Prabhupāda: Who was baḍa pāṇḍā?
Gaura-govinda: There was one baḍa pāṇḍā. I don't know his name. One who does offerings.(?) He is chief of those pāṇḍās. And then, when this pulling of car... That took place just a few minutes before sunset. It was the custom that as soon as the sun set, there will be no pulling. Only Balarāma's car was pulled a few yards, dashed against a (indistinct), and four of the wheels were broken. So then it stopped. For two days there was no pulling unless it is repaired. Then for two days car stopped there. So on the third day it was pulled. The cars were pulled to the Guṇḍicā. Such things happened this year. And we were the only party who chanted before ratha from ten to four.
Prabhupāda: Only party means?
Gaura-govinda: We. Lokanātha Swami's party had arrived, and we are at Bhuvaneśvara, four, five devotees. We were there two days before at Purī, and we went there and we chanted and did kīrtana before the ratha from ten to four. There were much crowd this year, so much crowd that this whole baḍa danda(?) was filled. And above, the top of the roofs, the buildings, were all overfilled. The government people that were broadcasting of radio, they all took photos and also they recorded our kīrtana. They announced in the radio also. This incident took place this year.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We did not have these problems at our Ratha-yātrā, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Pañca-draviḍa: The crowds stayed for the third day, or they all left?
Gaura-govinda: No, they left. Third day there was a thin crowd. They all left. That was the only day when all had come. They left. Fifty percent, seventy-five percent crowd left. Only twenty-five percent stayed.
Pañca-draviḍa: Was there any criticism?
Gaura-govinda: Oh, many criticisms. Many criticisms. I also heard. There was one custom that there are some specific persons, pāṇḍās, they would go out all directions to search that wood, specific nim wood from which the new body would be carved. There are some symptoms in the wood, that nim tree. They would find it out. And they go all directions. But this year they never gone anywhere. Last time from where they have pulled up the trees, they went there, and without proper ceremony they cut down the trees and came. This was also criticism. They never followed this thing this year.
Prabhupāda: The pāṇḍās are doing...