Rathayatra – Festival of Chariots
Parade starts from Bigge Park, Liverpool

Saturday, 14 th July 2018, 10:00 am

For more information: Govardhan das 0411 952 551, email: folk108@gmail.com

Open invitation to everyone to come and participate in the Rathayatra –
Festival of Chariots. The Ratha Yatra, Festival of Chariots has been organised in Liverpool on Saturday,
14 th July 2018 at 10am. The Ratha Yatra – Festival
of Chariots, includes a walking street festival and a
Cultural Show. Showcasing : Classical Indian
Dancing and delicious Free Pure Vegetarian feast.
Traditionally held during the month of July, in Puri,
eastern India, where hundreds of millions of people
sing and dance in the procession, the festival now
takes place in cities all over the world.
The Festival starts in Bigge Park, followed by a
street parade in the main streets in Liverpool. After
the Street Parade there will be a Cultural Shows,
Classical Indian Dancing and distribution of delicious Free Pure Vegetarian feast in the Car Park.
The decorated chariots of Jagannatha will roll down the main streets of Liverpool. The Float sits on Isuzu 10
tonne truck, with NO engine and the volunteers will pull the Ratha cart using two 8 metres rope.
There will be people singing and playing Indian musical instruments along the parade.
It is expected that between 2000 and 5000 people will attend the parade.
One of the aim of the Festival is to Increase aware of Indian Culture/Art and to promoting peace and harmony
among local communities. Befitting the religious sentiment of its origins, Ratha Yatra Festival reach out to the
wider community and generate greater awareness and interest in India, its age old traditions and the unity in its
amazing diversity. Festivals of this nature increases awareness and interest in other cultures and it also,
transcends cultural and religious origins to unite diverse sections of our multicultural society.”
Ratha Yatra, the festival of the chariots, is a procession of Lord Krishna in his form of Jagannatha, Lord of the
Universe. Rathayatra, has been celebrated for thousands of years in the Indian holy city of Jagannatha Puri.
Lord Jagannatha means Lord of The Universe and is non-different to Krishna. He has large eyes and
features which seem to be displaying symptoms of ecstatic bliss. Lord Jagannatha, together with His brother
Lord Baladeva and His sister, Lady Subhadra, are pulled through the streets on chariots. The festival of
Rathayatra represents Lord Jagannatha´s longing to reunite with His dear devotees.
The story of how Krishna appeared to a great devotee of the lord, King Indradyumna and ordered him to carve
a deity(Daru-brahman, the wooden manifestation of the Absolute) from a log he would find washed up on the
sea shore. King Indradyumna found a mysterious old Brahmin carpenter to carve the deity, but the carpenter
insisted that he not be disturbed while he was carving the deity.
The king waited anxiously outside his room, but after some time, all sound stopped. The impatient
Indradyumna worried what had happened and assuming the worst, opened the doors – only to find the deity
half-finished and the carpenter gone! The mysterious carpenter was none other than Vishvakarma, the heavenly
architect. The king was distraught as the deity had no arms and legs. Utterly repentant that he had interrupted
the carving, the king was only pacified when the Narada Muni appeared and explained that the form the king

Rathayatra – Festival of Chariots
Parade starts from Bigge Park, Liverpool

Saturday, 14 th July 2018, 10:00 am

now sees is a legitimate form of the supreme personality of godhead. Narada Muni then described how he had
seen this form before, while visiting Dwarka. At that time, the Lord's Vrindavan pastimes were being discussed,
and the Lord overheard the conversation and felt loving separation for His devotees. He went into a trance and
His eyes opened wide, His feet and hands retracted into His body. Sharing in this transcendental exchange,
Krishna's Sister(Lady Subadra) and Brother(Lord Baladeva) were similarly transformed.
From the Skanda Purana we get information that the original construction of the first Jagannatha temple was in
Satya-yuga, millions of years ago. It is related that Lord Jagannatha told Maharaja Indradyumna that He first
appeared in the Svayambhuva manvantara of the first part of Satya-yuga, after being pleased by devotion.
The Vedic scriptures state that anyone who sees Lord Jagannatha or pulls His chariots achieves immense
spiritual benefit, attaining liberation from the material world and entrance into the eternal blissful pastimes of
the Lord. Anyone who has experienced the Rathayatra has surely experienced ecstasy.

Five hundred years ago, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu encouraged all of His followers to celebrate Ratha
Yatra with great enthusiasm. Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, organised the first Ratha Yatra in
the Western world in 1967 in San Francisco. It is now observed in over 200 cities worldwide. The first event
held in Australia was in Melbourne in 1974. Since then, Ratha-Yatra has been held in Sydney, Gold Coast,
Byron Bay, Wollongong, Newcastle, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.