20140113 Ratha-yatra Festival Address

Ratha-yatra Festival

January 13, 2014

Mailapur, Chennai, India 33rd Ratha-yatra Festival

To the sannyasis, brahmacaris, respectable mayor and to other special guests and to all of the devotees, who are present. First I would like to mention that a person who is acting as a MC, who is behind Tamil translator, his name is Radha-kanta Gopal das, he is the head master of our National School in Mayapur. Every year he comes down and makes his special effort to be present for the Ratha-yatra in Chennai. So as one of our speaker spoke, There is Nectar here. Most Ratha-yatra, they have utsava-murti. But these are not utsava-murti, They are the temple deities. They have come out to bless all of you. Some of you may not be able to go the temple, so the Lord is coming out to see all of you. So merciful, He is. The original Jagannath in Puri was installed by Lord Brahma. Therefore that deity of Krishna has effect all over the universe. And today is the Bhogi day and tomorrow is Pongal Festival. So, today is the day to get purified. So that on tomorrow's Pongal festival everything will be auspicious.

By pulling the Ratha, by doing activities like sweeping before the Ratha and breaking the coconuts, and chanting the holy names, in the 12th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam there is a verse, that states the important of chanting,

kalir dose nidhe rajan asti hi eko mahan gunah…

Kali-yuga is an ocean of problems, but there is one good quality, that is chanting the names of Lord Krishna. The holy names purify us and by chanting we can go to the spiritual world. So while we pull the Ratha, please chant the holy names. Lord Chaitanya used to dance before the Rath-cart. And there is a connection between Rama-lila, Krishna-lila and Lord Chaitanya's Lila. That's why Lord Chaitanya has His six armed from, two arms of Lord Rama, two arms of Lord Krishna, two arms of Lord Caitanya.

Sita devi was kept with the devas, in charge of fire. Vedavati, chaya-sita took of punishment of Lord Rama. And Lord Chaitanya, He came and married Lakshmi Priya first, who was Vedavati. And she passed away, then He married Vishnu-priya, who was real Sita devi. And Lord Krishna went from Dwaraka and met Jambavan and he realized He was Lord Rama-chandra. And he gave his daughter Jambavati in marriage to Lord Krishna. So, these three lilas are connected.

We are fortunate that present government is free and thankful that they are allowing us to do the Ratha-yatra in Chennai every year. So, we thank the government and police and everybody. So please pull the Ratha and chant the holy name and at the end please take the feast. And as His Holiness Bhanu Maharaj mentioned, we will have all varieties of wealth, spiritual wealth. And also everything will be very auspicious. So, when the Lord is in big temple that is called Nilachala. And He goes to the small temple, that is called Sundra-chala. So, that is taking Lord Krishna from Dwaraka back to Vrindavan.

"Nilachala chandra amu prabhu jagannath jai jagannath jai jagannath" and then you take Him back to Vrindavan "Sundra-chala chandra amu prabhu jagannath jai jagannath jai jagannath" "Sundra-chala chandra amu prabhu jagannath jai jagannath jai jagannath" Haribol… Jai Jagannath Baladeva, Subhadra Maharani ki jai… Samaveda Bhakta Vrinda ki jai.