Rathyatra 2024

Rathyatra is a grand festival of Lord Jagannath. This day Lord Jagannath, his brother Lord Balabhadra and their sister Goddess Subhadra come out of the temple and they travel to their Maasi's house. This Rathyatra festival makes the devotees very happy as the Lord comes amongst them leaving the temple for a few days. They try to be a part of the yatra to feel the divine bliss of travelling with the Lord. 

Doordarshan airs live telecast of this pious festival every year. The commentaries are aired in Sanskrit, Hindi and English. The inclusion of Sanskrit as a languag for commentary has been introduced a few years ago, it has been a great experience to listen to Sanskrit commentary for the audience. 

Many years ago, I remember I watched the live telecast of Rathyatra with Bengali commentary in Rupashi Bangla channel where Bholanath Mukherjee and Kanak Manjari Krishna were in charge of the commentary. That programme was also very good. I took many notes from those discussions. That year they also aired live telecast of many more festivals related with Rathyatra like Niladri Bije, Adhara pana, Suna Besha, Bahuda Yatra. All the discussions were full of devotion and many spiritual topics were covered. Every year i remember those pearls of wisdom during Rathyatra festival. 

Last Year Saptahik Bartamaan (a Bengali magazine) published a special issue on the occasion of Rathyatra. They covered many topics in that issue. In the section named 'Banglar Nana Pranter Rath, informations about- Sabarna Roy Chowdhury, Chunimani Dasi, Nilmani Dey, Jadunath Dutta, Ramkanai Adhikary, Gokul Baral Street Jagannath Bari, Blaram Basu, Raja Rajendsra Mullick, and many such Rathyatra celebrations were mentioned. Under the section named 'Nanan Beshe Jagannath' many informations regarding Rathyatra and Jagannath Dev were discussed. After reading that isse, one can get a fair idea about the festival of Rathyatra.

With Lots of Wishes for all and praying for the blessing of Lord Jagannath for all of us.

Jay Jagannath.