edition)

Jai Jagannath!

West Bengal Celebrates Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath

by Shyam Hari Das

Jagannath Rath Yatra, Page 1

Grand festival of chariots Rath Yatra originated thousands of years ago in the eastern state of Orissa, in a city called Jagannatha Puri. The Festival celebrates Lord Krishna's return to Brindaban along with His brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra and is held annually in the months of June-July to honour His deity form of Lord Jagannatha. Millions of people from around the world descend upon cities of Puri and Kolkata to celebrate this grand festival. This year festival was celebrated in a majestic way on the 1st July after a halt of 2 years due to pandemic.

Usually the deities of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are worshipped within the temple, but on the day of the Rath Yatra festival they are taken through the streets so that everyone can have the fortune of pulling the richly decorated chariots, resembling temple structures through the streets to another temple where the deities stay for some time before returning to Their original abode. The huge processions accompanying the chariots play songs with horns, mridangas (drums), gongs, kartals (cymbals) and ghanta (brass plates) etc and hundreds of thousands of devotees dance all through the procession in great joy.

Many festivals take place during the period of Rath Yatra. In the Snana Yatra festival observed on the full-moon day, sixteen days before Rath Yatra, Lord Jagannath is bathed. He becomes sick and is confined to rest for fourteen days. He is then offered special care until He comes out for Rath Yatra. Hera panchami is celebrated 5 days after the Rath Yatra as Jagannath along with Balabhadra and Subhadra have moved to Gundicha temple. This festival is dedicated to Goddess Mahalaxmi and is also known as an anger ritual of Goddess Mahalaxmi. Return of Rath Yatra takes place after 9 days, called Ulta or Bahudha from the Gundicha temple to the main temple and is celebrated with the equal grandeur.

In the Brahmanda Purana it is said: “A person who sees the Lord's Rath Yatra car festival and then stands up to receive the Lord can purge all kinds of sinful results from his body.” A similar statement is there in the Bhavisya Purana, in which it is said: “A person who follows the Rath Yatra car when the Raths (Deities) pass in front or from behind, even if born of a lowly family, will surely be elevated to the position of achieving equal opulence with Vishnu.”

The festival is celebrated with much galore in West Bengal at various places of which most famous are Mahesh and Guptipara in Hooghly district near Kolkata, Rajapur in Nabadwip and Mahishadal in Purba Medinipur. The festival was introduced in Bengal by the devotees of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who appeared in Nabadwip, Bengal in the year 1486 A.D. Nabadwip was at the time considered as the learning hub of Nyaya philosophy (logic) and Sarbabhauma Bhattacharya the greatest logicians at the time and the chief advisor to the Gajapati king became a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

by Shyam Hari Das

Jagannath Rath Yatra, Page 2

London Ratha Yatra at Trafalgar Square

Many scholarly Bengali Gaudia Vaishnava devotees have established Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the hidden incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna as cited within many ancient vedic scriptures. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revived the Bhakti of Sri Sri Radha Krishna worship all over the India and His disciples excavated and established many ancient temples within Brindaban and many other historical places. Lord Chaitanya took sanyasa at an early age of 24 and moved away from Bengal to live in Jagannath Puri along with many of His Bengali disciples. In His disciplic succession many great sages of modern era like Kedarnath Datta a.k.a. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, Bimlaprasad Datta a.k.a.

Bhaktisidhanta Saraswati Thakur and in recent years HDG A.C.Bhaktivedana Swami also called Srila Prabhupada have played a significant role in spreading the fame Lord Krishna all over the world.

Srila Prabhupada born in Kolkata, W.B. in 1876 is the founder acharya of the world famous ISKCON which has a following of millions of devotees all over the world of all the races. Srila Prabhupada published hundreds of books including English translation and commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam and biography of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu written by Krsnadas Kabiraja Goswami as Chaitanya Charitamrita.

Srila Prabhupada introduced the Rath Yatra festival in the western world for the first time in the year 1967 in San Francisco, U.S.A. ISKCON under the leadership of Srila Prabhupada has since introduced Jagannath Rath Yatra over dozens of cities in the world including New York, Vancouver and London.

Every year Rath Yatra festival is celebrated in many cities in the UK with thousands of devotees participating in an ecstatic mood of dancing and singing with enchanting music.This year London Rath Yatra will be held on the 4th Sep, 2022 (https://rathayatra.co.uk) and open to all member of Bengal Heritage Foundation.

by Shyam Hari Das

Jagannath Rath Yatra, Page 3