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Lost in New York, Part 2
During the summer of '94, I worked for a research center about
40 miles away from New York City. What follows is a personal
account of my experiences this summer, mostly involving the
Hare Krishna temple in New York and its devotees. This is the
second in what I hope will be a small series.
-Vivek
Lost in New York
----------------
Part 2: Devotees everywhere, preparation for Ratha Yatra
On about half my weekends, I would go into New York City and
see the sights. My friend Jay hadn't been there very long, so
he was also curious about exploring the city. Jay works and
lives in Manhattan, so we stuck to Manhattan for the most part.
I understand that some of the other parts of the city are
actually quite nice, but since Manhattan was right there, and
there was more stuff than we could possibly do, we stuck to
Manhattan.
Manhattan is a long, thin island with different "sections",
both geographically and culturally. One of the more "natural"
sections to visit is an area called SoHo, where everyone's fit
and healthy looking. Actually, that's not entirely true, but
the number of happy and healthy-looking people was disproportionately
high, considering that we were in New York.
SoHo has many, many shops, most of which are quite small by
the standards of Houston, a place where land is cheap. The shops
carry many artsy-type things, and a lot of trinkets. Jay and I
were wandering around SoHo when I ran into an interesting-looking
shop. It was a covered flea market (for lack of a better term), and
centered at the top of the huge entrance was a stylistically
rendered likeness of Lord Jagannatha.
I had mentioned to Jay that there were many Hare Krishna symbols,
and this was clearly one of them. The first place I saw the image
was on a shirt for the Festival of India, a traveling group of
devotees who set up elaborate stalls at the Ratha Yatra. In Houston,
we don't hold the Ratha Yatra, nor do we really see the guys from
the Festival of India. For some reason, however, one of the FOI
shirts was in the gift shop, and I received it as a birthday gift.
I was wearing the shirt one day when I stopped at a welcome center
in Massachusetts, and after I got the various maps I needed, the
girl running the place said "I know that shirt" with a sort of
knowing look. I was somewhat surprised, since we were nowhere near
a temple, but I figured "Oh - devotees everywhere". Just to be sure,
I asked her what she thought it was, and she replied "It's from
Lollapalooza", which is a traveling rock concert.
I was rather surprised that Lollapalooza would be using an image
of Lord Jagannatha on their shirts, so I asked her how she came to
this conclusion. She replied that there were people passing out
stickers with this image when she went to Lollapalooza. Problem
solved. Apparently, there were a group of Hare Krishna devotees
who must have been selling books, etc at Lollapalooza concerts.
I explained to her that it's a Hare Krishna shirt, and that the
stickers she saw must have come from Hare Krishnas. She seemed quite
pleased.
Anyway, back to the main story - so we were in front of this
large flea market, and I wanted to know what the connection was.
Jay and I went inside and had a look around. It was standard flea
market stuff, but I was surprised at some of the vendors - they
were smoking and eating meat, two things that you shouldn't see
a devotee doing. I assumed that the building must have at one
time belonged to the Hare Krishnas and that it was bought out by
someone else. The big image of Lord Jagannatha must have been acquired
somewhere, or perhaps just left over, I thought.
As we were wandering around, I saw an open door on one side
of the building. It seemed to be some kind of shop, so I went in.
I immediately recognized the site, sort of. There was a guy standing
there with lots of tulasi beads around his neck, and he had a color
shirt with a picture of Krishna (as Parthasarathi) leading Arjuna's
chariot. Still, I thought that this might be just another store, so
I introduced myself to the guy without asking if he was a Hare Krishna.
I was wearing a large black shirt with large white eyes and a smile,
the face of Lord Jagannatha as you normally see it. For those who haven't
seen it, imagine a white-on-black smiley face with big "o"'s for eyes,
and a nose ring. It's a shirt that generally causes people to smile when
they see it, so I wear it regularly.
After he introduced himself, I asked if he was with the temple. He
asked "which temple?", and I told him that I attended the Hare Krishna
temple in Houston. He replied that he was in fact an initiated devotee,
and that his name (coincidentally) was Jagannatha das. In retrospect, I'm
not entirely sure if his name was Jagannatha das or if I've gotten him
confused with someone else. In any case, the story sounds much better
if I call him Jagannatha das, so I will.
We spoke for a little while, and he told me about his attempts at
dialogue with some of the vendors outside. Some of them had managed to
give up meat and cigarettes for a little while, but eventually fell
back to them. He told me about an upcoming event at the temple, and
we discussed the Ratha Yatra a little while. I could see that Jay wanted
to leave, so I bid farewell and we took off.
I explained the whole thing to Jay and he seemed quite interested. He
was also curious about the Ratha Yatra, and I tried to explain what
exactly it was. Of course, I'd only seen pictures, so it was a bit
harder, but after my modest explanation, he said he was interested
in seeing one. I told him that the opportunity would soon be presenting
itself, and he was most definitely welcome to participate.
Later on that weekend I would encounter another devotee on the streets
in just as random a manner. I was walking to my car as it was getting
dark, and there was a short Black woman selling stuffed animals near
Times Square. She was holding some beads and it appeared that she was
doing something systematically on them. We were far away from the temple,
and I hadn't seen devotees in Times Square, so I assumed that she was
Catholic and those were rosary beads. I asked her what the beads were,
and she said it was a Hindu thing, and as I walked off, I was able to hear
her chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Devotees everywhere.
Early preparations for the Ratha Yatra were underway at the temple. That
Sunday when I attended, they still needed funding to pull off the event,
so I made a modest pledge. This would be the first time I'd seen a
Ratha Yatra, so I wanted to do my part to support it.
I guess I haven't exactly explained what a Ratha Yatra is. It's a long
tradition, going back to the time of Krishna, in which deities are
pulled through a city on chariots. The most famous one these days
takes place in a city called Puri, in India, and it's done by the
famous Jagannatha temple there. I think it would be fair to make the
following statement: most people associate the Ratha Yatra with Lord
Jagannatha. It's usually a procession of 3 carts (chariots), and they
tend to be huge. The first cart has Lord Baladeva, the second has
Lady Subadra, and the third is Lord Jagannatha.
The carts are pulled through the street by the crowds, and there are
always ample crowds wanting to pull the carts. In this specific case,
each cart had two long, thick ropes attached to it, and the crowds
would be using these to pull the carts down 5th avenue in NYC. This
sort of thing isn't what you normally expect to see on 5th avenue,
which is a ritzy shopping area.
I was wondering what kind of explanations I'd be giving to the
bystanders when we finally did start the Ratha Yatra, and I figured
I'd just say something like "It's part of Lollapalooza"
