(RNS) — For the past month, four road-trippers have been making their way across the United States, snacking on vegetarian treats and playing Hindu devotional music called bhajans on the car radio.With them, a very important passenger: the idol of baby Ram, or Ram Lalla. For the first time in North America, Ram Lalla is being paraded from temple to temple on a two-month-long, 16,000-mile road trip, just in time for Ram Navami — the birthday of Lord Ram.
“I bought the van and I said, ‘I’m going to go, anybody wants to join?’” said Amitabh Mittal, joint general secretary of the World Hindu Council of America-VHPA, the group behind the Ram Rath Yatra, or Ram chariot procession. “‘Just be part of it,’ I said. ‘Don’t regret it later.’”
Rather than a chariot, Ram’s normal conveyance in Indian versions of Mittal’s trek, the baby Ram is seated in the back of a decked-out Honda Odyssey, visiting about 14 mandirs, or temples, per day for about 30 minutes at each. From makeshift temples in strip malls to grand architectural feats like the massive new BAPS Robbinsville Mandir in northern New Jersey, Ram and his companions are making history.
“I would say I had a blessi …
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“I bought the van and I said, ‘I’m going to go, anybody wants to join?’” said Amitabh Mittal, joint general secretary of the World Hindu Council of America-VHPA, the group behind the Ram Rath Yatra, or Ram chariot procession. “‘Just be part of it,’ I said. ‘Don’t regret it later.’”
Rather than a chariot, Ram’s normal conveyance in Indian versions of Mittal’s trek, the baby Ram is seated in the back of a decked-out Honda Odyssey, visiting about 14 mandirs, or temples, per day for about 30 minutes at each. From makeshift temples in strip malls to grand architectural feats like the massive new BAPS Robbinsville Mandir in northern New Jersey, Ram and his companions are making history.
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