“You’ll be very much pleased that in the year 1967 I introduced Ratha-yatra in San Francisco.”
Prabhupada, January 26, 1977: […] Jagannatha svami nayana-pathagami bhavatu me. You’ll be very much pleased that in the year 1967 I introduced Ratha-yatra in San Francisco. And it is going on continually for the last six or seven years, and the government, they have fixed up a holiday for Ratha-yatra.
We have got 25th July as government fixed-up day, holiday, for Ratha-yatra. And people take part in the Ratha-yatra, not all my devotees, even outsiders. Ten to twelve thousand people attend, and we distribute prasadam to all of them. They feel very much obliged.
And the newspaper writes that “People in general never felt such ecstasy as they are feeling in the Ratha-yatra festival.” And the police said that the crowd… In the Western country, as soon as there is some big crowd, there is some disturbance. So police were surprised that “This crowd is not window-breaking crowd.”
And next we introduced Ratha-yatra in London, in the London, Trafalgar Square. That is the most famous square within the city. And there is a big column. It is called Nelson Column. So our ratha was so high that the Guardian paper, they criticized that “This Ratha-yatra is rival to Nelson Column.” Next we introduced Ratha-yatra in Philadelphia, and this year we have introduced Ratha-yatra in New York and…
Hari-sauri: Melbourne.
Prabhupada: Melbourne, Sydney.
Hari-sauri: Paris.
Prabhupada: Paris. So in the Western countries Ratha-yatra is being introduced one after another, and Jagannatha Swami is attracting the attention of the Western people. (someone talking in background) What is that? So people will come in your Jagannatha Puri now from all parts of the world.
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