Row over Rath Yatra overseas: After Puri royal’s newest salvo, ISKCON ‘bows out of debate’ | India Information
3 min learnBhubaneswarUp to date: Jul 10, 2026 05:25 AM IST
Days after Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee chairman and head of Puri’s erstwhile royal household, Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb, referred to as plans for Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra overseas “premature”, ISKCON, which has deliberate these yatras, mentioned it was “bowing out of this dialogue”.
Responding to Deb’s letter to him, Madhusevita Dasa, chairperson of ISKCON’s Governing Physique Fee at Mayapur in West Bengal, mentioned, “There isn’t a extra so as to add, and due to this fact we respectfully bow out of this dialogue as soon as and for all.” Dasa conveyed this in a mail despatched to Deb.
On July 4, Deb mentioned that celebrations of the Snana Yatra and Ratha Yatra, in “contravention of holy scriptures and well-established custom”, had been hurting the spiritual sentiments of numerous devotees around the globe.
Based on custom, the annual Rath Yatra is held on the second day of the Odia month of Ashadha Shukla Tithi, when Lord Jagannath, alongside along with his siblings Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, travels from the Twelfth-century Jagannath Temple in Puri to the Gundicha Temple.
To finish the deadlock over the Rath Yatra in overseas nations, a number of rounds of deliberations had been held between students of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and ISKCON.
Deb had additionally sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the matter.
‘As per the shastras’
In the meantime, ISKCON mentioned throughout the students’ meet, it was proved by scriptures and puranas that the ISKCON Rath Yatra festivals had been totally permitted and that they had been as per the shastras.
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“The entire objective of Rath Yatra, as per the shastras, is Lord Jagannath, the Lord of the entire world, popping out to bathe his blessings on anybody and everybody. ISKCON has carried that spirit everywhere in the world for nearly 60 years by spreading Jagannath tradition, not simply in India, however in additional than 100 nations the place Hinduism hardly exists,” mentioned an ISKCON spokesperson.
The ISKCON spokesperson mentioned its Rath Yatra pageant had been properly obtained by the Indian diaspora globally. “It is rather vital to grasp the aim, spirit and temper of Rath Yatra, which is definitely to make individuals change into devotees of Lord Jagannath and serve him. ISKCON has performed this service of constructing lakhs of individuals Jagannath bhakta from America, Russia, Africa and South America,” he added.
