Annual ISKCON Rathayatra to begin in Kolkata from 4 July
Kolkata, 1 July (HS):The week long 48th edition of the famous ‘Kolkata Rathayatra’ of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organisation founded in New York by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966,will begin on 4 July with the principal theme of ‘to care for those who once cared for us’.
Announcing ISKCON’s plan to organise this year’s Rathayatra festival, being organised simultaneously in 600 cities in 100 countries across the globe, Ananga Mohan Das,Co Director ISKCON here today informed that Chief minister Mamata Banerjee would formally inaugurate the Rathayatra festival by pulling the ropes of three highly decorated chariots of Lord Jagannasth,Lord Balaram and Subhadra Devi on next Thursday in front of the ISKCON headquarters here in presence of well known film actress and Trinamool Congress MP from Basirhat Nusrat Jahan and several other eminent citizens and a huge foreign delegation of ISKCON disciples from over 58 countries abroad.
Elaborating this year’s theme (of the festival) he said as the older generation these days, both in India and all over the world, had been facing great difficulties in their life for various reasons,they had decided to make a concerted effort to make the general people much more aware of the plight of the parents and other senior members of their families and inspire them to take proper care of these aged people, many of them had been facing immense socio- economic problems at the fag end of their lives.
As a huge fair would be organised during this annual Rathayatra festival at the Brigade Parade Ground like every other year, a number of day long workshops,seminars and interactive sessions would be orgainsed to make the people aware of the urgent need for the country’s younger generation to understand the difficulties of old people and take proper care for them so that they did not feel that they were being neglected and left out by the society.
‘This neglect is a social tragedy, an unwanted thing and shows the decline in social and moral values’, Das said and called upon the country’s youth to come forward and join such a social movement in greater numbers.
Later highlighting the major aspects of the famous ‘Kolkata Rathayatra’ of three huge chariots,the largest of them being that of Lord Balaram’s with a height of nearly 40 feet , Das said on 4 July the Rathayatra would begin at 7-30 a.m. and after traversing through all the main streets of South Kolkata would reach the Brigade Parade Ground,about 10 km away, within the next five hours. During the entire journey a number of cultural programmes, songs and dances would also be organised to enthrall thousands of people who would gather on both sides of the streets of entire route to take part in the festivity and pulling the ropes as per the tradition
After ‘residing at their temporary home’ at the fair ground for a week,the return journey of three gods and goddess would would he held on 12 July in a similar fashion,Das informed and claimed that more than 2000 disciples from across the country and abroad would arrive here to take part in this annual extravaganza. .
