By Acarya Dasa
On August 28th we travelled to the village of Nileshwaram, also known as Nileshwar or Neeleswaram in the Kasaragod district of Kerala. Caitanya Rasamrita Dasa, president of ISKCON Kannur grew up in this village. Actually both he and his family first came into contact with devotees while living in a foreign country. Now, his whole family along with his brothers are devotees. When he received the news that our pāda-yātrā was visiting his village he made arrangements how to welcome us, and for our accommodation with the devotees there.
Surprise welcome
When we reached the village, to our surprise 500 people were waiting to welcome us, despite the rain. It goes to show that nothing can stop the Lord’s devotees. Everyone stood with umbrellas and the local residents played auspicious music and instruments. After walking with us for some time they released the bulls from the pāda-yātrā cart and began pulling the cart themselves. Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar must have been very pleased with their seva. What a grand procession it was! Later everyone also joined us for saṅkīrtana.
Pandal program
While we were there the devotees organized a large pandal program with 800 people attending. During the program each pāda-yātri was called on stage and glorified for his particular seva on pāda-yātrā. The next day we had maṅgala-ārati with many of the devotees joining us.
