Skip to main content

LORD JAGANNATH'S ONGOING LILA: RATH YATRA 2021

 
Ever since the pandemic, it has been extremely difficult for us to come together and be in association of devotees and to celebrate the various occasions that we otherwise did with so much of grandeur. Nevertheless, we have been trying our best to bring to you every celebration in the best possible way. We felt that even this year, we wouldn't be able to have a Ratha Yatra like we usually did, but Lord Jagannath had other plans. 
 
Although the whole intention of Ratha Yatra is that everyone gets the Darshan of the Lords, we decided on having a small ceremony, with just a few devotees, within the ashram area, since the pandemic is still prevalent. We decided to utilise the old Ratha from our morjim centre. But to our disappointment, we were informed that the old Ratha was damaged due to rains and hence couldn't be used.

Before long, one of our ardent devotee, Pradeep Chodankar Prabhu, from Mapusa came to our rescue like a knight in shining armour. During his visit to the ashram, he learned about our situation and without a second thought offered to help us by building a new Ratha for Their Lordships. His family and many other devotees and well-wishers came together and contributed to give us an elegant, new handcrafted Ratha. If you haven't already watched, please do watch the video and the pictures to see the beautifully designed and painted Ratha. It clearly portrays the love and devotion to our beloved Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladev and Maiya Subhadra from Their honest devotees.

With the Ratha arranged we had nothing else to worry about, except may be the weather. But on the day of the Ratha Yatra, Lord Jagannath had managed to take care of that too. Mostly clear skies and maybe a drizzle of rain every now and then. Which was good enough for us.

On the day of Yatra, the Ratha, adorned with flowers and Their Lordships mounted on it, were ready to be chauffeured around our land. But on the last moment, we thought that the wheels of the Ratha may not be be able to manoeuvre well through the soft soil of the fields. So we finally decided to take the Ratha over the tarred road for better stability. Even though we planned to avoid going on the road because of not having permission for the procession, Lord Jagannath wanted to go on the main road. He showed us that He is the master who makes all plans. We covered a decent length around the village and back. In this way, the Lord had also managed to give his Darshan to all the people.

Life of a devotee is like this. One obstacle after another. It just goes to show that, these obstacles are in place for a reason. For us to try, to learn and to surrender to His will. Our illusion is that we think we can control what happens in our lives. But clearly, we don't. When faced with a hurdle, best is to let the Lord take control of it. Inspite of all these difficulties, the Ratha Yatra took place in a grand fashion. It is Lord Jagannath's Lila that we witnessed during this Rath Yatra.

Written by Trisha Chodanker.

Story narrated by Achyut Gopal Das.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TWO DECADES OF HARE KRISHNA

"Sometimes the longest journey we make is the sixteen inches from our heads to our hearts." -  Elena Avila Coming December 2019 marks 20 years of my consistent and daily chanting of 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, one of the prerequisite for a committed practitioner of Krishna consciousness. I started, chanting 16 rounds in December of 1999 and now, 20 years have passed by so quickly. One thing that helps me, be focused in spiritual life is watching the passing of the imperceptible time. How weeks turn into months, how months turn into years and how years turn into decades is a great wonder of life. This article is in no way to glorify my two decades of chanting Hare Krishna but it is just meant to share my little thoughts and my little experiences in my spiritual life at this junction in life. I feel so grateful to Krishna and His wonderful devotees who have been extremely kind to me by showering their grace...
Post a Comment
Read more

REQUEST TO & FROM A MOTHER

  Today on the occasion of Mother's Day, I went to meet the cow, our mother to wish her for Mother's Day and make a request to her. I requested her to shower her blessings and mercy on her children who are suffering so badly due to the deadly covid virus. The good news for all of us is that, she mercifully agreed to shower her heartfelt blessings, prayers, mercy on all her children. After all, that's the heart of a mother - always wanting and desiring best for her children. I was elated, my mission accomplished - now, the suffering of humanity will reduce. As I was leaving, the cow also had one personal request. She requested me with tears in her eyes to request her children not to abuse, exploit and slaughter her mercilessly. I could literally feel her pain and suffering as she made this request. This was the pain of a mother. Tears swelled up in my eyes. I didn't know what to reply her. I did tell her that I will pass on her request to her other children and I walked ...
Post a Comment
Read more

CHANNELISING MIND'S CURIOSITY

We all have heard the saying "The grass looks greener on the other side". The mind by nature is never satisfied, always looking for "what others have that I don't have". It is always curious to find newer and newer ways of enjoyment and material nature seems to understand our mind by offering us unlimited varieties to enjoyment. There seems to be no end to the fascinations that are available in this world. Why is the mind always looking for newer ways to enjoy? Because it soon gets bored of what it has. It looks for release from this boredom through newer experiences. But the problem is that as soon as we get the new experience that we are looking for, it's not a long till that also becomes old and boring. The point we miss to understand is that " the newness that material nature provides in its variegated forms are all the same oldness packaged in new ways. " As they say - Old wine in a new bottle. But we never really believe this fu...
Post a Comment
Read more