All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!! All Glories to Sripada!! All Glories to Guru Maharaj HpS!!
Dear Guru Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your Lotus feet.
The ISKCON cart has come all the way from Mumbai , by the divine mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Sripad Maharaj. Here, Rath Yaatra is celebrated as a local festival Kaang, the Manipuri word for 'cart'. It is a great event. Right from Snan yatra , each locality prepares for the 9 day festival of Rath yaatra. The biggest one is of course, the Govindajee Kaang. The rest of the carts start the yaatra only after Govindajee Deities have moved on to the cart.Vaishnava devotees offer fruits (especially pineapples, figs, pears and mangoes),vegetables (especially cucumber and maize),Sweets ( made of puffed rice and Jaggery, laaloo is considered to be a favourite item....). When the yaatra is just about to start, the items are lined up just in front of the cart and devotees loved to watch the offerings going just right under the wheels to be run over...and then partaking the run over Prasadam. The cart is stopped every now and then , devotees making their offerings to the sweet Lord with the arti. The traffic is a real problem on this day as carts from various localities go for the yaatra on the main road....but no one complains...we are all happy with it. The Sankirtana is simply amazing....the chants of Harinama....Hari haraye.....Dasa Avatara ...with the sounds of kartala , Mridanga, Drums..clarinet....is indescribable.The Sankirtana goes on and on....non stop . Rath Yaatra day is a state holiday here.
The evening programmes are carried out in most of the local temples....again Sankirtans...Hari Katha...Manohar Sai....followed by 'choidep chongba', dancing in front of the Lordships at aarti . This is followed by Khichri and Ooti ...Pakora...subjee prasadam. This goes on for 9 days...till Purna Yaatra. On dwadasi we have 'Ningol Paali', special khichri prasadam for Matajis.I have just highlighted the little I know. The festival has a great asthetic fervour which is hard for me to describe, I am so sorry for my limitations Guru Maharaj, please forgive me. I wish someday we would be able to invite you here during the Rath Yaatra.
HpS - You manipuris are very big misers! You have the greatest thing in the world but your are keeping it to yourselves. I have not heard of such a wonderful Rathayatra even in Puri.
I am sending you just few photos....the White cart is that of Govindajee temple. The rest small ones are the local temple carts.
HpS - So, just Jagannatha, Jagat-Gandhi, goes on the cart, not Baladeva nor Subhadra. Also, we can see that the cart does not have to be big to be beautiful.
We have constructed a simple kirtan hall at Serou, the land donated by a Mataji. Registration has been completed ...we had a wonderful nagar kirtan there on 2nd of July. We had kirtan at the hall. And distributed Khichri prasadam .I shall send the photos for Serou in my next letter. My letter is too long.....I know you are so busy Guru Maharaj but I feel so good when I share our little, little activities with you. Thank you so much.
Your most fallen servant, forever craving for Your mercy,
Sarada Gaurangi DD
HpS-ASA -- When we hear from you and Yamunesvara Das we are all so enlivened. We hope to see you soon.
