Often referred to as 'DevBhumi' or the 'Land of the Demigods'; Dharamsallah plays host to serene beauty seldom found in the corners of the globe. Throughout the year this small city of 50,000 is flooded with tourists looking to enjoy the fine view of the snowcapped Himalayas and the cool mountain weather. Located in Himachal Pradesh in the district of Kangra, Dharamsallah is home to the world renowned noble laureate and 'living God' Dalai Lama. Given that the literal translation of Dharamsallah is 'Place of Religion', it is no surprise that the residents here are by nature pious and religious.
Local devotee Bhakta Abhinandan, under the guidance of His Holiness Subhag Swami Maharaj, planned a grand Ratha Yatra festival on the 8th of April 2016 for the pleasure of Lord Jagannath.
Maharaj along with devotees from various countries gathered in Dharamsallah a week before the date of the Ratha in order to get everyone into the spirit of the festival and to advertise the event. Devotees visited the main monastery of Dalai Lama to invite him to the RathaYatra as a guest of honour but unfortunately he was travelling and would return a few days after the festival had finished.There was daily harinam sankirtan, book distribution and flyer distribution to let others know about the event.After returning and taking some rest, devotees would attend the evening program starting at 5pm, which included kirtan and bhajans, Jagannath Katha given by various speakers and ecstatic Gaura arati.
"It doesn't matter if you can or cannot establish a temple there, but if you can introduce the Rathayatra, surely it will be a great success. So try to execute this will as far as possible."Letter to Yamuna, 27th May 1969
The day before the festival, an interactive seminar was held at ITI College Dharamsallah. The principal, although Sikh was very receptive to the devotees, to the extent of inviting the devotees to the college whenever present in Dharamsallah. After a lengthy question and answer session, 450 cups of delicious sweet rice mahaprasad were distributed to the students. Devotees came back from the program enthused for tomorrow's big event.
"Try to recruit some of the intelligent class of students to take up this KrsnaConciousness philosophy and study it carefully."
On the morning of the festival, a Yajna was performed to invoke auspiciousness and the mercy of Lord Jagannath. Maharaj then gave a short speech on the importance of Ratha Yatra. At 10am Their Lordships were brought to the local Laxmi Narayan temple, the starting point of the parade. As Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra mounted Their' chariot, kirtan reached new heights and all were floating in an ocean of bliss. The district counselor took out some time from duties to attend the program. After he offered a short arati ceremony to Jagannath, Maharaj presented him with some of Srila Prabhupada's books as a token of gratitude. The chariot was elegantly adorned with fragrant flowers which captivated the attention of the onlookers. Beautiful rangoli designs made by our team of enthusiastic matajis added a special flavor to the spiritual scene. Coconuts were smashed to the ground in the midst of conch shells being blown in order to remove any inauspiciousness and impediments in the course of the event. Finally Their Lordships started travelling through the streets of Dharamsallah whilst all looked on with wonder and delight. Maharaj was extremely enthusiastic throughout the festival; after leading a short but sweet kirtan, he started personally distributing books to the public. The Lord's chariot stopped at various shops and accepted fruits and sweets from the owners which were later distributed to the public.Many people came out their houses to lovingly receive the Lord and offer an arati ceremony. There was fired up kirtan throughout the duration of the festival with both matajis and prabhus dancing ecstatically. This enthused the book distributors to give out more books.
As the chariot reached its final destination an Arati ceremony was performed to Their Lordships and a concluding speech was delivered by Maharaj. A sumptuous feast was served to all who came and participated in the event. A grand total of 460 books were distributed including 108 maha big books.
"Make the Rathayatra festival very great success. This will be a great introduction in your city and people will appreciate it."Letter to Shyamasundara, 4th May 1967
Devotees were very much overjoyed when they found that the RathaYatra made the front page of the local newspaper.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Subhag Swami Maharaj for taking time out his busy schedule to attend this event and inspiring all the devotees in Jagannath's service. We thank those devotees who came from different places such as: Australia, Spain,France, Italy, Indonesia, England, Armenia, Bangladesh and across India to attend the festival. We offer our heartfelt gratitude to Bhakta Abhinandan and his dedicated family. Their hard work and perseverance allowed the program to run smoothly. We pray to Srila Prabhupada that we can hold this festival for the years to come, thus becoming instruments in the Lord's hands being engaged in spreading the message of Mahaprabhu's sankirtan movement.
Jagannath Swami ki Jay
Ratha Yatra Mahotsava ki Jay
Srila Prabhupada ki Jay
