Today is the Jagannath Car Festival. There is great excitement in the San Francisco temple. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, affectionately known as Prabhupada, had given a lecture the night before, and the chants had been sung with much enthusiasm.
Prabhupada emerged from a car which had cautiously nuzzled its way through the crowds up to the side of the great ratha car. Purple velvet steps were lowered onto the street by the devotees, and the Golden Guru rose up onto the ratha’s opulent throne, just below the Deities.
Children and grandmothers with tilok all wanting to pull the rope that will send dancing the grand Lord of the Universe. Then the conch is sounded and with the transcendental broom sweeping away the material dust, we dance towards Trafalgar Square.
The Kam Day Parade is a yearly event commemorating the reign of the Hawaiian King Kamehameha. This parade is known to draw thousands, so we were naturally anxious to take advantage of this opportunity for propagating Krishna consciousness.
The three towering chariots, their brightly colored silk canopies billowing, glide slowly down streets that on every other day of the year are reserved for a heavy traffic of cars, trucks, and buses.
Here Comes Jagannatha, Jagganath Car Festival, Central Park, New York City New York, July 7, 1968. Black and White Photos.
The first annual Ratha-yatra chariot festival in Washington, D.C. Hare Krsna devotees came from around the country and at the foot of the Washington Monument thousands of well-wishers, friends, and onlookers joined them for the parade to the Capitol.
You have not had LSD, Allen? “I have had it.” It is dependence, Allen. “It’s like a car—a mental car—to resolve certain inner things.” Krishna Consciousness resolves everything. Nothing else is needed.
Pastureland next to the Waikato River (south of Auckland) was transformed into a tent-and-caravan metropolis. Seventy thousand young people were basking in perfect weather at the annual Sweetwaters Rock Festival—New Zealand’s Woodstock.
For thousands of years devotees of Lord Krsna have journeyed to Jagannatha Puri in India to take part in the annual celebration called Ratha-yatra, “The Festival of the Chariots.”
At Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue the chariots are waiting. Forty feet high with spires atop. I bow to the statue of Srila Prabhupada which sits on an elegant throne in the second chariot.
We grabbed the chariot ropes and pulled Krsna, and He pulled us along with Him. Krsna’s chariot rolled on and on, and the waves of chanting and feeling rolled in and in, deeper and deeper. Hare Krsna,
August 1973 at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, in the countryside near London. Several thousand guests (including the Indian High Commissioner) listen to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speak about the day Lord Krsna made His appearance on earth.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada brought the ancient Indian Ratha-yatra, the Festival of the Chariots, to the West in 1967. That year Srila Prabhupada held the festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and it quickly caught on all over the world. In 1969, at the third San Francisco festival, Srila Prabhupada spoke […]
Something of a minor marvel is taking shape in the hills of Marshall County, where members of the Hare Krishna religious community have sacrificed over the past four years to complete a “labor of love”—a temple in honor of their spiritual master.
The sacred city of Puri is one of India’s most popular attractions for pilgrims and tourists. Situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, this city of 80,000 is most famous for its colossal temple of Jagannatha, the Lord of the universe.
About five hundred years ago, Orissa was ruled by King Prataparudra. He was a sincere devotee of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he worshiped Him in the form of the Jagannatha Deity, at the great Jagannatha temple in Puri.