We left the temple around 10am. I almost didn't go but Krishna made the arrangement for me to go. All the mataji's cars were taken up so I had to ride with the men in the red van I didn't have much of a choice. It didn't bother me at all. I sat in the front seat next to Ganesh Prabhu who was driving the rest sat in the back seats. that way I was at least separate from them in the back.
We arrived there at 10:30am and we had to help set up the cart by putting fake flower garlands around the cart to make it colorful so that people would notice it. The Deities were small but big enough for people to see Them. We started moving a bit around 11:15am but we stood there for what seemed like more than an hour! We were pretty much in the middle of the parade I think. The parade for us started probably a bit after 12pm. It was a good 4 mile walk from where we started all the way to Crenshaw BLVD. They have a street that is called "King BLVD" and "Martin Luther King Jr. blvd" so that is why they had the parade route there.
When the parade started the women in the front wanted to dance but me I can't dance worth a penny and I had my back pack on me so I really couldn't anyway. I decided to help pull the cart. It didn't hurt my back this time pulling the cart mainly becasue this cart was smaller and many of the men were pulling it so it felt quite light and I didn't have to pull as hard like the one Ratha Yatra I was at in Columbus Ohio.While I helped to pull the cart I observed the people watching the parade.Many of them were having a good time. And as we did our kirtan most of them loved our kirtan and were dancing with us and waving to us. A few of them even ran over to our cart to dance with the devotees. Some gave us a thumbs up too. It was quite amazing. As I was walking along pulling the cart I was thinking "All these people did pious activities in their past life. They are now able to see the Deities of Lord Jagannatha who is Lord of the Universe. These people are so fortunate and they will get benefit in their next life." It made me realize just how many people out there who have not even heard of God's original name "Krishna" which is so purifying, beautiful, and powerful. This is why we do this so that people will get a chance to hear the name "Krishna." And no Krishna is not a different god, He's always been the same God that we've worshipped, we've just forgotten His original name and our relationship with Him. I think His name Krishna is much more beautiful than just calling Him "God." He does have many names besides just "God."
There were some people holding up signs about God as we kept going. One sign read "Humble yourself before God" Another sign read "Jesus is the Only Way" Or "Jesus is our only Savior" Yes Jesus is our savior as he went out to preach about God's message. Yes Jesus did die for us to make us realize our position with God but as a result he was crucified because the demoniac people did not want to listen to him or believe what he had to say. It goes to show you how cruel this world is.
But anyways this one gentleman who was holding a sign about Jesus was giving us a thumbs down. Now if he's being so religious why is he showing so much hatred to others especially to the devotees who are chanting God's Holy Names? He's not really being a Christian because he's not showing kindness to everyone like Jesus had. Jesus tolerated everyone and every religion out there and he was very forgiving as well.
For the rest of the parade however most people enjoyed the parade and liked us too when they saw us. As I had pulled the cart I had turned to look at the Deities it was so nice to see Them there watching everyone and I knew They were very pleased. Lord Jagannatha are so merciful.
I thank Lord Jagannatha for letting those people out there yesterday to see Him to get purified.
After we got back to the temple, it was 2:30pm. We all went to have prasadam which was great. I was exhausted so I went to take a nap for an hour then went to the 6:30pm aarti and then the Bhagavad Gita class. The verse we went over last night was BG 9.34.
Over all I had a great time being out there chanting Krishna's name and pulling the cart for Lord Jagannatha.
Here are some photos of the event.
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