6 months ago
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The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) connected Wednesday (December 24, 2025) asserted its presumption of holding Rath Yatra connected flexible dates contempt the insistence of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) successful Odisha that the yearly Yatra beryllium held connected the aforesaid day crossed the globe.
In a statement, ISKCON said that, successful a 95-page papers released successful September, the SJTA had questioned ISKCON’s signifier of celebrating the chariot festival connected varying dates worldwide, arguing that scriptural prescriptions regarding tithis (sacred dates) cannot beryllium altered nether immoderate circumstances.
The ISKCON India Scholars Board (IISB) has issued a elaborate effect to SJTA’s stand. “IISB has since provided a broad rebuttal with extended scriptural citations, to which the SJTA has not yet issued a counter-response. The IISB’s response, structured crossed 5 scholarly sections, contends that aggregate scriptures, including the Skanda Puraṇa and Prasna Saṁhita, supply for alternate dates for Rathayatra observances,” ISKCON said.
The committee argued that the Puri temple’s svayaṁbhu (self-manifested) deities were chiseled from ISKCON’s Pancaratrika-installed deities, which whitethorn travel antithetic ritual guidelines. The speech had been marked by assertions and counter-assertions regarding engagement, it further said.
According to ISKCON, anterior to the caller papers exchange, a face-to-face scholarly gathering was held connected March 20, 2025, successful Bhubaneswar, wherever IISB representatives presented their scriptural grounds earlier SJTA scholars successful the beingness of Gajapati King Dibyasingh Deb.
ISKCON further said its representatives maintained that they had provided substantive scriptural responses connected aggregate occasions done some written submissions and nonstop dialogue.
“The IISB expressed interest that contempt these engagements and documented responses disposable connected their website, statements proceed to beryllium made suggesting a deficiency of reply from their (SJTA) side,” ISKCON pointed out.
IISB cited the rule of “manaḥ kṛṣṇe nivesayet” (fixing the caput connected Krishna) arsenic justification, arguing that facilitating devotional remembrance took precedence erstwhile rigid observance prevented nationalist participation.
It emphasised that ISKCON rigorously observed different festival tithis similar Janmaṣṭami and Ekadasi, and that flexibility successful Rath Yatra dates represented a morganatic scriptural enactment (vikalpa) alternatively than violation.
