Rathayatra in Indonesia

By Hari Narayana das - 10.9 2016

Rathayatra In Jogjakarta and Ramadewa, Indonesia

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Lord Jagannath Ratha Yatra and Mayor of Central Lampung at Ramadewa village, Lampung, Indonesia

Getting perfection in devotional service to Lord Krishna is one’s main goal in life. The devotee more or less depends on his transcendental patience, enthusiasm and firm conviction. Those things will surely help him to reach perfection. Being enthusiastic will bring devotees closer to the Lord. When devotees are enthusiastic in devotional service Lord Krishna will give the facility whereby they could do more devotional service to Him.

“Krsna is unlimited, His service is unlimited and the energy of His servants is unlimited. (SPL to Tamala Krsna, 18th March, 1969).

By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and previous acharyas, the field of devotioanal service is ever expanding and so also the energy of the devotees is increasing similarly. The devotees in Indonesia were busy preparing and conducting ratha Yatra in every parts of Indonesia. The ratha yatras took place in just a difference of about a week’s time and many places saw ratha yatra in two places together on the same day. It increased the pleasure of the devotees to participate in the festival. The devotees contributed in many ways to help make then event successful.

Srila Prabhupada stated that “For serving the Lord we require to sacrifice our life, our wealth, our intelligence and our words. One can serve the Lord with these four possessions. If not, with three, if not then with two or even one, and that is sufficient to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead…..One has to make the best use of his talent for the service of Krsna. That is wanted. Best example is Arjuna, that he utilized his talents, military science, in the service of Krsna.” (SPL to Gargamuni, 7th June, 1968). The latest Ratha-yatra festivals were performed on August 22 in Jogjakarta and August 23 in Ramadewa Village, Lampung.

Devotees got a boost in enthusiasm during the Ratha Yatra at the Anniversary Carnival of Pulang Pisau, Kalimantan held on 11 August this year. There the Jagannath Ratha Yatra was awarded the first prize for the Cultural Category. Previously also Jagannath Baladeva and Subhadra received awards in Carnivals at Bandung, Jember and other cities. On August 22 the devotees took the Ratha yatra and participated in the cultural parade for the Indonesian Independence Day celebrations at Malioboro Street, Jogjakarta. The chariot was decorated with beautiful flowers bouquets. The deities of Sri Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra came from Bantul Centre, Jogjakarta. The deities were beautifully dressed and They took Their respective places on the chariot. Devotees came by bus from Bali, Jember, Lombok and other parts of Indonesia. The presence of the guests from Jogjakarta Hindu Parishad gave moral support to the devotees organizing the ratha yatra.

At 12.00, the ceremony started The Pujaris offered arati and continued by the coconut offering. Coconuts were offered to the Lord to invoke auspiciousness. Then the chariot was pulled from Kepatihan to Garuda Hotel in the area of Malioboro. The devotees did kirtan lead by Sundar gopal das. After waiting for an hour, the committee asked the devotees to enter the Malioboro Street. People had already crowded the street. A fired up kirtan lead by Sundar Gopal das and Sesa das made all devotees dance energetically. The devotees also gave flower garlands that was already offered to the Lord as well as Bhagavad Gita to officers at the carnival. After one hour of singing and dancing, the chariot arrived at the finish line and all devotees joyfully honoured prasadam. After some rest the devotees returned to Narayana Smriti preaching centre. Some devotees had to rush to the airport to catch the flight to Jakarta because next day they had to join the Ratha yatra in Ramadewa Village, Lampung.

Arriving in Jakarta the devotees continued their journey to Lampung by car. About 2.5 hours from Jakarta to Merak Harbour, then 3 hours by ship and another 4 hours’ drive from Bakauheni to Ramadewa…altogether 9.5 hours from Jakarta. A long distance no doubt but no distance is too long for devotees eager to get the mercy of Lord Jagannath. This time Lord Jagannatha would give His mercy to the people of Ramadewa village, a transmigration area. As “Lord Caitanya predicted, His name will be chanted and praised in every town and village throughout the world” (SPL to Krsna dasa, 28th July, 1969)

Ramadewa is a rural village where the most of the residents are Hindus from Bali. Actually there was no devotee in this village. So how could Lord Jagannath reach this rural village? On one of the ratha yatra in Lampung a year ago, a parliament member of Lampung, Mr. I Komang Koheri, SH, from Ramadewa was invited to participate in the festival. He fell in love with the festival. He approached the devotees in Lampung to also organize a ratha yatra in his village. The devotees were surprised to hear this request. The request was then communicated to the other devotees to coordinate with team Ratha Yatra Nusantara (Ratha Yatra in the Archipelago) whether it would be possible to organize the event there. By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada the devotees accepted the opportunity to do the ratha atra in Ramadewa village. Soon the preparation started and the devotees collected the necessary paraphernalia for the ratha yatra. It took 4 hours to reach the village from Lampung city. The village was so beautiful with agricultural fields in view. It look like miniature Bali because the houses there use Balinese architecture. This is the first transmigration village in Lampung.

The devotees brought the chariot from Gita Nagari Baru, Lampung, it is about 2 hours to the village. The chariot was decorated beautifully with flowers. At 10 am devotees arrived from other parts of Lampung. Most of them took two until three hour journey to get to the village.

At 12.00 noon the devotees offer coconuts to the Lord to mark the commencement of the ratha yatra. The devotees pulled the chariot to the monument of the village where the ceremony and the festivities took place. After waiting for some time it started to rain cats and dogs. The devotees took shelter in the house of the villagers nearby. After the formal ceremony finished the Mayor of Central Lampung came and inaugurated the parade. The Mayor, Mr. Mustafa and his wife then requested whether they could go up on the chariot. The devotees obliged and allowed them to sit on the chariot then all devotees and the villager started to pull the chariot to go around the village. They started singing and dancing, meanwhile the Mayor tried follow in singing the mahamantra sung by the devotees. Arriving at the village office, the Mayor got down and joined in pulling the rope of the chariot. He pulled the chariot and also sang hare krisna mahamantra “hare Krishna…hare…krishna…hare rama..hare rama…” while giving sign to others to sing together. He felt Joyful. Then the devotees continued the ratha yatra around the village. After some time the rain came again but the devotees continued even under the rain. They were becoming more spirited and were all fired up in singing hare Krishna mahamantra led by Sundar gopal das. A ton of fruits were distributed. The chariot arrived in finish point in the evening. Arriving in the base camp, the devotees honored prasadam. It was simply wonderful that how Jagannath fulfilled the desire of a Mayor and agreed to visit his village along with His chariot and all His wonderful devotees.

It doesn’t matter if you can or cannot establish a temple there, but if you can introduce the Ratha-yatra festival, surely it will be a great success. So try to execute this will as far as possible” (SPL to Yamuna, 27th May, 1969)

We would like thank each and every one who helped to make this ratha yatra manifest within such a short period of time, especially the Mayor and all the residents of Ramadewa village. Prabhu Raghava, Bhakta Edy and team who took care to prepare the chariot, the team of cooks, Kirtan party, Sankirtan team, the organizers and all well-wishers…we extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all the wonderful devotees. We are ever indebted to His Holiness Kavichandra Swami, His Holiness Ramai Swami- the GBC’s of Indonesia; His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami, His Holiness Subhag Swami for their ever encouraging support to continue these festivals. At times there are differences but we would like to thank all senior vaisnavas who have always been inspirational…and have always supported the festival. We pray that Srila Prabhupada is pleased with our small efforts and ask for blessings we are able tobecome instruments in the hands of our previous acaryas.