The following Pictures were taken by Murari Caitanya dasa
Everybody loves a parade
(small Deities are Murari Caitanya Prabhu's personal Deities)
This year's theme for the parade is "Celebrating Our Heros". Naturally, our hero is Srila Prabhupada. We invited Srila Prabhupada to be the guest of honor at our Rathayatra, and he graciously came down from his Vyasasana in Chicago to attend our humble festival. He was attended by Murari Caitanya and Abhimanyu Prabhus.
The float design was in the form of a boat representing the "Jaladuta", the freighter which carried Srila Prabhupada to New York in 1965, coming to the West for the first time with the message of Krishna Consciousness.
Bhakta Jesse (left with red sweatshirt) designed the free T-shirts given away to the first 50 participants. Almost everyone got one. They have a picture of Srila Prabhupada laughing.
The legend :OUR HEROSRILA PRABHUPADA
1896-1977
The following pictures were taken by Bob Roberts Photography:
Jaya Jagannatha, Baladeva & Subhadra Devi!
Srila Prabhupada Patita Pavana KI JAYA!
Murari Caitanya dasa
Broadway Street, downtown Niles, Michigan
Dancing In the Streets!
Riverfront Park, downtown Niles, Michigan
All glories to Sriman Jayananda Thakura, who built the first Ratha in the West.
May he bless us all with his unbounded enthousiasm for devotional service.
Your exhausted servant, Prema Bhakti dasa, finally getting a moment of respite at the end of a 3 week ecstatic marathon to build the float and prepare the festival.
niles_rathayatra@comcast.net
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