20160114 Ratha Yātrā Inaugural Talk

20160114 Ratha Yātrā Inaugural Talk

I would first like to offer my respects to the honourable chief guest, the honourable justice and the principle secretary and their holinesses and all of the ISKCON devotees and all of the children and all the wellwishers and all those present. Hari bo, Jay Jagannath Swami ki! Jay Baladev ki! Jay Subhadra Maharani ki! Jay So we heard from His Holiness Bhanu Swami, how we are observing the 50th anniversary of ISKCON, and I was reminded how Lord Jagannath, 50 years ago how He walked through the doorway, that one of the lady who visited to the temple she bought a Lord Jagannath from the Indian gift shop and put it on Prabhupada’s desk. Prabhupada immediately got up his asana and offered his dandavat obeisances. He said, “were there two others one with the white face and one with the yellow face?” She said, “yes there were but I just bought one.” “Can you get the other two?” “Sure.” In that way Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra, 50 years ago were the first deities in ISKCON. A little history. So in ISKCON they are also the 50 years anniversary deities. Jay Jagannath swami ki? So Vasu Ghosh, one of the celebrated kirtan singers of Lord Caitanya, he said Jei Krishna Sei Jagannath, sei Gauranga Mahaprabhu. Lord Krishna has come as Jagannath. And that Jagannath is non-different from Lord Caitanya because Lord Chaitanya is actually Krishna but Rukmini told him in a long story, that there is one thing that he didn’t know. He was Jagannath, the Lord of the universe, He knew what Brahma was doing, what Siva was doing, but one thing He didn’t know. So we never heard that there is anything that He didn’t know. He said, “What’s that?”, She said, “You don’t know how much Your devotees love You, and in what way they love You, because You are the Lord, always receiving love, but You don’t know what it is like to love You.” So He agreed to become a devotee of Himself. At the same time He was satisfying His guru Naradamuni and spreading the Harinam sankirtan. You also heard from different speakers, His Holiness.... that we need to do some sacrifice and in every yuga there is a different sacrifice. In Satya yuga, treta yuga, dwapar yuga, each yuga has it’s own sacrifice. In Kali Yuga it’s chanting the holy names of the Lord. I think Sukhadeva Goswami said, “krite adhyayate Vishnu. Kalau dad hari kirtana” 5.39 So if we chant the names of the Lord we get special mercy, but even if we watch the deity and walk with the deity we can get transferred to the spiritual world at the end of this life, and we don’t have the ...boro? 6.30... danda that the principle secretary talked about, that’s why we have a telescopic rath designed by our engineers. If we meet some low lying wires it will reduce its height after crossing the wire it rises up again. So everyone of us does some works. We are all serving our families, serving someone, if we have no one we will serve our dog. So why not one time serve Jagannath, pull His rope or be part of His inauguration, sweep the road in front of Him, chant and dance, whatever you like... but this will purify you, and thus those who are pure they can experience the presence of Krishna. Lord Caitanaya led seven kirtan parties and He extended Himself into seven forms. Each party thought that they have Lord Caitanya with them but the King Prataparudra got the blessing that he could see that there were seven Lord Caitanya’s. So you may not see Them but with you will be dancing Nitai-Gauranga. Haribol. So in other yuga’s even if you think something bad you get the reaction but in Kaliyuga you have to do something bad. But if you think something good, in Kaliyuga you get the good reaction and in this Kaliyuga if you actually engage in Krishna’s service you get the supreme blessings. So in Brahma Baivarta Puran, it’s predicted that a devotee will come and spread the movement all over the world by chanting the holy names. So you see that His Divine Grace Srila A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was the one who fulfils that prediction. So we request everyone to participate and we will accompany Lord Jagannath. Those who even watch they get the blessings, those who walk along they get more blessings and those who pull the rope they get more blessings, and those who chant Jay Jagannath they get the most blessings. Hare Krsihna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Hare And please remember the joy of devotion. We want you to be joyful this whole year and this whole life. Hare Krishna.

Transcribed by : Sadananda Krishnaprem Das Date: 22-01-2016