1978 Calcutta True Rath Story - Episode 7

(This is another billboard design I put together but later realized was a bit too out of context and weird because the average person living in Calcutta doesn’t live on the third or fourth floor of a large apartment building as suggested by the top of the cart passing through the open window.   The original sketch was just a plain line drawing but I added the solid colors to enhanced the blueprint to make up for the fact that the document I scanned was really faded out and virtually unreadable.)

Episode 7: Where to Find Appropriate Talent? 

“So if you apply your talent to engineering...then your engineering becomes perfect. Similarly, if some business is done, if you apply your business administrative talent... Just like we are doing some business, Spiritual Sky. That is small business but they are managing very nicely. This boy, Svarupa Damodara, he is a great scientist, doctor in chemistry. He is trying to explain Krsna through chemistry. Similarly, you can try to serve Krsna through engineering. You can serve Krsna by business administration. Svakarmana tam abhyarcya. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, "Everyone can serve by his own work." Krsna is not stereotyped. Everything is Krsna. So every department can be utilized for Krsna's satisfaction. And if Krsna is satisfied, then your talent in the particular department of knowledge is perfect. Then it attains perfection. Samsiddhir hari-tosanam [SB 1.2.13]. Samsiddhi means perfection. And what is that perfection? That Krsna will be pleased: "Yes, you are very good engineer." "You are very good business administrator." "You are very good chemist." So this is our philosophy, Krsna consciousness.”  - Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan --  September 11, 1972, Arlington

Before too long I had a complete set of drawings, an itemized parts list, and even some creative suggestions for what I thought the temple might give to the people who painted the billboards.   Yes.  Back in those days when someone wanted to cover a big 10 x 26 foot billboard it was not done with a photo mosaic stitched together from 64 - 3’x5’ preprinted image assembled like wallpaper on a flat billboard.  No.  In India billboards were hand painted by special artists trained in this unique trade.  So I was hopeful that maybe one of my simple 12” tall sketches would be magnified by a factor of TEN on a custom painted billboard.  

Armed with a stack of about twelve drawings, I was sent from Mayapur to Calcutta to begin the actual construction.  Word had gotten out that I had been working on the plans for a big Rath cart so there was already an electric mood of anticipation when I arrived at the temple with a full set of plans.    Everyone was talking about the Rath parade that was going to happen.   I must confess that I was feeling proud about having the opportunity to be part of such an exciting event and apply the knowledge Jayananda prabhu had entrusted me with.   N.Y. was big, but everyone was telling me that Calcutta would draw ten times the attention we got on 5th Avenue in N.Y.  When I heard comments like that I tended to dismiss them as the usual type of exaggerated embellishment that is common when people get excited about something.   Yet all of it was contagious and now that I had a complete set of plans to work from I felt much more confident about actually tying up my dhoti and getting to work building this new Rath.

The temple agreed to issue me large sums of money in proportion to each part of the project, as I required it. We agreed that as I depleted those funds, they would replenish them as required to keep the project moving forward.

The first step now was to find out where the appropriate life member in the community that might be able to assist in the project based on the resources and business connections they might have at their disposal.  In this way I was introduced to a prominent real estate developer who had invited us to build the cart in a corner of his construction site.  It was located a few blocks from the temple and would be safe from vandals because he had security men to guard the site.  A different life member knew a place where they sewed sails for the various boats in the Calcutta harbor.   That was where I chose to get the huge canopy tarp sewn together.   A third member connected me up with a contact from the steel industry where I could take the drawings for the wheels and the winch to have them welded up in the Howrah district.   

So many devotees were telling me to expect a huge crowd that I felt this was probably some type of insider message Lord Jagannatha was communicating to me to make sure the cart would be safe.  I recalled how Jayananda prabhu had urged me to improve the braking mechanism so I consulted with a life member in the auto parts supply business that said he was committed to help.  I told him what the challenge was and he said: “No Problem.”   He agreed to install hydraulic brakes that would actually STOP the cart when we needed to do so.  

Wow!   I was starting to get the impression that perhaps building a Rath cart in India would actually be easier than having to personally invest all the sweat and labor that Jayananda prabhu and his crew went thru to build the 1976 N.Y. carts.   I had contacts to sew the canopy and weld the wheels.   I had gathered a team of four hired carpenters to help me actually cut and assemble the wood.   A Western devotee I had met in Mayapur called Venkatta prabhu was seeking a change of service and he volunteered to be my personal assistant. A life member had promised to install hydraulic brakes that would actually stop the cart and before long I had everything set up to begin!

(Front, Plan/Top and Side views that was used to construct the 1978 Rath cart built for Calcutta.)

For more details E-mail at : mdjagdasa@gmail.com

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