Iskcon cancels Kolkata Rathayatra in 50th year

KOLKATA: Iskcon will not hold the Kolkata Rathayatra this year, cancelling the grand plans of the 50th-year celebrations.
Holding such a road spectacle amid a pandemic was impossible and it would go against the safety guidelines, said the Iskcon Kolkata administration on Friday. Hence, Rathayatra would be cancelled, they said. Only a small, symbolic puja without public participation would be conducted on the Albert Road campus of Iskcon, off Moira Street, officials said.
Iskcon had been planning the golden jubilee celebrations for the past seven years. The officials had charted new attractions to the familiar 9km ride of the three chariots to the Maidan, where they are kept for seven days before a return journey. The week-long fair and festivities surrounding the chariots were being re-designed to suit the golden jubilee celebrations. “Devotees from 150 countries were to participate in the Rathayatra this time, but everything stands cancelled now. We have informed our foreign devotees that now, they could participate virtually in the pujas, that will be scaled down and held on the campus,” said Radharaman Das, spokesperson for Iskcon Kolkata.
The Iskcon administration is now arranging for a scaled-down celebration on campus, like last year. Smaller chariots will be pulled inside the courtyard of the Albert Road temple and the deities will be carried down from their original positions by monks to be placed in a room on the ground floor, where they will be worshipped for the seven days of the festival. “We will telecast the event live on Iskcon Kolkata’s official YouTube and Facebook page and there will be special virtual events because we have to bring the entire festival home to hundreds of thousands of our devotees across 150 counties,” Das added.
A flying Hanuman, that had been designed in the US, was to be one of the main attractions of the Rathayatra. A mammoth, yet light-weight Hanuman was to fly atop the three massive chariots—Nandighosh, Taladhwaj and Devdalana—as they would wind through the routes on both the days of Shoja and Ulta Ratha, pulled by lakhs of people. “Our techie devotees in the US had developed this wonder but we will not be able to show it this special year,” Das added. Great care was also taken to repair the three chariots and their wheels, fitted with specially designed aircraft tyres.