Lord Jagannatha's Processional Chariot Festival
Devotees of ISKCON *
Kanglen at ISKCON Manipur, Sangaiprou Airport Road , July 10 2011
The merciful Lord of the Universe, Lord Jagannatha's Purna Yatra Mahotsav 2011, will be observed at ISKCON Manipur, Sangaiprou Airport Road in a humble way on the very auspicious day of 10th July 2011, with the Deities of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Subhadra Rani taking their respective asanas in the beautifully decorated Ratha of lSKCON, and the processional Chariot of the Lords starting around 1.05 p.m., after completing the maha-arti with offerings of fruits, flowers etc.
Lord Jagannatha is the most merciful and compassionate God in the universe. Any person whether a Christian or a Muslim or any adherent of a sect or even an outcast participating in the festival either interestingly or uninterestingly without any idea of the festival is said to be benefitted. Anyone wishing for His causeless mercy can touch any part of His transcendental body during the chariot procession.
Though He is without hands and feet as per His pastimes, He accepts any offering and walks to bestow blessings upon the people. Though He is decorated with various ornaments, He is already the ornament of all ornaments.
The Vaishnavas do worship the Lord as Sri Sri Shyamasundara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead holding a flute with the effulgent body of sky bluish colour bending on knees, waist and neck.
We the people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions—such as Christianity, Islam, Meitei Laining Lup, Baha'i Faith, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Tingkao Raghwang, Hindu Vaishnavism, and many more faiths—Judaism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrainism, Unitarianism, and Native Spirituality etc including the illdigenous traditions are undoubtedly the children of one God, whom we worship in different names and descriptions. Indeed, we have only one religion ie "Love of God and serve Him, and Abide by the Laws of God."
Our cosmos is one whole family with ourselves as the children of the Almighty God. We should together pray that the Supreme spirit, the Indweller of all living beings may purify our hearts with His divine virtues and bestow the spiritual strength to control our minds and senses and free us from the evil qualities.
The spirituality transcends all walls of separation between all diverse conmunities despite differences in religions, traditions, cultures, civilisations, languages. We should believe that our religious and spiritual lives with diverse unique traditions could help guide us to build our different conmunities rather than dividing us.
We as independent people must be united for any conflict resolutions and reconciliations. We should therefore jointly rejoice with Unity in Diversity, and strive for Peace and Harmony by living together as the children of a common spiritual family.
Let us promote enduring, indeed daily interfaith cooperation, and create the cultures of Peace, Justice, and Healing, and also avoid religiously motivated violence.
May we join together irrespective of caste and creed in celebrating the Purna Yatra (Kanglen) of Lord Jagannatha, the most merciful Lord of the universe, on this auspicious day of July 10, 2011 Sunday at ISKCON Manipur, and we cordially invite all our dear brothers and sisters of diverse religious and spiritual conmunities of Manipur.
May Peace prevail on Earth.
See a full Photo Gallery on Kang Festivities in Manipur here
* "Devotees of ISKCON" writes this article for The Sangai Express. This article was posted on July 10, 2011.
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