“As devotees will honor the 5000-year-old tradition by pulling the cart with the Deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra by ropes, a hired helicopter will be showering the chanting and dancing crowds with rose petals from the sky.”

New Touch to Ancient Festival

CHAKRA (New Delhi, India) - November 1, 2000: For the first time in 20 years, the annual Jagannatha Rathayatra festival organized by the New Delhi branch of ISKCON will not just pull out from the Red Fort square, as usual, but will also take off in the air.

As devotees will honor the 5000-year-old tradition by pulling the cart with the Deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra by ropes, a hired helicopter will be showering the chanting and dancing crowds with rose petals from the sky.

"Certainly, the flower shower will make the festival more spectacular and jubilant than ever," - says Mahamantra Das, the chairman of the Rathayatra Coordination Committee and the co-president of ISKCON New Delhi. "But it will also show in a vivid way that one can use even modern technology in the service of the Lord. After all, ‘Jagannatha’ means ‘Lord of the Universe.’ If He owns the whole universe, why not the little helicopter?"

The parade, accompanied by horses and elephants, will start at 1 pm and proceed around the Red Fort through Ajmeri Gate, Khari Baoli and Chandni Chowk, completing the circle by 7pm. During the 6-hour ride on the ornate chariot topped with a 40-feet high canvass canopy, Lord Jagannatha will enjoy 108 aratis and a 56-course feast (chappan bhog) offered to Him by the festival sponsors and dignitaries, including the Cabinet Minister Manohar Joshi. Animated dioramas and a non-stop kirtan by international devotees will add to the pleasure of the Lord and His guests.

Upon its return to the Red Fort Square, the festive program will then feature dramas on Krishna lila, bhajans by the Indian celebrity Mridul Krishna Shastri, and a lecture on the significance of Rathayatra by one of ISKCON spiritual leaders, Gopal Krishna Goswami. Free prasadam (spiritual food) was served to all the participants.

"This festival is a collective effort of many devotees and volunteers, who have been working very hard for months to make it happen," says its co-chairman and New Delhi businessman Shaunak Rishi Das. "Its trans-cultural spiritual significance - reunion of the Lord with His beloved devotees after long years of separation - reaches deep into everyone's heart. And seeing people of all walks of life, creeds, nations and beliefs happily joining together in dancing and singing, forgetting all their differences, makes us feel completely rewarded for our efforts and inspired to carry on with the tradition for many years to come."

Annual Rathayatra festivals are held by ISKCON in most of the major cities of the world, including New York, London, Rio-de-Janeiro, Moscow and Sidney. In many cities the municipal authorities have recognized it as an official city holiday.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna Movement, was founded in 1966 by India's eminent philosopher and spiritual leader A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. ISKCON strives to represent, revive and propagate worldwide the great spiritual heritage of India and thus provide overall solutions to the contemporary spiritual and material problems of the humanity.

© CHAKRA 1-November-2000

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