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Lost in New York, part 4


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 that summer, mostly involving the
Hare Krishna temple in New York and its devotees. This is the 
fourth in what I hope will be a small series.

-Vivek

Lost in New York
----------------

Part 4: The Ratha-yatra morning (finally)

It's been about a year now since I went to New York, and I'm
only at part 4 of this series. How time flies. In any case, I'm
determine to make some progress, so I guess it's time for another
installation. One thing about writing so far after an event is
that my memory is cloudy, which I expect is quite normal. Names
were basically the first thing to escape me, and then the specifics
of conversations, and finally, the ordering of events. I'll try to
do my best to recreate what I remember, but it is probably just
going to be a close approximation of actual events. In any case,
I hope you enjoy.

a quick summary of the last part:
I had worked hard the night before the Ratha-Yatra helping load
a truck with supplies and moving prasadam into a refrigerated
truck. My plans to sleep through mangala arati weren't successful,
so despite my tiredness, I was awake at 4:30 in the morning. After
that, I helped move the main chariot of Lord Jagannath into place,
and things were ready to begin.

These chariots were not small beasts. The chariots were tall
enough to get into trouble with the wires from which signal
lights are suspended. Each chariot was about as wide as a lane of
traffic, and the largest chariot was probably the length of two
cars. 

It took us over an hour to get the chariot into place (probably
longer, but I don't remember), and I was glad when it was finally
over. The guy in charge of it was a devotee from Boston, who, it
turned out, had actually designed/built this chariot manually. There
were two other chariots already at the park, and they were in the
process of being decorated. One was a small chariot, and it was
still in a fairly traditional style. I heard that it could be towed
around quite easily, so it was "portable" in a sense.

The other chariot was an engineer's chariot. It was lightweight,
made of relatively high-tech materials, and most importantly,
it was light. The weight of a chariot would seem unimportant to
most people, but since I had played a manual brakeman for the main
chariot that morning, I realized that a light chariot might be a
good idea. After all, I had been running behind a chariot with a 
rope around my waist, acting as a human brake all morning (and it
wasn't even 10 yet). I was drained.

This new-fangled chariot was made largely of metal, it seemed, and
it was designed to collapse easily. It also had it's own brake, as
did the small chariot. I remarked about the efficiency of it to the
devotee from Boston, and that's when I found out that he had designed
the main chariot. I explained to him that my awe was that of an engineer,
and was in no way a sleight to his more traditional (if heavier)
chariot.

It was then that I found out we had come unprepared. Many of the female
devotees (most in their early 20's) were already at the park decorating
the two other chariots, and had been waiting on to arrive with the
main chariot. They had been out in the sun all morning, as we had, and
nobody had anything to drink. Oops. A quick run to the store was to
prove how expensive New York could be. One grocery bag full of drinks
(juice, water, milk, etc) cost a little over $30. Ouch. Granted, it was
a convenience store, and it was in the middle of Manhattan, but $30
was still quite a bit of money.

So, after a little refreshment, it was time to help set up the main
chariot. The main chariot was pretty large, and the main platform of
it was about 7 or 8 feet off the ground. In order to get to it, you
could use one of the spokes of the large wheels as a step and then
jump up. The women and the kids (teenagers) were doing this pretty
easily, and I definitely felt my age when I decided to try. Parts of
the chariot were designed solely as decoration, and weren't meant to
support the weight of an adult trying to climb aboard. It turned out
that the railing, which would have been a nice handhold, was one of
them, and I couldn't use it. Oh well, I guess it was time to be more
"daring" than I usually am.

Let's just say that I wasn't graceful at first, but I also avoided
breaking my neck. Overall, not too bad. However, there was a boy
already on the main platform, and he seemed to not comprehend why
anybody was having difficulty getting up. By the end of the day,
however, I had mastered the technique, and could feel young again.

The Russian devotee who had helped earlier in the morning with being
a brakeman for the main chariot had decided to avoid the sun while
we were decorating. He had really pink skin, and I wasn't sure if he
had already suffered from a sunburn or if he just had "target" written
all over him. While we were decorating the chariot, he was off to the
side, standing in the shade, and answering the questions of passers-by.

We had lots of people asking questions that morning, because even
with all the things that you can see in New York, you still don't
see three large chariots being decorated with flowers and balloons
very often. Quite a few Indians stopped by, and they were glad to see
that someone had brought the Ratha-yatra tradition outside of India.

Lord Jagganath was not scheduled to arrive for some time. After we
finished all of the decorating, we went back to the temple to bathe
before the festival. I had showered only a few hours earlier, but it
was definitely time for another one. I luckily managed to catch a
ride back to the temple with a devotee I had met a few days earlier,
named Jack.

Jack was a really nice devotee who I had met the night before, I think.
He was amazingly helpful, and he would prove to be helpful the half
dozen or so more times that I would run into that summer at various
temples. Jack was a really nice guy, but a pure New Yorker when it
came to driving. It was pretty funny to watch him drive - you could've
sworn that he had the blood of a taxi driver flowing through his veins.
In the time that I had been driving in the city, I'd gotten much bolder
than I would in Houston. After all, some of the things that commonly
occur in New York wouldn't be accepted in Houston at all, so my driving
style had to adjust if I was going to survive.

We made it from Manhattan back to the temple (in Brooklyn) in what 
seemed to be record time. I was used to spending at least 40 minutes 
making the trip, and it seemed that Jack was able to cut that down to
20. Realizing what a good thing I had here, I told Jack that I fully
expected to catch a ride back with him, and he promised me a seat
on the return trip.

I borrowed a towel from one of the brahmacaris and quickly took a
shower, since I didn't want to miss the van ride back to Manhattan
with Jack. There was quite a crowd gathered at the temple, including
a huge number of straight-edge kids who had come in from other cities.
Straight-edge is a type of punk music, and there are quite a few groups
in it now that sing about Krishna. As a result, a lot of kids show up
at the temple, and like big events like the Ratha Yatra.

I was waiting around for Jack, who had gone to run some errands for
the Ratha Yatra. It was almost time for Lord Jagganath to be brought
down from His upstairs room and be taken to the Ratha Yatra. A van
was ready and waiting for him, but I was told that He apparently
moved only when He decided that He was ready. One of the female devotees
told me that last year, the van that was supposed to bring him to
Manhattan suddenly wouldn't start once he was inside. The van had
no history of problems, and nobody could figure it out. After about
30 minutes, a new van was brought in, and Jagganath was transported
with that van. Immediately afterwards, the van which was dead came
back to life. The collective verdict was that Lord Jagganath wanted
to wait for about 30 more minutes.

Well, this year, He decided to start on time. As He was carried down
the stairs and into the van, all of the devotees watched, dance, and
sang. All of them were also figuring out how to make it to the start 
of the festival. We had about space for 6 on the van, since we had
quite a bit of equipment inside. I had told about 3 people that they
could ride back with us on the van, since I wanted to leave a margin
of space in case we needed to transport items back to the festival.
There were quite a few women with babies and also quite a few elderly 
people, so when Jack arrived with the van, I decided that I didn't
need a comfortable ride after all.

Now that I'd lost my ride, I decided it was time to bum a new one,
or at least try. Houston is a place where everyone over 16 generally
has a car, so bumming a ride is never a problem. New York is the
exact opposite. Everyone was trying to bum a ride, and the number of
cars was shrinking quickly. So, some of the Sannyasis who had arrived
for the festival decided that public transportation was in order.

One of them was New York-savvy, and already knew what trains would
take us to the site in the least time. Before I could make sure that
I had enough change for a token, he was already off with a flock of
brahmacaris following him. I decided to follow and worry about the
change as I walked.

So there we were, waiting in the train station, a large group of
people who, for the most part, had shaved heads and were wearing
saffron robes. I guess the drunks in the railway station weren't
particularly surprised, since they didn't really react at all to
the group. I guess that if a guy has a shaved head and is wearing
a saffron robe, you probably don't bother asking for change.

When the train arrived, we took up most of a train car. It was 
definitely a shock to most of the people on the train, and they
seemed really puzzled as to what was going on. You'd imagine that
a bunch of robed guys getting on a train wouldn't attract that
much attention in New York, but I guess it does.

I think there were about 3 or 4 Sannyasis on the train, and probably
over a dozen brahmacaris. I had a camera with me, and I couldn't
resist the visual humor of the whole thing. So, I got ready to take
pictures of the "walk of the sannyasis". I got a nice one of the
train, and of everyone walking outside. Actually, the "walk" outside
was quite brisk, so it was more like a small jog. As we were racing
through the streets of Manhattan, we went past some posh hotels. At
one of them, an incredibly coiffed family was waiting for their limo
driver to open the limo doors as we walked by. I heard the mother
say to the children "Looks like the freaks are out today". 

I immediately looked around, trying to see what "freaks" were there, 
and then I came to the conclusion that she was referring to our group.
I guess that the term "freak" is a relative term, since I would
imagine that there are more guys wearing saffron robes at any
given moment than there are little kids waiting on chauffeurs to open
limousine doors for them. But, I guess if you have a chauffeur, then
someone who decides that money isn't important is probably a freak
to you anyway, regardless of what he or she is wearing.

We raced after the sannyasis for what seemed to be a half mile, and
then we were finally there. A large crowd had gathered at the starting
site, and there was already much singing and dancing going on. The
chariots had been decorated, and the balloons were flapping about
in the wind. After a short message from one of the devotees who seemed
to be in charge, we were off.

We had a "perpetual" police escort along the length of the parade. It
consisted of officers (mostly on motorcycles) who would usher traffic
as the parade moved down 5th (I think) avenue. I was told that this was
the largest Ratha-yatra in New York since the 70's, and I could believe
it. I felt sorry for some of the New York cab drivers who had to put up
with the traffic, but all things considered, I think it was fair.
After all, it's not every day that you see three large chariots
making their way down the streets of New York...

So here we were, in the middle of New York City, with people singing
and dancing in the middle of the street, and Lord Jagannath watching
over it all. I'm sure that some people who walked by must have thought
"only in New York", but they were wrong of course, since Ratha-yatras 
are springing up all over the world. And, of course, I understand that
there are even some in India, although I've never seen one...
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