HISTORY OF RATHA-YATRA
Ratha Yatra, the Festival of The Chariots, originated thousands of years ago in Jagannatha Puri in Orissa on the North Eastern coast of India, where it is still observed by the entire population. Over 5 million people attend the event, and it is also celebrated in every town across India. The main event is the enthronement of three large deities – Jagannatha (Krishna), His brother Balarama and Their sister Subhadra – each onto Their own wooden chariot. These three huge chariots are then hauled by ropes held by hundreds of Their devotees along a parade route lined by admirers, worshippers and spectators.
The carved and colourfully-painted chariots, liberally bedecked with flowers and garlands, are accompanied by enthusiastic kirtana (congregational chanting) sung by tens of thousands of devotees. After the procession there is, as at all Vaisnava festivals, a large feast of Krishna prasadam for all participants.
The deities who grace the chariots are kept throughout the year within temples where They are worshipped daily in a regulative way. But once a year They emerge in order that the public may see Them. Krishna thus presents Himself as Jagannatha, the Lord of the Universe (from which we get the English word "juggernaut" meaning a large truck or chariot).
Over the last thirty five years Ratha Yatra has been introduced into many cities around the world such as New York, London and Sydney by ISKCON's founder Srila Prabhupada, and his followers. As an outdoor street festival it never fails to attract the attention of the public and media and has become a much loved and appreciated event in many urban calendars to the delight of members of ISKCON.
RATHA-YATRA WORLDWIDE
Since Srila Prabhupada organised the first Ratha-Yatra in the Western world in 1967 in San Francisco, the festival has been celebrated yearly in all corners of the world. Apart from dozens of cities across the United States, it has been held in over 60 countries such as Canada, South America, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Europe, Poland, New Zealand and Australia, to name a few.
SIGNIFICANCE AND BENEFITS OF RATHA-YATRA
500 years ago, the festival became the center of the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, who is Krishna Himself appearing in the guise of a great devotee. Each year Lord Caitanya danced and chanted in the Ratha-Yatra festival along with His associates. The Vedic scriptures state that anyone who sees Lord Jagannatha or pulls His chariots achieves immense spiritual benefit, attaining liberation from the material world and entrance into the eternal blissful pastimes of the Lord.
The special benefits one can derive in participating in this festival are immeasurable:
** By seeing the most merciful form of Lord Jagannatha, mainly recognizable by His two large round eyes, one will make rapid spiritual progress and gain instant purification.
** if anyone just sees the Rathayäträ cart passing and stands up to receive the Lord, he can purge all sinful results from his body.
** if anyone follows the Rathayäträ cart when the Deities pass in front or from behind, even if he is born of a lowly family, he can achieve opulence equal to that of Visnu (God).
** By engaging in dancing and chanting during the Ratha Yatra parade, one can uplift one’s soul beyond all meditations.
** By performing any activities to help making this festival a success, one is granted the full blessings of the Lord.
** By donating one’s time, one’s efforts or one’s money - One’s home, family and friends will be fully blessed forever.
Although one may think such statements to be exaggerations, expert devotees who know the intricacies of transcendental science do not doubt them.
Yoga means to link with God in loving exchange. Lord Krsna teaches in Bhagavad-gétä (6.47) that the highest yogé is “he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service.” The Rathayäträ Festival is a potent transcendental stimulus for developing love of Godhead. The Rathayäträ procession—the gigantic, opulently decorated Deity cars and thousands of people chanting Hare Kåñëa and dancing ecstatically—can attract even the materialistic person. By becoming attracted to the Supreme Lord in His form as Jagannätha one loses his attachment to the illusory happiness of the mundane world. Thus simply by seeing the Deities, simply by hearing the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare, or simply by tasting foodstuffs offered to Krsna, anyone can begin his progress back to Godhead without difficulty. And by applying his energy in understanding the Krsna consciousness movement and participating in glorifying the all-blissful Lord of the universe, one can revive one’s eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Rathayäträ is a love festival. God, Krsna, is the ultimate object of love, and we are meant to love Him. Such spiritual loving ecstasy as was felt by the thousands who took part in the Rathayäträ Festival does not come from idol worship, but is an authorized transcendental feeling. Only a stone-hearted man could not react with delight to see the Deity of Lord Jagannätha drawn on His huge cart, surrounded by hundreds of chanting devotees. Idol worship means to pay obeisances to some whimsical material object, like a wood carving or stone sculpture of an imaginary God created within the mind. The Christian scripture, for example, declares that one should not worship any graven image. Lord Jagannätha, however, is certainly not in the category of imagination. Jagat means universe, and nätha means Lord, so Jagannätha means the Lord of the universe—Krsna. Krsna is accepted by all the followers of the Vedas, the oldest scriptures known to man, as the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. As stated in the Brahma-saàhitä, “Krsna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes.”
In India there are thousands of Krsna temples, and millions of people acknowledge Him to be the original God, the one without a second. Krsna Himself declares in Bhagavad-gétä that He is the father of all living entities. So He is nothing like “a Hindu deity,” but He is the source and sustainer of all entities, be they Christian, Hindu, atheist, or lower animals and plants. Moreover, it is stated in Vedic scripture that Krsna appears in the incarnation known as arca-vigraha, the Deity form, just so the devotee may worship Him easily in His personal form. Because in our conditioned state we cannot see Kåñëa in His original spiritual form, with two hands holding a flute, He kindly appears in the natural elements such as wood or brass or oil paint. The Deity incarnates in this way just so the devotees can worship Him, dress Him, offer Him foodstuffs and look upon His grace-giving countenance. This is not a matter of imagination; rather, it is Krsna's grace. God is so kind that He becomes pliable to the devotees’ worship, He allows the devotees to feed Him, and whatever they offer Him with love and prayers, He accepts (Bg. 9.26). Similarly, the Lord is pleased to ride on the Rathayäträ cart and be seen by thousands of His subjects.
We request everyone to try to understand the transcendental nature of the Rathayäträ Festival. God is actually able to ride on the Rathayäträ cart, and in His form as the Deity, bestow His blessings upon all. Who can deny God if He wishes to appear before us? According to all authorized statements and the experience of great devotees and scholars of spiritual love, Lord Jagannätha is Krsna Himself. We may believe or not believe; that is a different matter. But Lord Jagannätha rides on, and the devotees feel pleasure at heart, and all persons factually receive His blessings on the occasion of Rathayäträ.
(1970's BTG Article on Iskcon's Holy Rathayäträ Festival)
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