By Lokanath Maharaja (Pionner of padayatra and first padayatra minister)
Venue: Jagganath Puri dham
Occasion: 40th Anniversary of All India Padayatra celebartion
All devotees are dear to me, but Padayatra devotees are dearest to me. Padayatra is my life. Among many of the orders, the order for Padayatra is the main one that Prabhupada gave me. To please him, I cannot do Padayatra all by myself.
ekaki amara, nahi paya bala,
Hari-nama-sankirtane [Verse 3 Ohe! Vaisnava Thakura]
I was given the order of doing Padayatra in Shri Radha Parthasarathi, temple on the day of Radhastami. And I can still remember those things, as we got this order, all Padayatris were there, Atmatatva Prabhu was one of them, Ravi Prabhu, and Siddhartha Maharaja. We were thinking at that time, there would be many Padayatras and there would be reunion at Mayapur, Pandharpur, or Jagannath Puri from time to time. We thought all of this on the same day we got the orders.
We used to meet up at the time of Braj Mandal Parikrama or Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama, but these kinds of gatherings at Sri Jagannath Puri, where the old Padayatris meet new Padayatris, this is what we dreamt about. This was our vision and by the realization of it, I am very pleased. It is a Padayatra Family reunion.
Do you know? There are 84 million species. We can call Padayatra a species. Akhildhara Prabhu belongs to the Padayatra species, as well as Swetadvip Prabhu belongs to the Padayatra species, like that. Radha Raman Maharaj also belongs to this Padayatra species. So you all are born in padayatra species..
In the Krsna Balarama temple, Prabhupada inaugurated the first Padayatra on the 11-12th of September in 1976 in his quarter. He said, to us “Now you go to Mayapur from Vrindavan.”
On the way, in January at the time of Magha Mela, Prabhupada had came there to attend. We all Padayatris met him there at Allahabad, Prayag. Prabhupada had returned from his morning walk, he saw our Padayatra cart and bulls, so he came to watch. On our cart, the name “Padayatra” was written in a semi-circular pattern. Prabhupada started reading that, “Bhakti Vedanta Swami Bullock Cart Sankirtan Party,” tilting his head with the text.
In Prabhupada’s tent, I was alone when I met him. He wanted to know the report of the Padayatra from Vrindavan to Prayag. He was taking keen interest in the Padayatra and all the chores of Padayatra. He had a lot of curiosity. I was responding to every query of his, telling him about the experience of Padayatra in that tent. Prabhupada was getting pleased; I could see that joy on his face. That joy is still motivating me to conduct Padayatras.
yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi [Gurvastakam verse 8]
If Prabhupada is pleased, ultimately Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu will be happy. The original Padayatri is Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I was thinking, Sri Rama also didn’t go to vanavas by air or rail? No, he walked. So, he is also a Padayatri . Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai
gwal bal sang dhenu charaye madhav madan murari
Krsna Kanayalal ki jai
He used to take cows, bulls, and even buffaloes, as mentioned by Sukadeva Goswami. All day long, what he used to? Padayatra without shoes or an umbrella. Shri Rama, Shri Krsna Kanhaiya Lal used to do Padayatra, and also Balarama as Sri Nityananda Prabhu went all over India. And especially Shri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu started Padayatra from Jagannath Puri only. He left from here and returned to Jagannath Puri three times. This way, during the Madhya Lila of 6 years, Caitanya Mahaprabhu did Padayatra.
nama nache jiva nache nache prema dhana
jagat nachaya maya kare palayana
(Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur)
Actually, Caitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t walk; he used to dance all the time. And all our Acaryas —Madhvacarya, Ramanujacharya, Vishnuswami, Nimbarkacarya, and Sankaracarya—used to do Padayatra and preach Krsna’s message.
yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa [CC Madhya 7.128]
This is an ancient tradition of Padayatra. Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu did it, Prabhupada did it. Again, I was reading Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita , when he was in Jhansi, a gentlemen used to take him. With his first disciple Prabhakar Mishra, Prabhupada walked Padayatra for many days.
Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakur had written in his will, “Do Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama.” This was the order of Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakur to his son Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur for doing Padayatra. I have heard that he did Navadvipa Mandala parikrama 8 times.
This Padayatra is not a fabrication or empty imagination; this is not a mental speculation, but it is very authorized by the Lord and by the acaryas.
Srila Prabhupada ki jai
. The main goal of Caitanya Mahaprabhu coming to this earth was to establish the dharma .
dharma-sansthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge [BG 4.8]
So what is the dharma of Kali Yuga ? Harer namaiva kevalam Or Kali kaler dharma hari nama sankirtana which was founded by Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
sri-radhar bhave ebe gora avatar
hare krishna nam gaura korila pracar”
[Vasudev Ghosh’s bhajan “Jaya Jagannatha Sacira-nandana text 4]
Apane acari jagate sikhaye , by his actions Mahaprabhu showed the whole universe how the preaching of harinama is possible. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s order can be said to be a bhavishyavani .
pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
Srila Prabhupada was thinking about the ways for realizing this statement of Mahaprabhu. And 400 years passed, then Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur met Abhay Babu in Kolkata in 1922. He said, “You look intelligent, you go to western countries, spread and preach the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”
I have said this many times: Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur gave the order to Abhay Babu, but the real giver of orders is Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself. Words were spoken from the mouth of Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur, but he became a medium, a transparent media for transmitting the order and idea of Mahaprabhu. This order was given to Srila BhaktiVedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Once, someone asked why Mahaprabhu only preached harinama in India and did not go outside. Srila Prabhupada answered, “If Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu had gone and preached in the western world, then what would be left for us to do?” Gauranga wanted Srila Prabhupada to do it, and Srila Prabhupada wanted us to do the task of preaching harinama . There were ISKCON temples in nearly a hundred cities, and devotees from there used to preach through the city lanes. But half of the world’s population is situated far from cities, in villages. You know, in India, there are 7 lakh villages, so regions where ISKCON temples were situated, harinama was being spread, but what about those remote villages and countries?
One Indian gentleman wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada, asking why they did not preach in villages. In response, Prabhupada wrote that most of his disciples belonged to western countries, and if some Indians joined him, then he could also preach in villages. Prabhupada was also thinking about preaching in villages. But Padayatra not only preaches harinama in villages, but also from city to city. So, it is more than fulfilling the prediction.
Srila Prabhupada, whose father Gaur Mohan Dev, again and again, used to pray to saints that his son should become the devotee of Radharani. I was thinking that Prabhupada is a devotee of Radharani, and again, being a devotee of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu does not make a difference. Srila Prabhupada was the special devotee of Srimati Radharani; she bestowed her blessings upon him. He blessed us on the day of Radha Ashtami by ordering us to sing and preach harinama .
(yadi) gaura nā hoito, tabe ki hoito,kemane dharita de?
rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā, jagate jānāta ke [yadi gaura na hoita Verse 1]
So, I got that seva. [Gauranga Gauranga Gauranga]. The order for doing Padayatra was given on Radha Ashtami itself. When we wanted to celebrate the 500-year anniversary of Pancha Shatabdi, ISKCON made a plan, and the first Padayatra started on the day of Radha Ashtami from Dwarka. It was the 2nd of September 1984, and today in 2024, it has been 40 years now. Padayatra started from Dwarka and passed through eight states via Kanyakumari, Jagannath Puri Dham, and reached Mayapur after 18 months. There, we celebrated the 500th birth anniversary of Caitanya Mahaprabhu there in Mayapur.
The first Padayatra was aimed to reach Jagannath Puri, but Srila Prabhupada instructed us to lead Padayatra to Mayapur first. When we took Padayatra there, Prabhupada again instructed us to lead it to Jagannath Puri. However, we were able to make it only up to Bhubaneshwar. There were many obstacles along the way—one of our bulls was from Uttar Pradesh, but the bull was unable to continue, possibly due to changes in diet or other reasons. Despite this, we managed to bring the Padayatra to Bhubaneshwar.
In 1977, at the time of Rathyatra, we reached Jagannath Puri on the day of Netrotsav. I was there with Padayatra. It was my first journey to Jagannath Puri Dham. So, that was one long padayatra. Padayatra actually needed to stay at Mayapur Dham, but could we have stayed like that? So, some devotees said, as Caitanya Mahaprabhu had his South India journey, the amount in which Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was welcomed, some devotees thought that history was getting repeated, just like what happened 500 years ago. The only difference was that at that time, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself was walking, and this time in the form of a deity. Nitai Gaura Sundar ki jai!
He is sitting in the chariot, and it feels as if Prabhupada is taking him everywhere, sitting in front, taking Harinama from village to village, and introducing Mahaprabhu.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna…
This Harinama is not only preached in cities and villages, but it is also preached to jane jane and gehe gehe, meaning from house to house, to every man, infinitely. So, we couldn’t stop at Mayapur and then moved forward to Vrindavan. In 1987, we did our first Vraj Mandal Parikrama, thanks to Padayatra. Then we went to Badrikashram. This way, we completed four dham yatra, starting from Dwarika, then Rameswaram, then Jagannath Puri, and finally Badarikashrama.
Then we thought we should stop where we started, so we went back to Dwarka again. When we returned, we created a gate there as a memorial, and it is still there. They welcomed us. Then our All India Padayatra has circled India nearly 6 times.
Our All India Padyatra is the mother of all Padayatras, and many children are being born, like Uttar Pradesh Padayatra, Odisha Padayatra, Andhra Pradesh Padayatra, Maharashtra Padayatra, Tamil Nadu Padayatra, and Assam Padayatra is about to start. For now, this gathering of Padyatras is limited to India, but in the future, we will see. Similarly, when we had to celebrate Srila Prabhupada’s birth centennial. Padayatra took place in more than a hundred countries to honor Srila Prabhupada’s legacy. That time we did padayatra in 100 countries.
Many of these padayatra happen every year in various countries besides India. A few days ago, Hungary—not hunger but Hungary, a country where Sivarama Maharaj preaches—sent a report. While we are celebrating our 40th anniversary, they are celebrating their 30th Padayatra anniversary. Regarding Mauritius, when Giriraj Maharaj was from GBC, I think it was around 1986, during Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s fifth centennial celebration, Padayatra took place in every village and city. Perhaps only Mauritius could be the only country where Padayatra has reached every town and village, as it is small. Prabhupada had told us to set up the Varnasrama there. Hari Hari.
I thank all of you who have become Padayatris and supporters and followers of Padayatra. I am very happy to see all of you. The perfection of My eye is to see Padayatris.
Hare Krsna
