Over five lakh people are expected to take part in ISKCON's annual Jagannath rath yatra to be held at Shivaji Park in Dadar in central Mumbai on March 12, a release said.
"This Shivaji Park rath yatra is also the world's second largest Jagannath rath yatra in terms of participants attending this event. This year, we expect a crowd of five lakh plus," spokesperson of Indian Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Lucky Kulkarni, claimed in the release.
Cultural events have also been planned by ISKCON's Girgaum Chowpatty temple on the following day.
Prize distribution ceremony of Gita Champions League will be held, along with an exhibition of ISKCON world cultural performance, lectures, drama and a medical camp.
A stage would be errected in the form of a ship replicating 'Jaladuta', the vessel in which ISKCON founder Acharya Shri AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupada had boarded in 1965 to go to USA, Kulkarni added.
The rath yatra will start from Shivaji Park and move via Sena Bhavan, Plaza theatre, Maruti Mandir, Portuguese Church, Gokhle Road, Khed Gali, Silver Apartment, Gokhale Road and back to Shivaji Park.
According to ISKCON's spiritual leader Radhanath Swami, "The chariot festival of Lord Jagannath is celebrated every year by lakhs of people since ages at Puri in Orissa. Srila Prabhupada, founder acharya of ISKCON, decided to celebrate the festival all over the world as everyone cannot go to Puri."
Prabhupada organised the first Rath Yatra in 1967 in San Franciso. Since then Rath Yatra is celebrated all over the world i.E. United States of America, United Kingdom, South Africa, Europe, Poland, New Zealand and Australia. Last year, devotees had organised a rathyatra in Pakistan also, he said.
