Ratha-yātrā

Significance of Ratha-yātrā

Excerpt from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 13.119

After giving up the company of the gopīs in Vṛndāvana, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the son of Mahārāja Nanda, engaged in His pastimes at Dvārakā. When Kṛṣṇa went to Kurukṣetra with His brother and sister and others from Dvārakā, He again met the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalita, that is, Kṛṣṇa Himself assuming the part of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in order to understand Kṛṣṇa. Lord Jagannātha-deva is Kṛṣṇa, and Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's leading Lord Jagannātha toward the Guṇḍicā temple corresponded to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī’s leading Kṛṣṇa toward Vṛndāvana. Śrī Kṣetra, Jagannātha Purī, was taken as the kingdom of Dvārakā, the place where Kṛṣṇa enjoys supreme opulence. But He was being led by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to Vṛndāvana, the simple village where all the inhabitants are filled with ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Kṣetra is a place of aiśvarya-līlā, just as Vṛndāvana is the place of mādhurya-līlā. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's following at the rear of the ratha indicated that Lord Jagannātha, Kṛṣṇa, was forgetting the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. Although Kṛṣṇa neglected the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, He could not forget them. Thus in His opulent Ratha-yātrā, He was returning to Vṛndāvana. In the role of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was examining whether the Lord still remembered the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu fell behind the Ratha car, Jagannātha-deva, Kṛṣṇa Himself, understood the mind of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Therefore, Jagannātha sometimes fell behind the dancing Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to indicate to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī that He had not forgotten. Thus Lord Jagannātha would stop the forward march of the ratha and wait at a standstill. In this way Lord Jagannātha agreed that without the ecstasy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī He could not feel satisfied. While Jagannātha was thus waiting, Gaurasundara, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in His ecstasy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, immediately came forward to Kṛṣṇa. At such times, Lord Jagannātha would proceed ahead very slowly. These competitive exchanges were all part of the love affair between Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. In that competition between Lord Caitanya's ecstasy for Jagannātha and Jagannātha's ecstasy for Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu emerged successful.

Śrīla Prabhupāda brings the Ratha-yātrā to the west

Excerpt from Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, Volume One, Chapter 26

Śrīla Prabhupāda had first gotten the idea for the [Ratha-yātrā] festival while looking out the window of his room above Frederick Street. Noticing flatbed trucks passing below, he thought of putting Jagannātha deities on the back of such a truck and conducting an American-style Ratha-yātrā festival. He had even sketched a truck with a four-pillared canopy on the back and decorated with flags, bells, and flower garlands. And he had called in Śyāmasundara: “Make me this cart for Ratha-yātrā.” Now, ready and sitting outside the temple on Frederick Street, was the cart – a yellow Hertz rental truck, compliments of the Diggers and complete with five-foot columns and a pyramidal cloth canopy.

Sitting with Prabhupāda on the beach, Mukunda told how all the devotees were working with great enthusiasm and how the hippies in Haight-Ashbury were talking about the Jagannātha parade that would take place the next day. The devotees had tried to route the parade through Golden Gate Park, but the police department would only give permission for them to go south down Frederick Street to the sea. Mukunda said the devotees planned to have Jagannātha under the canopy, facing the right side of the truck, Subhadrā facing the rear, and Balarāma facing the left side; he wanted to know if that was all right. Actually, Prabhupāda said, the deities should ride in separate carts, pulled with ropes by the crowd through the streets; maybe that could happen in future years.

“Do it nicely,” he cautioned them. “And don’t hurry it up.” The devotees should drive the truck slowly through the streets down to the beach, and there should be constant kīrtana.

Mukunda and Śyāmasundara glorified Jayānanda: he drove all around San Francisco getting donations of fruits and flowers, found people to help decorate the cart, installed the sound system on the truck, and distributed posters in the stores. He was tireless, and his enthusiasm was inspiring everyone else to take part. The women had been cooking capātīs all day, so there should be thousands to give away to the crowd. The devotees had prepared hundreds of Hare Kṛṣṇa Ratha-yātrā festival balloons to release on the streets as the parade began.

When the devotees asked what else they should do, Prabhupāda said that this was all – a procession, prasādam distribution, kīrtana. The people should get a chance to see Lord Jagannātha and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There should be chanting and dancing in front of the cart throughout the procession. “But do everything nicely,” Prabhupāda said. “Do it as well as you can, and Lord Jagannātha will be satisfied.”

The next day, in the quiet afternoon, Prabhupāda was sitting in the living room, chanting on his beads. Suddenly Prabhupāda heard the familiar ringing of cymbals, and he became very happy, his eyes widening. Looking outside he saw the Ratha-yātrā truck, with Lord Jagannātha, Subhadrā, and Balarāma and dozens of devotees and hippies eager to see him. He went out to greet them and had them bring the deities inside and set them on top of the upright piano.

It was great! It was wonderful! It was a beautiful day, they said. And Prabhupāda listened, moved by his disciples’ description of the celebration. Many hippies had joined the large procession. Mukunda, Haridāsa, Hayagrīva, and some of the women had been on the cart, and the instruments, including Yamunā’s playing on the harmonium, had all been amplified. Everyone in the streets had liked it. The police motor escorts had tried to hurry the devotees, but so many people had crowded in front that the parade had been obliged to go slowly, just as Swamiji had asked. Subala had danced wildly the whole time, and Jayānanda had been jumping up and down, playing karatālas. From the truck some of the women had handed out cut oranges, apples, and bananas, and others had thrown flowers. The crowds had loved it.

Śyāmasundara told how they had been going up a steep hill – Śyāmasundara had been driving, with his dog Ralph beside him on the front seat – when the truck had stalled. He had tried to start the engine but couldn’t. Then the brakes wouldn’t hold. The truck began rolling backward downhill! Finally he had managed to stop. But when he had tried to go forward the engine had stalled and the truck had rolled backwards again! He would get it started, the truck would go forward, then stall, then roll backwards. Everyone had been in anxiety. At last the truck had started forward, and the procession had continued all the way to the beach.

Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled. It was a pastime of Lord Jagannātha’s, he said. The same thing had happened when Lord Caitanya had attended Ratha-yātrā in Jagannātha Purī. Then also the cart had gotten stuck, and no one had been able to move it. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu had then put His head against the cart and pushed, and only then did the cart begin to move. Now Ratha-yātrā had come to the West, and with it this pastime of Lord Jagannātha’s.

After all the visitors departed, the deities remained in the house with Prabhupāda and his servants. Prabhupāda felt satisfied that his disciples had successfully held a Ratha-yātrā festival. Although untrained, they were sincere. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura would have been pleased to see the first American Ratha-yātrā.

The whole world was in anxiety, Prabhupāda explained to the devotees gathered in his room that evening. Only in the spiritual world was there freedom from anxiety. Becoming free from all anxiety and returning to the spiritual world was the purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And festivals like Ratha-yātrā made people Kṛṣṇa conscious. Prabhupāda had many, many ideas for festivals. If he had the money and the manpower, he said, he could have a festival every day. There was no limit to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This Ratha-yātrā festival was another sign of the good reception for Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the West.