20050814 Ratha-yātrā

The following is a Ratha yātra address given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swāmi Mahārāja on Aug 14^th, 2005 in Moscow, Russia.

 Guru Mahārāja:

To Prabhupāda - His Divine Grace Abhay Caran Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda, to Gaura Nitāi - Saci Suta Doyal Nitāi, to Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadra. Did you have a Snāna yātra fifteen days ago? You are missing out on half the fun. Fifteen days before Ratha yātra you need to have Snāna yātra. You give a - everybody comes and gives a bath to Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadra. How many of you like to bathe Jagannātha? [Haribol] How many of you are unhappy that it wasn’t organised?  Oooh! No, but this – anyway, this is a new thing. Even the Ratha yātra is a new thing. So many years, no Ratha yātra.

Remember, fifteen days before Ratha yātra, you should have Snāna yātra. That is a good time. We have some good time, because we have to - in some temples we have a big festival actually -  bigger than the Ratha yātra. In Melbourne, Australia, the biggest festival is Snāna yātra. One thousand congregation devotees come and bathe Jagannātha. So, deity worship is an opportunity for the devotees to get a personal service and association with the Lord, in His deity form through arcana. [Gurumaharaja calling out in Hindi] Our Indian friends are going away. Lord Jagannātha for fifteen days He is sick and the pujāris serve him soups and fruit juices and things like that. On a special diet. That time, they paint the deities, if they have to paint them. Then after fifteen days, He appears on the day of the Ratha yātra and everybody is very happy to see Him again. We need a table like that over here.

Then the Lord goes on the Ratha yātra. Then we get a chance  to hear while we are having an appointment - we will have ropes with it, more elaborate. So you can pull the ratha. Pulling the ratha is very special. Just by touching the rope people can get back to Godhead. In Calcutta, people know that. There is almost a fight to get to the rope. Everybody wants the rope. Nobody wants to go without the rope. There are like hundred thousand people. They hold that. When it is time to pull, they shout “Jagannāth Swāmi ki  Jaya!” They pull the rope. You can’t do that here, you will pull the people over. The ratha twenty, twenty feet - twenty tonnes -truck weighs twenty tonnes in Calcutta. And it is very dangerous if anybody falls under one of the wheels. So there are lots of police and guards and volunteers to control the movement of the car – chariot. So they don’t  - so they stay away from the wheel. So the people really like the opportunity to serve Lord Jagannātha. You are also fortunate to get two days - one harinām Jagannātha.. and normally we feel Harinām Ratha yātra and tomorrow also. So when you  get to go with the Lord -  the deity form of the Lord is not different from the Lord. Jagannātha ki jai!

It is said after harinām sankīrtan the Lord is pleased and it rains [Crowd cheering Haribol!] Indra sends the rains, if you perform the sacrifice. [ Haribol!] It was very prominent during Ratha yātra, it starts to rain. [9:48 Not clear] Take the umbrella just in case...[laughter]

We had many other Ratha yātras I was in this year it started to rain. This is part of Ratha yātra. So we are servants of the Lord. Normally we serve the Lord through the spiritual master, offering our service. But sometimes we get this opportunity, to directly perform some direct service to the Lord - chanting before the Lord, the pujāris get to offer the prasādam for the Lord. There are some amazing offerings here before the Lord Jagannātha. Some kind of cakes in the shape of hearts. The best thing is [11:21 Not clear] the love for Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā. Oh, Mātāji Triveni and her nāmahatta, let’s give them a big hand. Where is Mātāji Triveni?[crowd cheering Haribol] the whole group – so many  - the whole group stand up. Let’s give [11.51 Not clear]

Guru Mahārāja cheering them – Haribol! Haribol!

Haribol! Haribol!!

Haribol! Haribol!!!

(Crowd repeating after Guru Mahārāja)

If you come to Mayapur, we will make some cakes, remind me - we will arrange it for you. Very nice. This is what nāmahatta means- bhakti vrikśa groups mean, that they are all active parts of the temple. In the festival days, they do wonderful things for the festival. This morning one more almost all day [12:49 Not clear] there were so many devotees doing Gundica mārjana with leaves and decorations, flags, so many things. It is all done by  - most of it is done by nāmahatta groups. They cleanse the place like Lord Caitanya washed it. You said there will be no washing with water but Indra and Lord Caitanya did  it. Nitāi Gauranga!.

We want all the devotees to be very active and be praying for the Lord that we can have the master project, we can have the temple. We want also to build up the congregation more and more so that there will be thousands of devotees, to worship in the temple when it is finally constructed. We want the congregation to grow. Somehow it is nice to see that you have a beautiful tent here. We can have programs here. We can have the temple here. Temple here is very small. And I don’t know that you are going to do in winter - but this is very good for the summer. So like this we gather together, we chant, we have festivals together. We charge our spiritual battery. We try to bring new people to Kṛṣṇa. Some people came up to me in Arbat street and there they asked to take pictures with me. Some people the tourists - the locals they were enjoying. We were also enjoying.

We can be happy simply naturally by singing and dancing the names of Kṛṣṇa. yuktvaiva - by absorbing ourselves in Kṛṣṇa. I was - they said that I should take a little nap in the afternoon. But it was getting too late. I didn’t want to miss the coming of - so I didn’t take a nap, I just went straight to the harinām. First I thought, a little tired. But then the devotees’ ecstatic chanting, association, I forgot all about it. I felt very energised. So that’s the effect of this harinām. It gives us spiritual energy. If we chant, dance, in association with devotees, then it is something very special. It gives us energy. It gives us happiness. That’s people are being amazed - they don’t know – one person got one of the sweet balls. He looked at the devotees. He looked at the - may be  - what is inside this that it makes these people jump. Love. There is love in those balls. Everybody is jumping for love. That is the wonderful thing about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is the love for Kṛṣṇa that makes the devotees sing and dance. So, in the material world, if the people have to dance, they have to take some intoxication, we don’t need that. We are all naturally happy. And that’s what people don’t understand that. How religious [18.39 Not clear] can be happy, how spiritual activities can be blissful. So, Lord Caitanya, He taught a new thing that by doing spiritual activities we will  actually be happy. This is the highest happiness.

Haridās Thākura, he used to sing and dance, and sometimes people would imitate him. One time he was going to a marketplace and there was an astrologer - kind of a brāhmana who was seated on the ground. He had a parrot and he had a picture of a big hand, he had [19:42 Not clear] parrot to pick up a card and things like that. So, there was also a snake charmer and he was playing his flute. There was a snake dancing with the flute playing. (Guru Mahārāja singing a tune - Crowd applauding] then the snake charmer started to sing a song about kāliya and Kṛṣṇa dancing on the snake kāliya and when he was singing the song about kāliya and Kṛṣṇa, the snake became controlled because this is a special secret, you could control the poisonous snake by chanting the kāliya Kṛṣṇa pastime.

So when Haridās Thākura heard the chanting, he became ecstatic. Haribol! Haribol!! [Crowd Haribol!!] Jai Jagannātha Swāmi ki  Jaya!! Jai Śri Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa ki Jaya!!. He started to dance in ecstasy.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

 Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

 Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

[crowd following kirtan] He was dancing in ecstasy. He was so ecstatic, he rolled on the ground. He fell on the ground and overwhelmed, and then he got up again, chanting away,

Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa he

[crowd following kīrtan]

Kṛṣṇa keśava Kṛṣṇa keśava Kṛṣṇa keśava pāhimām

There were people, they started to offer their obeisances to Haridās Thākura. Sorry, you are too far away. Mahāvarāha, get a little closer. The guy with the amazing [24:12 Not clear] track. Around there. And that astrologer, he got envious of Haridās Thākura.

“Why these people are bowing down to him and not bowing down to me? I am a brāhmana. He is not a brāhmana. Just a Vaiṣṇava. I am brāhmana. I got thread.  See, look at my thread. So why they are not bowing down to me? Why they are bowing down to him? I can do what he is doing. I can dance. I can jump around.”

            So, he jumped up. Meanwhile Haridās Thākura left. So this brāhmana said, “Ok, I can get worshipped by all these people.” So he began to dance.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

 Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Some people bowed down. Some people bowed down. Then he fell on the ground and he played like he was ecstatic – rolling and -  this was too much for the snake-charmer.

“He is cheating you. He is not truly in ecstasy. He is imitating Haridās Thākura . Haridās Thākura really was in ecstasy. This guy simply wants to be respected by you and he is committing an aparādha against Haridās Thākura. I will show you if he is ecstasy, if he is in trance, he won’t feel anything. When I kick him now, you watch, he will jump like anything.”

He gave a big kick in the butt.

“AAAaaaaaw! He kicked me’”

“You are a cheater. You are playing Haridās Thākura. Get him, he is a cheater, he is an imposter.”

The people chased that so called brāhmana was kicked. He had to run away.

So today we saw the harinām in front of the etc., etc., restaurant with the whole … I don’t know what restaurant that was, it has the om sign. ( Somebody clarifying about the shop owner)Ok the owner of the shop sponsored the Ratha yātra. There was some guy, he looked a little drunk. He was wearing a Matrix T-shirt. He was jumping amongst the devotees, trying to jump into the women’s crowd. But everyone knew he is not in ecstasy, he is just jumping around. The devotees dancing is beautiful, there is something about it you know that is true bliss.You can’t imitate it. So I hope all of you are excited. My, my perception was you all very blissfully chanting and dancing. So, that is why the harinām sankīrtan is one opportunity we have to absorb ourselves in Kṛṣṇa’s –Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We can also absorb ourselves when we chant in our bhakti vrikśa groups. But it won't be exactly the same as chanting and dancing in our bhakti  with three hundred devotees with Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā and even Kardama Muni [29:42 Not clear] was there with the turban on.

So, we get, every week we have our festivals – we have our programs and that helps us to charge our battery. Once in a while we have big festivals and the bigger festivals give us a bigger charge. How many are charged up? How many of them are spiritually charged?

GAURANGA!  GAURANGA!! GAURANGA!!!   NITYĀNANDA!!!

Transcribed by : Sudhamayi Chitra Devi dasi, Reading UK Sanga on 09th Nov 2020

Proof- read by Aishwarya Tulasi d.d. December 12, 2020