By Acarya Dasa
Sankirtana is indeed the heart of padayatra –the padayatris are always dancing on the streets of India distributing books and maha-prasadam. For the padayatris, this walk is a holy walk and whilst spreading the holy names everywhere every step takes them closer and closer to the Lord. It is no wonder therefore that on the auspicious occasion of World Holy Name week taking place from September 24th to October 4th; the padayatris would reinforce all their preaching activities. Instructed by His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaja the padayatra party, filled with enthusiasm, set out to shower the transcendental flowers of the holy names to all and sundry.
We started ‘Holy Name Week’ on the 24th of September, in Thawarampalli. That evening our party organized a special satsanga inviting everyone in the city. We were pleased to see almost 1000 of the city’s residents attending the program and taking prasadam. The satsanga detailed the importance of the holy name to establish dharma; it also explained how the holy name can save us, being the only means in which we can achieve world peace. As Srila Prabhupada said people tend to start a lot of revolutions and make so many resolutions –but come up with no solution. The answer to all their problems is ‘harer nameva kevalam’ translated as ‘the only means of deliverance is the chanting of the holy name of the Lord’.
Later, our party travelled to the city of Kadapa (Vijaydurga Nagar), where we spent 4 hours having sankirtana with 2000 or so people joining us. We distributed sweet rice to all the residents and encouraged each person to say the Hare Krishna maha-mantra before giving them prasadam.
On September 25th, we made our way to Kajipetha, entering the village with melodious harinama sankirtana. The residents of the village were observing Bakr-Eid [1] at this time and were busy offering prayers when we arrived. Initially, they had become quite disturbed by the sankirtana, telling our party to stop and leave the village. Some senior members of the community, however, gathered to discuss the matter, and they allowed us to continue with our harinama. We spent 4 hours spreading the mercy of the holy names here.
The next day, September 26th, our party travelled to Kodapetha where we celebrated Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur’s appearance day and Srila Haridas Thakur’s disappearance day with the Kodapetha nama-hatta. There were special classes held on the glories of Namacharya Srila Haridas Thakur and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. The nama-hatta devotees also kindly made arrangements for us to do pushpanjali [2]. That evening there was 5 hours of nagar sankirtan, followed by Gaura-arati and prasadam distribution. There were 5000 people who participated in the program; the event was later featured in a local newspaper.
During this auspicious week, the party organized morning Bhagavatam classes, amongst other things, with the theme focused on emphasizing the glories and importance of the holy names with many people in attendance. For the All India padayatra every week appears to be holy name week –as the padayatris continue on with their extensive sankirtana –enlightening souls everywhere with the holy names.
[1] Is the second day of two religious holidays celebrated by Muslims worldwide each year.
[2] An offering of flowers. In Sanskrit, pushpa means “flower” and anjali means “offering with folded hands”.
