Hidden History of Ratha Yatra
His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
After giving up the company of the gopis in Vrindavana, Sri Krishna, the son of maharaja Nanda, engaged in his pastimes at Daraka. When Krishna went to Kuruksetra with his brother and sister and others from Dvaraka. He again met the inhabitants of Vrindavan. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Radha-Bhava-Dyuti-Sumvalita, that is, Krishna himself assuming the part of Srimati Radharani in order to understand Krishna. Lord Jagannatha-deva is Krishna, and Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Srimati Radharani, Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s leading Lord Jagannatha toward Gundica temple corresponded to Srimati Radharani’s leading Krishna toward Vrindavana. Sri Kestra, Jagannatha Puri, was taken as the kingdom Dvaraka, the place where Krishna enjoys supreme opulence. However, He was being led by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to vrindavana, the simple village where all the inhabitans are filled with ecstatic love for Krishna. Sri Ksetra is a placce of aisvarya-lila, just as Vrindavana is the place of madhurya-lila. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s following at the rear of the ratha indicated that Lord Jagannatha, Krishna, was forgetting the inhabitants of Vrindavana. He could not forget them. Thus in his opulent Ratha-Yatra. He was returning to Vrindavana. In the role of Srimati Radharani, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was examining whether the Lord still remembered the inhabitants of Vrindavana. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu fell behind the Ratha Car, Jagannatha-deva, Krishna himself understood the mind of Srimati Radharani. Therefore, Jagannatha sometimes fell behind the dancing Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to indicate to Srimati Radharani that he had not forgotten. Thus Lord Jagannatha would wait on the Radha for their forward march. In this way Lord Jagannatha argreed that without the ecstasy of Srimati Radharani. He could not fell satisfied. While Jagannatha was thus waiting Gaura-Sundara, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in his ecstasy of Srimati Radharani, immediately came forward to Krishna. At such times, Lord Jagannatha would proceed ahead very slowly. These competivive exchanges were all part of the love affair between Krishna and Srimati Radharani. In that competition between Lord Caitanya’s ecstasy for Jagannatha and Jagannatha’s ecstasy for Srimati Radharani, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu emerged successful.