Baroda Rathayatra

From Basu Ghosh Dasa

Posted July 17, 2005

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24th annual Jagannath Rathayatra Mahotsav at Baroda, Gujarat, India

On Friday, July 8, 2005, ISKCON Baroda observed Sri Jagannath Rathayatra Mahotsav on the traditional date (same as at Puri), Aashadh Shukla Dvitiya (aashaadh sud bij in Gujarati).

The Rathayatra procession started at 2:30 PM on a dry day, less than a week after torrential rains played havoc with normal life all over Gujarat, and the procession received a tremendous response from the public, which had just been victims of heavy flooding. The rains caused widespread losses, especially to many thousands of poor people living in areas near the seasonal Vishvamitri River, which overflowed for several days.

All glories to
Srila Prabhupada!

The Rathayatra was inaugurated by the Mayor of Baroda as well as several other political leaders such as the local member of Parliament, three members of the State Assembly (MLAs), leader of the opposition party in the Baroda Municipal Corporation, many municipal corporators, and others too numerous to mention!

The district magistrate (collector), greeted the Rathyatra outside the Collectorate. The police commissioner also greeted the Rathayatra in one of the most crowded areas of the city.

Thousands lined the city streets to have a darshan (view) of the procession.

Tons of halava prasad were distributed from trucks that followed the Ratha cart throughout the length of the procession.

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HH Bhakti Vikas Swami led hundreds of devotees in attendance at the Rathayatra, and a grand kirtan continued from start to finish, for more than five hours!

After the completion of the Rathayatra, more than 15,000 members of the public were served with full plates of prasad at the Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar Mandir of ISKCON Baroda. The grand feast included lapsi (cracked wheat halava), puri, subji, rice, kadi, and phulwadi.

Since one picture is worth a thousand words, please take a look at the photos accompanying this article to see for yourself how grand a function Rathayatra at Baroda is.