By Acarya Dasa
On February 1st while padayatra was making its way through Perumbudur, there was heavy traffic in the city and we started to worry about how we would do sankirtana –we then realized that if the Lord desires it, anything is possible. As we began to make our way through Perumbudur, to our great surprise we had no problem continuing with sankirtana even on one way roads. It is well known that the people of South India are very religious, and so wherever we went they supported us. When we were going through places with busy traffic, the traffic police came and assisted us, allowing Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar to pass.
Normally, we would not take the padayatra ratha across a flyover and always walk on roads instead. This time though, as we negotiated our way, we were directed to a flyover route and there was no other way to reach our destination. So we unhitched the bulls from the ratha and joined the bulls to a tractor. We then sent the bulls and a few padayatris on an alternate route to our destination via road. The rest of us got onto the tractor trolley and along with Nitai Gaurasundar started to make our way over the flyover. It was a smooth ride over the flyover and we then realized that Sri Nitai Gaurasundar wanted to see the city from an elevated position. We enjoyed our long ride and reached our destination safe and sound.
A few years back padayatra also visited a village called Pare not far off from Aravade the birth place of Lokanath Maharaj. When we visited last Paramgati Maharaj, Akhildhara Dasa and Rupa Goswami Dasa stayed at a Ram Temple for a few days. We arranged many programs for the villagers and had sankirtana all over the village. The village people are very simple people and they accept the Lord very easily. A good example of this was a boy whom we had met here named Sumit. He was a native villager who was working in Chennai but had come back to his village for the holidays at the same time padayatra was visiting. After Sumit had met all the padayatris he stayed with us for the duration of our stay there – Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar had attracted his heart. When we left he remained in contact with Rupa Goswami Dasa. Today he follows all the rules and regulations for spiritual life and loves Lokanath Maharaj and his nectarine kirtanas. He even has a collection of Maharaj’s CDs and sings the same melodies. He said that whenever he sings the ‘Hare Krishna Mahamantra’ he closes his eyes and envisions Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar and Lokanath Maharaj. What is even more amazing is that he has never had music lessons, yet he can play the harmonium and when he plays and sings he does so for the pleasure of the Lord. Sumit says that it is all the mercy of Gaura Nitai.
In March, padayatra will be attending the ‘Kirtan Mela’. From March 11th to March 18th we will be on the Navadvipa Mandal Parikrama and on March 23rd we are scheduled to attend the Gaura Purnima celebrations in Mayapur Dham.