Since 1996 we have organised several padayatras in Suriname, a small country in South America with a population of half a million people, with a percentage of about 45% Hindus. The first padayatra took place in October 1996, the year of Srila Prabhupada’s Centennial . We walked for one whole day in the capital of the country, Paramaribo, and ended with a festival at the temple. Around 70 devotees participated, included devotees from Guyana, Trinidad, and the Benelux. Around that time we also had another two day padayatra in the Nickerie district, located 230km from the capital and bordering Guyana. The district of Nickerie has a large Hindu community and devotees have a Nama-hatta center there headed by Govinda Madhava Shyam Dasa, disciple of Virabahu prabhu, Surinam’s GBC. Nickerie’s capital city, Nieuw-Nickerie, is the second largest city in the country with 50,000 inhabitants. That padayatra was attended by the same amount of participants, more local people joined the procession which ended each day at a Hindu temple – the Rama Mandir and the Sri Vishnu Mandira– with lecture, kirtana and full plates of prasada for everyone.
The sweet taste experienced in the past padayatras inspired us to organise more walks in 2004 and 2011 in Paramaribo and Nickerie with 50 devotees each time. In 2004 we even managed to have an oxcart. Many people , especially the Hindus, were attracted by the kirtana. They waved to the devotees, offered pranams from their balcony , and came out of their houses to see the procession and receive prasadam, a book or a pamphlet.
Our last padayatra was held in Nieuw-Nickerie on July 7th 2014, attended by fifty devotees and guests. It was organised by Govinda Madhava Syam Dasa, the leader in Nickerie, Janakinath Dasa , a senior devotee visiting from the Netherlands and former president of the Suriname yatra, and myself. We started the walk by worshipping Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and offering a special arati to go mata in the nama-hatta centre. The cow came from a local farmer who was enthused to engage his animal in the puja. The cow and her owner got so enlivened by this experience that they walked half of the route with the procession before returning home. We had a simple but elegant hand drawn cart to carry Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. As usual we were escorted by the police – five policemen on bikes, and two on motor bikes. It is their rule, as they want to ensure a peaceful and orderly procession, with no religious clashes. The policemen were so kind that they also added an ambulance at the end of the procession, in case medical attention was needed. For Nickerie it was a big thing. While walking through the town we distributed burfi and other sweets, many pamplets but no books alas. Everyone was blissfully chanting and waving colourful flags. As much as I can recall only ISKCON has ever done such a religious procession in the Nickerie district. At the end of the day we held a dynamic program at our Nama-hatta centre with kirtana,full plates of prasada and an enlivening lecture.
