The following article was written by Bhakta Ayappa from ISKM Puducherry:
I have never witnessed a Ratha Yatra festival in person in my life in ISKM. During my first 2 years in ISKM, I had missed Ratha Yatra due to exams. Then due to the frequent lockdowns for the past 1.5 years, Ratha Yatra had been cancelled and we couldn’t go to the temple too.
However from Janmastami this year onwards, I was able to visit the temple and it was indeed a spiritual boost for me. Our online preaching has been so successful that we have 20 bhaktas in our team currently.
Our Sri Jagannath has also blessed us with His mercy in the form of a spiritual retreat called Pallaki Yatra which ended recently. I have been feeling a sense of hopelessness during the lockdown and despite given discouragement by my family, I had been coming to the temple regularly.
For all festivals, we used to design new outfits but this time, due to time constraints, we couldn’t make any new dresses for the Lord. HG Anuttama Prabhu and Subramanya Prabhu finished the backdrops while I completed the ornaments in the evening. At night, Subramanya Prabhu, Shahji and myself managed to make a beautiful turban for the Lord.
Shahji is actually a bhakta who is from a Muslim family. However, he is very like minded and enthusiastic. We discussed different insights about Islam and Krishna consciousness. During mangala-arathi, he even wore dhoti and kurta for the first time. We had an ecstatic kirtan with HG Prahlad Prabhu during Guru-puja.
Then the kirtan of HG Anuttama Prabhu started and we were so excited to see the Lord coming out that most of the devotees roared like cubs before the big lion came out of its den.
After seeing the Lord with His beautiful glance, many new devotees started to jump and dance with ecstasy. The Pallaki Yatra started from the temple premises and and continued to the road. Few policemen assisted us in crowd control and even participated in the festival proceedings. The public were awestruck by the beautiful Lord and the kirtan that they continued back to the temple. We had initially planned a 5 course Prasadam buffet as we were only expecting the temple congregation to attend. However, Lord Jagannath had His own plans and the crowd multiplied a few times more. Back at the temple, the Lord gave darshan with new garlands and we had a simple lecture given by HG Prahlad Prabhu to end off the festival.
