JAGANNATHA IN RED DEER

Saturday, July 18th, 2026

Red Deer, Alberta

The heat is quite something as we set ourselves up for another Chariot Fest, smaller scale (we're in a smaller town, 100,000 population), but sweet nevertheless. The location is Bower Ponds, a place where I've walked plenty of times in the past, but today the wheels of the chariot carrying three VIPs was the intent. The park here has visitors, very comfortably disposed. They are Canada geese, hefty-sized birds that leave prosperous piles behind. The trails in this park swirl around so they became the interesting runways for the ratha (chariot) of Jagannatha. With temperature up at near 30° Celsius, humidity and the trees about blocking the flow of air, it felt more like 40. It was a relief when we stopped pulling the chariot at shady spots.

The fun was mixed with sun and sweat. The show did go on though. Dutifully our bus team at the end of presentations, too helped Maduha and his Festival of India team, disassemble all tents and structures during the heat. The evening for them was a timely break from the scorching effect. A good swim and play at the indoor pool did it for them.

Vallabha Hari, from Toronto, did a masterful job as the emcee. In fact both of us took the evening time out to debrief on the event of the day. There was joy at the event while bearing in mind, some tweaking was needed.

A disturbing piece of news came our way. Our dear sannyasi monk, Janardhana Maharaj, came back from a walk in Montreal and suffered from a stroke. He was hospitalized. Please pray.

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

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