By Jayabhadra Devi Dasi
In Amravati there is a school for visuallyimpaired children calledthe Dr Narendra Bhiwapurkar Blind School.
Our ISKCON Girls’ Forumteam has been going to the schoolat festivals and the childrenhave been encouragedto singin kirtan and participate in other spiritual activities. The first programme we had there was nine years ago and the response was nice.
This year we Vaishnavis took a sankalpa to conduct seventy-fiveVaishnavi padayatras as an offering to our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, on his seventy-fifth birth anniversary.We were going to villagesfor padayatras andI thought, why not conduct a small padayatra for these students at the school. They are not allowed to leave the property, but they have a large campus and we decided to do padayatra there.
On October 6, 2024, we all went to the school with the prior permission of the institution’s authorities.In a hall we began by having the students chant the maha mantra, so they would get the mercy of Nama Prabhu and some peace of mind and happiness. Then we called each student to a table where we had various forms of Lord Krishna. As they can’t see, they needed to feel the Lord with their senseof touch to understand Their formsand hear the kirtan.
First was Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundarand as the studentstouchedTheir Lordships to their heads to bless them, we had them recite Their merciful names.Then we had a peacock made of metal and asked who was wearing the feather in the mukut. The answer was Krishna.
We also had a cow, Vitthal Rukmini, and made the students feel the hands on the hips, and also keep their hands on hips and chant Vitthal,Vitthal. The next itemwas Narsimha Bhagavan’s face to which they said lion or tiger, and we went on to tell them the story of Narsimha and Prahlad Maharaja.
We had a Bhagavad-gita with us and asked them all to touch it, andthey also touchedthe book to their heads so that they would receive the mercy of Lord Krishna.These children are very alert and smart. Their sight is restricted but their other senses are well developed, so they can understand if anyone is standing nearby or moving around.
Then everyone went outside and we had a small padayatra singing the Hare Krishna mahamantra. Due to their impairment,the students were not well organized but as per their capacity they walked and chanted the holyname.We asked each of themto chant one mahamantra independently. One girl had a melodious voice and sang wonderfully and there was a six-year-old girl named Gurpreetwho chanted the holy name very loudly with all power.
At the end of padayatra we gave the students bananas and some sweet prasadam.Everyone was very happy and invited us to return and therewere about thirty girls who remained around us until we were due to leave the campus.But two girls did not join us and when one of our girls went to them saying “please chant the holy name of Lord Krishna, He will help you,” the sadreplywas, “No-one can help us.” Theirdisability can make them feel helpless. Our presence was justa small attempt to give them the Lord’s holy name so they would be blessed.
Since our first visit to the school almost a decade ago I have searchedfor a Bhagavad-gita in Braille for these students. I thank from the bottom of my heart Champakalata mataji, preacher at the Devnar School for the Blind in Hyderabad and pioneer in making the Bhagavad-gita As It Is in Braille. And by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy that edition is now available through our Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. We will order it and gift it to the school for the blindlibraryin Amravati during the Gita Marathon so that the students can read about and understand the Lord and our relationship with Him, how we can love Him and be happy.
Whatever little preaching we are doing is only due to the mercy and constant inspiration of our spiritual master.
Srila Gurudev ki jai.
Srila Prabhupada ki jai.
I also thank the AmravatiIGF teamfor organisingthis small padayatra, Dwarkawasinimataji for helpingme, and themanagement and teachers of theDr Narendra Bhiwapurkar Blind School for giving us permission to hold such a programme.
Hare Krishna.
