Iskcon recalls Fifth Avenue help after bid on Trump life
Times of India | 15 July 2024
Kolkata: On a day the frontrunner in the US presidential race was hit in the ear in an apparent assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) recalled Donald Trump’s association with the first Rathyatra in New York nearly half a century ago.
“In July 1976, Donald Trump had come to the rescue of Iskcon devotees looking for a large space to construct the raths by providing his train yard for free.Today, during the Rathyatra, it was Lord Jagannath’s turn to return the favour,” said Iskcon Kolkata vice-president Radharamn Das, calling Trump’s narrow escape divine intervention. Assistance from the then 30-year-old emerging real-estate mogul had made the first chariot procession of Lord Jagannath on New York’s Fifth Avenue possible in 1976. Incidentally, the chariots of Jagannath and Balaram that are used in the Kolkata Rathyatra are based on the drawings and specifications of the NYC chariots that Jayananda Prabhu had constructed in Trump’s rail yard.
Finding a huge empty site close to Fifth Avenue in New York where the chariots could be built was never going to be easy. Devotees of Iskcon who were planning a big bang 10th celebration of the organization with a grand Rathyatra in New York had knocked on the doors of every person possible, but in vain. “Iskcon devotee Tosan Krishna Das had managed to get nod to hold the parade at the Fifth Avenue from the chief of police in Manhattan, which was nothing short of a miracle. But we needed an empty site near the starting point of the parade route, to build the massive wooden chariots. Everyone we asked said ‘no’. They were concerned about insurance risks etc, which is understandable,” said Das.
Almost all firm owners who were approached said they were in the process of selling the property at the Pennsylvania rail yard which seemed the perfect location. A few days later, the Iskcon devotees learnt that Donald Trump had purchased the old railway yard. Devotees then went to his office with a basket of Maha Prasadam and a presentation package. His secretary took it but warned: “You can ask but he is going to say ‘no’.”
Three days later, Trump’s secretary called up the devotees saying, “I don’t know what happened but he read your letter, took a bit of the food you left, and immediately said, ‘Sure, why not?’” The secretary then said, “Come on down and get his signed letter.” Iskcon devotee and engineer Jayananda Prabhu then designed the massive chariots at the site.
Two years later, Garry William Roberts, alias Mayesvara Dasa, flew down to Kolkata and constructed the chariots that were used in Kolkata Rathyatra in 1978. They have been operating without any major breakdown till last Sunday, when the steering system in Jagannath’s chariot developed snag. “We have replaced it in both Jagannath and Balaram’s chariots and will conduct trials on Sunday before the Ultorath on Monday,” Das added.