ISKCON Vaikuntha Hill celebrated the annual Sri Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra Ratha Yatra festival on 7 July 2024 with three chariots decorated with flowers and festoons. Harinama Sankirtana accompanied the procession around the temple premises. The assembled devotees enthusiastically participated in the chanting, dancing, and feasting of Krishna prasadam, making it a joyous and memorable spiritual experience for all.
Sri Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra Ratha Yatra is an annual festival celebrated during the month of Ashada (June-July), taking the Deities of Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra on a grand chariot procession accompanied by Harinama Sankirtana. This festival is mainly celebrated at Puri and was taken worldwide by Srila Prabhupada in 1967, with the first Ratha Yatra abroad in San Francisco.
The festival commemorates the loving and divine pastime of Lord Sri Krishna with the residents of Vrindavana 5,000 years ago when they had a brief and emotional reunion at Kurukshetra during a solar eclipse. Krishna was then the ruler of Dvaraka, and the gopis headed by Srimati Radharani longed to see Him as their beloved cowherd friend and wanted to take Him back to Vrindavan. The pulling of the chariot from the opulent Jagannatha Puri Temple to the simpler Gundicha Temple surrounded by gardens signifies the gopis’ wanting to take Krishna from the royal atmosphere of Dvaraka to the villages and forests of Vrindavana.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Krishna as a devotee in Kali-yuga, also participated in the Ratha Yatra festival to spread the yuga-dharma of Harinama Sankirtana and to experience the sweet and loving devotion Srimati Radharani has for Krishna.
Glimpses of the Celebrations
Watch the complete celebrations:
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