We live together with all religions: CM
Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday inaugurated the Rath Yatra festival in the city and pulled ropes of the chariot at ISKCON Rath Yatra. She also greeted the people of Bengal on the occasion.
“Jai Jagannath to all of you throughout the world, all my ISKCON brothers and sisters and devotees on this auspicious day. We live together with all religions. Jagannath Dev is very sacred to all of us,” said Banerjee, who attends the ISKCON Rath Yatra every year. She also asserted that Rath Yatra will be celebrated in Digha with pomp and grandeur from the next year. “We will celebrate Rath Yatra in a grand manner in Digha from next year. I invite all the people to attend the programme in Digha next year,” Banerjee urged the devotees during her address.
She said that the under-construction Jagannath Temple, which is a replica of Puri’s Jagannath Temple, in the seaside tourist town Digha is almost complete and it will be inaugurated after the Durga Puja. The Chief Minister performed ‘arati’ with candles and offered prayers to the deities of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Suvadra on the chariot in front of the ISKCON temple at 3C Albert Road near Minto Park, before pulling the ropes of the chariot at the start of the Rath Yatra along with the devotees and monks. Thousands of devotees from diverse backgrounds arrived in Kolkata and participated in the grand event.
The Chief Minister said a large number of people from the state participated in the Rath Yatra festival in Odisha’s Puri, as well as in Hooghly district’s Mahesh, the oldest Rath Yatra in Bengal and Kolkata and other places. Thousands of devotees gathered to participate in the festival at ISKCON Temple in Kolkata and they were seen dancing and chanting ‘Jai Jagannath’ along with the monks of the ISKCON.
Dance performances by women were also held in front of the ISKCON Rath Yatra chariot before it was pulled by the monks and the devotees through different streets of the metropolis.
Following the inauguration, the three chariots commenced their 6-km journey from Gurusaday Road to Brigade Parade Ground. The procession traversed major thoroughfares such as Hungerford Street, AJC Bose Road, Sarat Bose Road, Hazra Road, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Road, Ashutosh Mukherjee Road, Chowringhee Road, Exide Crossing and JL Nehru Road. The chariot will be stationed at Maidan in the heart of the city for devotees to have ‘Darshana’ till the return of the chariot after eight days.
