RathaYatra » English

Tysiąc osób w Londynie.

admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:32:17 +0000

Ponad tysiąc osób wzięło udział w RathaYatrze w Londynie.

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All over the world

admin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:41:38 +0000

Rathayatra is celebrated by devotees of Lord Krishna all over the world after being introduced to the west in 1967 in San Franscisco by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his first American disciples.

Rathayatra is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness’ biggest street festival – it features three huge, wooden chariots pulled by hand accompanied by; Singing, chanting, drums, cymbals and dancing.

The procession ends with a stage show, festival and delicious vegetarian prasadam feast.

Right to left: Lord Jagannatha, Subhadra Devi, and Lord Baladeva

Ratha-yatra, or the Festival of Chariots, is a joyous event celebrated for thousands of years in the Indian holy city of Jagannatha Puri, and more recently by Hare Krishna devotees in cities around the world. Another name for Krishna, Jagannatha refers to the ecstatic form of the Lord with large eyes and rugged features who is carried on a gigantic chariot during this festival (and worshiped in an ancient temple at the center of Jagannath Puri.)

As the story goes, Lord Krishna once overheard a conversation about how His dearest devotees, the cowherd maidens of Vrindavana, were lamenting in His absence. When He heard these accounts of overwhelming love in separation, the Lord’s hair began to stand on end, His eyes opened wide and filled with tears, and His arms and legs contracted as He went into a state of spiritual ecstasy. Seeing Lord Krishna in this condition, His elder brother, Balarama (Baladeva), also began to feel ecstatic symptoms and displayed similar features. When Their sister, Subhadra, arrived at the scene, she too became consumed with ecstatic joy. Thus the sublime deity forms of Jagannatha, Subhadra, and Baladeva represent this sweet pastime.

The festival of Ratha-yatra represents Lord Jagannatha’s longing to reunite with His dear devotees in Vrindavana, foremost among them, Srimati Radharani. According to tradition, the Lord gets lovesick once a year just prior to the festival. To cheer him up, His servants arrange for Him to go on a lavish procession to meet up with His devotees. Lord Jagannatha rides on a grand, three-story-high chariot, accompanied by thousands of onlookers and marching bands with scores of drummers, singers, and dancers. India’s colonial British rulers coined the term “juggernaut” from the large, heavy chariot used to celebrate this festival in the city of Jagannatha Puri.

Five hundred years ago, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the combined incarnation of Radha-Krishna, encouraged all of His followers to celebrate Ratha-yatra with great enthusiasm. His biographies (such as Chaitanya Charitamrita) list many anecdotes surrounding the Ratha-yatra festival. It is said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu got down on His hands and knees to scrub the Gundicha temple where Lord Jagannatha would stay at the end of the Ratha-yatra parade.

Srila Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, was very fond of Ratha-yatra. As a child he began celebrating Ratha-yatra when he was five years old, using a small home-made cart and pulling it around the neighborhood with his friends. Later in life, from 1967 until his passing, Srila Prabhupada joined thousands of disciples in cities around the world as they celebrated elaborate Ratha-yatra chariot festivals in the streets of London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and on New York’s prestigious Fifth Avenue.

Today, Hare Krishna devotees hold Ratha-yatra parades in many cities, usually culminating in a “Festival of India” set up in a city park, with festival tents, entertainment stages, free-feast booths, and a variety of cultural displays and exhibits. Contact your nearest Hare Krishna temple to find out about Ratha-yatras in your area.

Ratha-yatra signifies the Lord’s love for His devotees. He personally comes to visit His devotees and the public who welcome Him in the streets. Befitting the sentiment of its origins, Ratha-yatras in the Hare Krishna movement also serve as reunions for devotees who come from far and wide to participate, meeting up with old friends around their common goal of serving Lord Jagannatha, Sri Krishna.

Welcome

admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:48:12 +0000

Hare Krsna!

Dear devotees.
Please accept our humble obeisances.
All glories to Śrila Prabhupadzie, Guru and Gauranga!

Wroclaw temple along with Nama Hatta devotees since a few months have been preparing a special Festival in the history of our Vaisnava community, namely first Polish Ratha Yatra- Festival of Lord Jaganatha.
As you know, this Festival has a very ancient tradition in India. It comes from Puri in Orissa where the temple of Lord Jaganatha – known all around the world – is situated.

The legend says that the statues of Jaganatha were made by a mythical sculptor of gods – Visvakarma on the request of king of Orissa – Indradyumna. However he made a condition that no one can see the statues until they are entirely ready. An impatient king broke the condition and entered Visvakarma’s workshop. The sculptor disappeared leaving roughly carved logs of wood. King Indradyumna – a great devotee of Krsna – asked that the unfinished statues are painted. Then he placed them in a temple which was built for them. There they have been worshipped in that form for thousands of years until that day.

Since a few years many devotees have been meditating that such a Festival of Chariots takes place in Poland as well.
You may also know that this is Indradyumna Maharaja’s mood who included Ratha Yatra in an annual Woodstock Festival.
We wish to follow the spirit and continue the tradition as well as make this festival important for the Polish community of devotees. Therefore we invite all of you to participate in preparation and organizing, as well as the very Festival which will take place in the Wroclaw Old Town Square, on 13 June 2009.

This event very beautifully presents particularly rich and joyful, spiritual culture of India. We hope it will make a permanent impact on the history of not only this town but it will also stand a chance of becoming an event of the national importance – an event significant for all devotees.
Apart from the very parade, music and dance, we will also present an artistic program on stage and in the tents next to it one will be able to taste vegetarian cuisine of India.
We would like to especially thank local authorities of Wroclaw for being open to such an enterprise and to the Ambassador of India for being a patron of this Festival.
We have a deep desire that this spiritual event becomes significant for every devotee in Poland or any person who likes Krsna. We have also invited our spiritual masters to participate in this event.
Devotees from Wroclaw and the nearby area have already started to organize the festival. We are at this point building a team constructed of many departments, which will deal with the respective services.
We address our letter to all devotees, friends and well-wishers, as well as to the leaders of the individual Nama Hatta centers who can support this Festival (also by organizing oneself in local groups). We have made some suggestions for the centers.

Information for Donors

In regards to the planned event of such an importance, we invite cultural institutions, including those connected with the culture of India, Media, as well as companies and individuals.
The Festival is being organized by the members of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness along with the Embassy of India and Hindu community. We will have an honor to host an Ambassador of India in Poland and a few eminent guests.

An event is being fully financed by the means and donations obtained from donors.
A logo and name of the company, donating the festival, will be placed on all the banners, posters and leaflets of our festival.

Therefore we encourage everyone to support funds of the festival.

Donations should be sent to the following account:

69 2130 0004 2001 0299 8086 0002

International Society for Krsna Consciousness in Poland
Wrocław temple
Brodzka Street 157
54-067 Wroclaw

We also request various institutions and Medias to become patrons of our Festival.
In March a website of our festival will be started!
www.rathayatra.pl
We invite everyone to visit it.

Lord Caitanya was the most pleased when he saw many hundreds of devotees cooperating with each other for the pleasure of Krsna, giving out the Holy Name and prasadam. Srila Prabhupada was teaching us this by his own example. We know how the Ratha Yatra Festival was dear to him and how he was happy seeing devotees participating in it.
This is also our mood and in this spirit we request all the Vaisnavas to take part in it and help us to satisfy Lord Gauranga and Lord Nityananda, Srila Prabhupada and devotees. You can either accept the invitation and participate in the festival or donate it or help in any other way.

Festival schedule

14.30 – 17.30 Pulling the Ratha Yatra cart by all the participants around Old Town Square with stops for the vegetarian food distribution.

17.30 – 19.45 Stage program along with serving vegetarian meal in the tents next to the stage.

Stage program:

17.30-17.40 Short introductory speech by the MC.

17.40-18.00 Performance by musical group playing devotional songs with traditional instruments – bhajan.

18.00-18.15 Speech by the Ambassador of India.

18.15-18.30 Indian dance performance.

18.30-19.00 Theatre.

19.00 -19.15 Indian dance performance.

19.15-19.45 Interactive dance- kirtan.

All the information concerning helping or financing the festival are available here:

Festival organizers.

Bernadetta Siwkowska, Premadana dasi kprema@wp.pl mob. +48606322319
Tadeusz Hoppe, Trisama das trisamadas@gmail.com mob +48606650573
Gauranga Avatar das harihara@poczta.onet.pl mob. +48880700542

Advertising and media.

Ewa Kmiecik Antoniewicz Rati Manjari dasi
rati7@poczta.onet.pl mob.+48600975592

Finances.

Piotr Woyno, Parananda Premadas premadas@interia.pl mob. +48695109108

Information on organizing the festival.
ISCKON temple
Brodzka Street 157
Jolanta Bojarska, Jambavati dasi jambavati108@gmail.com mob. +48608147643
Ramesvar das ramesvar.das@gmail.com

We offer our humble obeisances and ask for help and blessings.

Your servants:

Premadana dasi
Trisama dasa
Gauranga Avatar das and
Rati Manjari dasi