The Turkish Pavilion at Tower Grove Park was the place to be last Sunday, July 30th, 2017! It was buzzing with excitement the whole day! The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) chapter in St. Louis, Missouri was excitingly preparing for celebrating The Chariot Festival for the third year in a row. The organizers and volunteers arrived at the site at 8 am and immediately began to set up and decorate the very colorful, tall,and impressive chariot cart. Other volunteers began to put up activity tents and set up a stage and chairs. As the time was getting closer to 2 pm, the anticipation started to grow amongst everyone. The park started to quickly fill up with people of all ages, races, and religions, eager to experience this cultural event, and some even wearing colorful Indian clothing. The Kirtaniyas (Indian Musicians) started to uplifting melodies of the Hare Krishna Mantra (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna/Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama/Rama Rama Hare Hare), and the public started to gather around the chariot cart or Rath, and dance to the music.
Sitting in the cart were three majestic deities. They were Sri Jagannath, the Lord of the Universe, who has a black complexion, Subhadra Maharani, the younger sister of Sri Jagannath, who has a yellow complexion, and Sri Baladev, the elder brother of the other two personalities, who has a white complexion. These three deities have big wide eyes, and are extremely compassionate and merciful to those who worship them. These deities are replicas of the original humongous deities worshipped by sincere devotees in a famous temple in Jagannath Puri in Odisha, India. Every year in Jagannath Puri, these deities are put onto three magnificent chariot carts and pulled by the devotees through the city from their main temple to another nearby temple. This cultural event attracts millions of people and is known throughout India as Ratha Yatra. Through ISKCON, this festival is now being celebrated all over the world, and was more recently celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri.
As the music got louder, the crowd of almost 800 people started to grab the ropes of the rath and began to pull. With organizers in front of the crowd and on top of the cart controlling the speed and course of the chariot and communicating with the crowd through stop and slow signs, and volunteers passing out iced water bottles, the rath was pulled through the park without a glitch. The people in the crowd were all joyful and lively while enthusiastically dancing and singing. As the parade part of the festival came to close, the deities were moved from the chariot to an altar by the stage, and the public began to wander through the various activity stalls or sit to start watching the stage programs.
Most people went to the welcome booths to learn about the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and the Ratha Yatra Festival. They visited the Question and Answer booth where they could ask anything from “who am I?” to “should I become a vegetarian/vegan?” and get thoughtful, thorough, and fulfilling answers given by persons who studied Indian scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, and who were open, relatable, and experienced. They also visited the Books, Gifts, and More stall where they could buy Indian jewelry, clothes, artifacts, and books such as the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Krsna Book, Chant and be Happy, and other various texts written by the founder of the ISKCON, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
The next activity tent was called Mantra Meditation. In this tent, you would be given chanting beads, which are a string of 108 beads made out of tulsi (holy basil), and taught to chant the Maha Mantra, (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna/Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama/Rama Rama Hare Hare), on each bead, and complete one round. Doing this five minute activity connects you to your soul and gives you peace of mind, tranquility, and a newfound spiritual energy. During this festival over 100 people chanted one round. The next tent activities were henna tattoos and facepainting, and a bouncy house. These tents were the kid-magnets of the festival, and parents had a hard time pulling their kids away to go home. Next to these tents was the yoga tent, where a certified yoga teacher went through basic yoga poses and exercises, which was rejuvenating and relaxing for visitors. There was a bake sale tent which sold delicious Indian ice cream in three flavors, amongst other scrumptious Indian food. And the last tent was the food tent which served free plates of a delectable Indian feast to the public.
This festival had many entertaining stage programs as well. There was an enlightening and intriguing address to the crowd explaining the significance of the festival, a hilarious and engaging drama with a relatable lesson at the end, a fascinating drum performance by the outstanding youth of ISKCON, and an exquisite classical Indian dance performance that had the audience in awe. The last event of the evening was the most spectacular. The women from the ISKCON temple prepared more than 120 traditional Indian and American dishes and offered them all on two long tables to the deities on the altar and then they sold the offered, sanctified food, prasadam, to the public, and everything was sold out in twenty minutes. Then there was a worship ceremony or arati done to the deities with rapturous music and ecstatic dancing. Everyone was starstruck by the beauty of the smiling deities and felt so blissful at the end. Everyone who attended this event left with an amazing experience, a new understanding, appreciation, and respect for Indian culture, and the desire to come again next year!
Comments