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Ranaghat Ratha Yatra
From Kavicandra Swami
Posted September 27, 2004

Many of you must have noticed the town of Ranaghat while motoring between Sridham Mayapura and Kolkata. What most devotees do not know is that there is an active preaching center there, run by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) and staffed by blissful brahmacaris. There are wonderful fruit gardens with jackfruit and mangos, and the devotees there are protecting cows. In the temple, they worship Lord Jagannatha.

On the 19th of June, they held their Jagannatha Ratha Yatra, on the same day as in Puri and Kolkata. Amazingly, their Ratha Yatra had more participants than the one in Kolkata. Even though it was raining, they estimate that one lakh (100,000) devotees joined in. It went for five kilometers along the road between Mayapura and Kolkata. Besides the Jagannatha Ratha, they had something like 26 various bands and performers, so the parade covered a great distance.

As in Kolkata, they held a nine-day pandal program. They had 24-hour akanda kirtan for the entire time and massive prasadam distribution. Two huge pandals [tents] were erected. I cannot properly describe the four-story front of the temple pandal, but the picture shows it nicely. Inside were many displays and a big book stall. Huge Deities of Jagannath, Baladeva, and Subhadra dominated .

There was also a beautiful diorama museum of various Krsna and Caitanya lilas. I found the diorama of Lord Siva with Mohini Murti to be especially pleasing.

The performance tent was also big, holding thousands of guests. There was constant bhajan, kirtan, pracar [preaching], and drama. Special guests included HH Jayapataka Swami, HH Subhaga Swami, HH Gauranga Prema Swami, and many other leading preachers from Mayapura. This mela has been going on for many years and is getting bigger every year.

On June 27 they had a return Ratha Yatra. I was not there for that, as I had to rush to Bali for our first public Ratha Yatra there, which has been described in another article. But with good weather it was probably bigger than the first one.

The local people are fascinated by the foreign Vaisnavas, and anyone who wants a blissful preaching engagement is invited to attend next year's mela. A bus goes there daily from Sridham Mayapura.

Naturally, witnessing Jagannatha Ratha Yatra in Kolkata and nearby places, we were remembering how our dearmost Founder Acarya, AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, organized Ratha Yatra in Kolkata at just five years of age and how from that small beginning there are now awesome ISKCON Jagannatha Ratha Yatras all over the world.

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