For 29 years, the ratha yatra organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has remained one of the most celebrated of public religious ceremonies in New York, and it has also become the only Hindu ceremony of its kind that finds its way through Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. In fact, it is the only Hindu ceremony of its kind in the city.
As in the previous years, the three 40-feet high traditional Indian chariots pulled by hand by several hundred Krishna devotees over a two-hour period on Saturday was yet another eye-popping spectacle. And continuing the trend in recent years, the participation of Indians is becoming increasingly apparent.
"Three decades ago the Indian community was quite small, and the newer immigrants were busy building their careers," says Gadhadhara Dasa, a Hare Krishna monk who is also a chaplain at Columbia University and who is also a second-generation Indian American. "They did not have time to support religious organisations at least for the first few years of their arrival. But over the last decade, many young people of Indian origin are rallying around ISKCON."
Image: The ISKCON rath yatra is modelled after the Puri Jagannath rath yatra
Also see: The darker side of ISKCON
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