Originally Posted by Jahnava Nitai Das

Today their complaint is ISKCON holds ratha yatra on the wrong day. Next their complaint will be that there should only be Panda priests serving Jagannatha in ISKCON temples, and untouchables shouldnt be allowed to have His darshan, as is "Jagannatha culture".

The fact is they are simply irrelevant people. They are best simply ignored.

Further, it should be noted that even India does not have a universal calendar. Different states celebrate festivals on different days, based on different calendars. The Kartik month of North India is one month before the Kartik month of south India. There are even differences in the calendars of Vaishnavas and Shaivites, and Sri Vaishnavas and north Indian vaishnavas.

So this illusion that there is an exact perfect date for all of India (what to speak of the world) is false.

ISKCON does not follow "panda culture" and ISKCON has no interest in following their culture in the future. ISKCON is the organization that has spread the worship of Lord Jagannatha throughout the world. They really don't need advice and guidance from ritualistic priests who have abused their powers for hundreds of years and have destroyed Hinduism (through untouchability, sati, devadasi, etc.)

In summary, anyone who thinks there is something called a "Hindu calendar" needs to educate themselves about the various calendars of India and their histories.