Hare Krishnas mark Ratha Yatra in PoS

Scores of Hare Krishna worshippers, dressed in their traditional robes, paraded down Frederick Street, chanting and singing, and in the process, stopping traffic and grabbing the attention of curious bystanders and other people walking the street.

A garlanded van was at the front of the parade while a chariot brought up the rear.

Co-ordinator Baladeva Dasa said the parade was part of a very ancient festival, Ratha Yatra, that is held outside India, in the western world, in every major city, by Hare Krishna devotees.

Though this celebration is held in April in TT, Ratha Yatra celebrations are also celebrated in June and July around the world.

Dasa said, “It is a religious procession. Everybody who is religious-minded would go to a church, mosque or temple to pray to the Lord. Today is a day when the Lord, out of his mercy
saying, 'Okay, maybe you are busy and don’t have time to come, so today I will come to you.’

"So the Lord is coming out of the temple to parade on the street so that people can get his Darshan, or see his transcendental form. They can hear his holy name and they can get some food that is offered to him, which is transcendental food after it is being offered.”

Yesterday’s parade is the tenth such parade held in Port of Spain but Dasa said the worshippers have been doing it for 27 years in other parts of the country.

“When we first started, it was small, but as it grew I thought PoS is a place we should definitely do this for the benefit of the people of the city. It brings a cooling balm to the city, hearing something transcendental one time for the year, seeing the whole procession it’s spiritually charged.

"So that in itself brings purification, blessings and goodwill for the entire city of PoS and all the people of the nation.”

Trinidad has almost 500 Hare Krishna devotees plus another approximately 200 people who associate themselves with the movement.

Dasa said the Hare Krishna membership included people from all parts of the country and also from other countries like Venezuela, Guyana, St Lucia, the US and England.

Leading the parade was a woman with a broom, sweeping the road. She explained: “When the Lord is coming down, we need to cleanse the place so that he could come. We are inviting him to come.”

All the while, the rest of the devotees kept up what Dasa referred to as the Kirtana (chanting glorification of the Lord).

Towards the end of the parade, at the bottom of Frederick Street, a young police officer stopped them as he tried to find out whether the devotees had permission for the parade, but Dasa dismissed him and led the devotees around the roundabout and onto the Brian Lara Promenade, where they celebrated with live music and shared food.

American-born Boodoo Prashad Swami, who travels the Caribbean and parts of Latin America and supervises Hare Krishna activities in Trinidad, spoke of his experience at yesterday’s parade. “It’s a procession meant for everyone to come together and be happy and chanting or glorifying the Supreme, in this case, the name of God, and we’re chanting his Jagannath.

"God has unlimited names and Jagannath means the lord of the universe, which means that everybody in the universe were all united under that one cause.”

The Hare Krishna movement in TT has four temples, each with a president, and a national board that oversees operations. Dasa said a governing body representative visited every few months to see how everything was going.