Mumbai ISKCON's 'Rath Yatra' festival starts from Saturday

Mumbai, Jan 3: Devotees of Lord Krishna will celebrate the Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra 2019 chariot festival at Shivaji Park here on Saturday, organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Chowpatty, an official said on Thursday.

The 10th in the series, the Mumbai 'Rath Yatra' is considered the biggest outside Puri (Odisha) in size and scale with devotees from the US, the UK, Europe, Australia, South America, Russia and other countries joining in.

"The two-day festival will start on January 5 with a 'Maha Arti' and the four-hour-long rath yatra will travel from Shivaji Park to Sena Bhavan, Plaza Cinema, Portuguese Church, Prabhadevi and back to the starting point," said ISKCON spiritual head Radhanath Swami.

Other major highlights will be the special dressing darshan of Lord Jagannath, a special 108-bhoga offering in organic designer pots, a mangal yagna by devotees, dinner-prasadam for all, distribution of Vedic literature besides other spiritual and cultural activities for all, he added.

"This festival is a prime example of Indian culture of unity in diversity, rarely seen elsewhere in the world. The Path of Righteousness shown by Lord Krishna applies to entire humanity and such festivals help promote it further," Radhanath Swami said.

Besides Mumbai, the rath yatra will also be organised by ISKCON and celebrated in Islamic countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh and 400 other temples scattered around the world.

In Pakistan, the rath yatra shall be taken out in the Swaminarayan Temple complex in Karachi and the oldest chariot festival to be celebrated in Bangladesh will be at the four-century-old Yasho Madhab Temple in Dhamrai, on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.