Jagannatha Ratha-yatra Festival

Giriraj Swami: It is a great honor and pleasure and privilege to be here today with all of you to receive the mercy of Lord Jagannatha and His devotees. During the observance of the Ratha-yatra in Puri, Lord Chaitanya taught us how to cleanse the heart to make it a fit place to receive the Lord. According to our acharyas, the temple of Lord Jagannatha in Nilacala represents Dvaraka or Kurukshetra, and the Gundica temple at Sundarachal represents Vrindavan.

After Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, manifested His childhood and youthful pastimes in Vrindavan, He left Vrindavan and went to Mathura and then Dvaraka, leaving the residents of Vrindavan in a state of separation from Him. But that state of feeling separation is very conducive for developing love for Krishna, for increasing one’s love for Krishna.

Lord Chaitanya, when He was celebrating the Ratha-yatra in Puri, was in the mood of the residents of Vrindavan when they met Krishna at Kurukshetra and wanted to bring Him back to Vrindavan. This is a very confidential topic, but at least we can understand that as our acharyas have said, we have to make the heart a big place to receive the Lord. Just before the Ratha-yatra, there is an observance called Gundica-marjana. And Lord Chaitanya let His devotees in Gundica-marjana, cleaning the Gundica temple. Because during the year other than the Ratha-yatra time, the temple accumulates a lot of dust and dirt. So, to make the Gundica temple a big place to receive the Lord, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates very thoroughly cleansed the temple. And they cleansed it not once, but twice.

The idea is that the first cleaning got out the bigger and grosser dirt, but there was still smaller and more subtle grains of sand and dust that had to be removed. And Lord Chaitanya was so careful in His service that He had the devotees put water outside the temple so that no new dust would come into the temple. And He praised the devotees who took out the most dirt.

So, Srila Prabhupada and our acharyas explained that the cleansing of the Gundica temple metaphorically is like the cleansing of the heart by devotional service. By chanting and hearing the holy name and glories of the Lord, we cleanse the heart. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. But even after the most gross dirt is cleansed out, taken out, there may be subtle desires, material desires, desires for personal liberation. So, those also have to be taken out of the heart. And then the heart is a fit place where the Lord can reside. And Srila Prabhupada says that when we welcome the Lord into our hearts, we should celebrate by having a big festival with lots of chanting of the holy names and discussion of Krishna and distribution of prasāda, which we are doing in the Ratha-yatra.

Now, although the cleansing process is there, it is not so easy to cleanse our heart. And we cannot really do it on our own strength alone, but we need help from a higher authority, from Krishna. And therefore, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, that just hearing and chanting about Krishna is a pious activity, or it makes one pious. And the Lord who is seated in the heart as our best friend cleanses the dirt, the desires for material enjoyment from within the heart of the truthful devotee. Vidhunoti suhṛt satām. Truthful devotee means simple devotee without duplicity. He just wants to chant and hear about Krishna and purify his heart to make it a fit place to receive the Lord, receive the Lord’s mercy, and thus become an instrument for extending the Lord’s love and compassion and mercy to others.

So, Ratha-yatra is a very wonderful festival, which can be understood in different ways. And somehow, we are all fortunate to be here today in this saṅkīrtana. Kirtan means glorification of Krishna, and san means complete. Complete glorification takes place when many people come together and chant and hear the glories of the Lord. And then it becomes easier for all of us. So, I pray that the association that we are having today will continue, so that in the company of other devotees, we can serve the Lord for His pleasure and together chant the holy names.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Thank you very much.