Ratha-yatra

Giriraj Swami: It is a great pleasure to be here with all of you at the Ratha-yatra celebration. Listening to different devotees speak about their first association with Lord Jagannatha, I thought of a small incident that took place. When I came to the Boston Temple, the deities were Radha-Krishna, there was no Jagannatha but Lord Jagannatha came later. But what was striking was that in 1970, when Srila Prabhupada announced that he would return to India and wanted one disciple from each temple—usually the number two person who could be spared—I was chosen to go from Boston. I had the distinct impression that Lord Jagannatha was sending me to India. As I was about to leave to go to the airport, the head pūjārī came rushing up to me and said that she thought Lord Jagannatha was sending me to India, and that came to be a confirmation.

When I was the temple president in Juhu, some devotee came from Jagannatha Puri and gave me a deity of Lord Jagannatha. I just kept it on a shelf or a platform in the office, and I would look at that deity and think that I had to do some service, but I could not know what the service was. Eventually, I got the idea that service was to put on Ratha-yatra. So, I believe in 1978, we had Ratha-yatra as mentioned that downtown in Chowpatty. We thought, Oh, this was so good, we should just carry on to Pune, and then we had Ratha-yatra at Pune.

His Holiness Radhanath Swami mentioned briefly the idea of pulling Lord Jagannatha to Vrindavan. Our acharyas have explained that the temple of Nilacala in Jagannatha Puri represents Dvaraka or Kurukshetra, and the temple of Gundica represents Vrindavan. So every year, two weeks before the Ratha-yatra, there is Snana-yatra and Lord Jagannatha is bathed in public. After the public bathing ceremony, he goes into seclusion. It is said that during the bath, he catches a cold, and so he has to be brought to his private quarters. During that period, he is fed and given different medicines, which are represented by different fruit juices, and his consorts, the goddess of fortune, serve him very favorably. Also, during that period, repairs are made on the body of the deity.

Now, during this fifteen-day period call anavasara, all the devotees in Puri are merged into an ocean of separation from Lord Jagannatha because, for fifteen days, he is not visible. They cannot have his darshan. Of course, the person to feel the pains of separation most acutely is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself, who would walk fourteen miles to Allalanatha and take solace in having darshan of the deity Allalanatha there. Toward the end of that period, the devotees from Bengal would come down to Jagannatha Puri for the Ratha-yatra. But Lord Chaitanya was in such a deep mood of separation that it was very difficult for the devotees to approach him. Eventually, they prevailed upon him to come back to Puri, and then Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his devotees would engage in hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s feelings of separation would be forgotten.

We have heard, and it is true, that Krishna is Jagannatha; Jagannatha is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But in relation to this portion of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Prabhupada explained that the holy name of Krishna is Krishna, He is Jagannatha. Therefore, when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is feeling intense separation from Lord Jagannatha and becomes absorbed in hari-nāma saṅkīrtana, he becomes ecstatic and forgets his feelings of separation. This is a very important instruction for all of us. We are all separated from Krishna. In fact, we have come into the material world and have forgotten Krishna. Kṛṣṇa bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare, we have forgotten Krishna and come into the material world to enjoy independently of Krishna, and thus we come under the clutches of maya. We are suffering so many painful situations.

It may seem incongruous to discuss our suffering while we have gathered on such a joyous occasion, but actually, we need to know that we are suffering. This material world is not a happy place; it is not our real home. Our attempts to find real happiness or lasting happiness here are bound to fail. In this precarious condition, our only hope is to call out to our guruvarga, Srila Prabhupada and paramparā and, to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Jagannatha, by chanting the holy names, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, because we need their mercy to deliver us.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu absorbed himself in ecstatic hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and then after the anavasara period was over, Lord Jagannatha was brought out of his private quarters, and the devotees could again have his darshan. Thus, Ratha-yatra is especially joyful because, after fifteen days of separation, the devotees are able to see their Lord again. Lord Jagannatha comes out, and as the festival was celebrated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was in the mood of Radharani seeing Krishna at Kurukshetra. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is described that during the eclipse, Lord Krishna went to Kurukshetra, and so many kings and their entourages and sages also went to Kurukshetra. The residents of Vrindavan also went, but they were not interested in the eclipse or any ritualistic ceremonies; they just wanted to see Krishna.

When eventually Srimati Radharani and the gopīs were alone with Krishna, it was a very emotional moment. Srimati Radharani had the feeling, which was expressed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at Ratha-yatra, that although you are the same Krishna and I am the same Radharani, but I cannot relish pastimes with you here in Kurukshetra like I could in Vrindavan. Vrindavan is filled with Govardhana Hill, the Yamuna River, the chirping of birds, coo-coos, parrots, and peacocks, the beautiful Vrindavan forest. In Kurukshetra, instead of the chirping of birds, there is the clatter of elephants and horses and chariots. Instead of Krishna standing in His beautiful threefold bending form with His Pitambara, Vamsi, dhoti, flute and peacock feather, He is dressed as a royal prince and surrounded by other royalty.

Srimati Radharani felt that she could not appreciate Krishna outside of Vrindavan the way she could appreciate Him inside Vrindavan. In expressing Srimati Radharani’s sentiment, it might sound that she is selfish, that she wants to enjoy Krishna and wants to bring Krishna back to Vrindavan for her own pleasure and satisfaction. But all of the scriptures declare that the gopīs have the most pure love for Krishna. Srila Krishna dasa Kaviraja Gosvami distinguishes between prema, which is pure love for Krishna, the desire to please Krishna’s senses, and kāma, or lust, which is the desire to please one’s own senses. All the scriptures declare that the gopīs’ love for Krishna is completely pure without the slightest tinge of lust.

When Srimati Radharani says, “I cannot enjoy with You in Kurukshetra, please come back to Vrindavan,” what she is really feeling within her heart, because she knows Krishna’s heart like no one else does, is that Krishna cannot be happy outside of Vrindavan, so she expresses that, “I cannot be happy outside of Vrindavan,” and she also know that Krishna also cannot be happy outside of Vrindavan like He is in Vrindavan. In the transcendental science of rasa, especially in mādhurya-rasa, one party should be agreeable and the other party should be contrary, then there is rasa. In the Ratha-yatra, there is this play between Lord Jagannatha or Krishna and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the mood of Radharani, and it’s very beautifully described in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And for devotees even today, in the line of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they are in that mood of Radharani, trying to pull Krishna back to Vrindavan. And as His Holiness Radhanath Swami beautifully noted, mystically by our trying to pull Lord Jagannatha to Vrindavan, we get pulled to Vrindavan along with him, and this is the ultimate purpose of the Ratha-yatra, and the ultimate purpose of the Krishna consciousness movement that we are all carried to Vrindavan to assist Lord Jagannatha, Lord Krishna, in His beautiful, sweet pastimes in Vrindavan.

This is a tremendous facility for all of us. It is tremendous mercy, and we should be open to receiving that mercy. The way to be open to receiving that mercy is to empty our hearts of any aspirations to enjoy in this material world. As long as our heart is filled with material desires, there is no room for the mercy of the Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Jagannatha. Their mercy is so powerful that even if we do have other aspirations, although those aspirations are obstacles, even then their mercy is so powerful that they can enter our hearts anyway and overflood our hearts with very sweet, beautiful impressions that make us forget our material desires and aspirations. We should cooperate, and when that mercy comes, we should accept and welcome them into our hearts.

I am grateful to all of you. Ratha-yatra is no festival without devotees, without people, without all of you. I am grateful to you. I am grateful to the organizers of the festival. I am grateful to my godbrothers; without their support, I could not continue in Krishna consciousness to whatever extent I am now. I pray that we can all stay together and enter Vrindavan together.

Hare Krishna.