Purification - Jagannatha Ratha-yatra July 10-12

book distribution report by Anita dasi

As we pulled into the train station at 6:45 am, I thought to myself, “Wow, everything is going so smoothly.” We entered the station and enquired what platform the train would be departing from, only to find out the train was running five hours late.


“No problem we can sing bhajans.” An hour passes. “Lets make breakfast.” Another hour passes. Tick, tick, tick . . .

“Lets distribute books.” We had a brought a box of books to distribute on the train, but out of boredom we broke it open. Unfortunately, after an hour we had distributed all the books except a few in Bengali and English. Only a few more hours to wait . . . tick, tick tick.

The books were a hit with the sampapri wallas. Even though there was a train teeming with hungry passengers in the station they set down their boxes of flakey sweets to examine the books. Word spread and more vendors came for books. I ran out and told them to follow me to the waiting room. Once I had more books they lead me to the room where they keep their goods. Nearly everyone one there took at least one book.

The five hour delay became six hours, and finally the train came. Once we were on the train it became more and more late. We were scheduled to reach Puri 12:30 pm, but it was 1:30 am when our train finally arrived. When we reached the matha the night guard did not know what to do with us, so we just collapsed on a balcony.

At 6am we awoke to gongs, whompers, mrdanga and devotees calling us to come clean Gundica Mandir. Delirious, we dragged ourselves downstairs.

“One day before the Ratha-yatra Festival, Mahaprabhu leads all the devotees to the Gundica Mandira to clean it. On the next day Jagannatha goes to Gundica Mandira along with Baladeva, Subhadra, and His devotees for ten days, after which they all return. Just as Jagannatha goes to Gundica Mandira after it is cleaned, so He may come into your heart if you make it very pure and clean.” – The Origin of Ratha-yatra

After some rest we returned to the Gundicha Mandir in the afternoon to distribute books. Sukadha dasi and Nagari dasi were just inside the gateway distributing books. Even though in this region they speak Oria, the Bengali books were a hit because so many Bengali bhaktas of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were coming for gundica-marjana.