By Acarya Dasa
On September 28th our padayatra party was in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. Kurnool is the largest city in the area, with a population of around 3, 291 22 people. ISKCON is fortunate to have a nama-hatta there at the BTS Complex in the Bangarupeta area . We stayed there for four days.
What can be more astounding than a miracle when all hope seems lost? In the most dire of predicaments padayatris have learned to have complete faith, and as Balaram Jayanti approached their trust in the Lord did not waiver at all.
While making our way to Kurnool city we happened upon a ghat[1] . We were unsure how our party was going to make it across, but as always the Lord’s will is greater than our doubts and we saw first-hand that if He wants to go to a place there can be no obstacles. As we stood there wondering what to do, the villagers shot into action. In no time at all they detached the bullocks from the cart and with great care and love lifted the heavy rath[2] onto their shoulders and carried it across the ghat! Haribol!
When we finally reached Kurnool the nama-hatta devotees lovingly welcomed us. All the padayatris were filled with joy to be received so warmly. In the evening we had a grand shoba yatra and sankirtana where more than a thousand people gathered to chant the holy names. We invited them all to join us for the Balaram Jayanti celebrations on the 29th of September at the temple. It was inspiring to see the large distribution of prasadam to about a 1000 people or more –the Lord certainly spreads His mercy.
The next day was Lord Balaram’s appearance day. He is Adi Guru and without His mercy one cannot achieve Krsna bhaki. On this auspicious day all devotees pray to Lord Balaram to give them spiritual strength to lead a virtuous, devotional life that will bring them closer to Krsna. We celebrated Balaram Jayanti with all the nama-hatta devotees: there was a maha abhisheka of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar, we sang bhajans to please Lord Balaram and offered 56 bhoga offerings to Their Lordships. We ended the evening with katha on the pastimes of Lord Balaram and relished sumptuous prasadam afterwards. It was a glorious event and we pray that the Lord was pleased with our endeavors.
After the celebrations we spent a few more days with the nama-hatta devotees then went to Balaji Nagar in another part of Kurnool city and spent some time there as well.
[1] River or lake, with a set of steps leading down to its banks
[2] Cart
