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Ratha Yatra in Perth
from Ananda Tirtha das

[from Free Forum]

Dear Devotees,

We are pleased to announce that on Sunday the 6th of January, the first of a hopefully annual Ratha Yatra festival was hosted by ISKCON Perth, Western Australia.

Four photos are attached to this text. We'll let you know when more photos are uploaded to the temple website. The 30-foot-high Ratha was constructed locally by devotees.

The procession began and ended at the Fremantle Esplanade and passed through the town centre, a trendy café-lined street. Many onlookers joined in the parade and kirtana and helped to pull Lord Jagannath's chariot. Devotees gave out small prasadam packets to the bystanders. H.H. Jayapataka Swami and H.H. Prahladananda Swami were the special guests.

After the procession, the festivities continued at the park with speeches by the Maharajas, an initiation yajna, and traditional and contemporary bhajans and songs. Hundreds of people milled through the festival site taking darshan of Lord Jagannath, Baladeva, and Subhadra, Gaura-Nitai, and Srila Prabhupada, seeing displays of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, buying several hundred dollars worth of Srila Prabhupada's books, interacting with the devotees, and of course taking a full meal of Krishna prasadam.

We hope the worldwide society of devotees will bless our humble first attempt to hold a large Ratha Yatra festival here.

Hare Krishna!

CHAKRA 7 January 2002