By Acarya Dasa, All India Padayatra Leader
Whenever our padayatra visits any city or town, we try to stop at the major places and also in areas where the holy name has not yet reached. Since one and a half month we have been in the Bangalore area which includes many nama-hatta centers. We visited almost all of them and arranged preaching programs there. Everywhere we received a very warm welcome.
Here are few inspiring accounts about the Padayatra preaching:
SRI SRI NITAI GAURASUNDAR FULFILLING THEIR DEVOTEES DESIRES
At Sahakar Nagar, there was a devotee named Anadi Jagannatha Dasa who had tried to arrange a program in one residential area for the last two years. But he always failed. Nobody wanted to come to his program and no one was interested to take one of Srila Prabhupada books. He was telling that in this residential area no one was interested in Krishna consciousness.
One day the padayatris were heading to a Ganesh Temple for Gaura arati but as the party was very late and the time for Gaura arati had come, they stopped in the middle of the road. At 7.30 PM, the Gaura arati started and suddenly, many residents rushed to join the arati. After the arati, they purchased books and invited the padayatris for a house program on the next day. They were the ones that Anadi Jagannatha Dasa was trying to cultivate for two years. When he heard of the incident, he jumped with joy, exclaiming, “What I could not do in two years, Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara has done in 20 minutes.”
Another devotee named Madan Murari Dasa desired to serve the padayatris and invite them to his house in the outskirts of Bangalore in the Air Force area. Due to security reasons, nobody was allowed to perform a program in that area. Once we went somewhere for bringing a projector and coincidently met Madan Murari. He said, “My house is nearby, please come.” So that evening we had a wonderful program at his place. All the family members’ served Their Lordships with all their hearts.
SWAMIJI’S HOSPITALITY
On March 12th, while searching for a place to stay at Medahalli, we heard about Chidananda Swami’s Sevashram, where Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta are practiced. While reaching the monastery, Chidananda Swami agreed to accommodate us. He first enquired about the purpose of the Padayatra. After giving him a brief introduction about the activities of Padayatra, he was delighted and impressed by our services. Swamiji personally interacted with each one of us with lot of love and care. Knowing that one of our padayatris had a severe backache due to terrible conditions of the road leading to Medahalli, he called one of his Ayurvedic doctor to treat him. His followers also arranged prasadam for the devotees and grass for the oxen. The next day, as were leaving Swamiji told us, “I’m very fortunate to have your association. Please, visit again. This is now your own ashram.”
IN RAIN OR IN SCORCHING HEAT, SANKIRTANA MUST GO ON!
On March 15th early morning, we reached Ulsoor, one of the most ancient villages around Bangalore. After being welcomed by the local devotees of Ulsoor, we decided to go on harinaam sankirtan with the Padayatra cart. As padayatris are renowned for their ecstatic chanting, everyone was excited to join us. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and it could rain at any time. The local devotees were very sad thinking that if it rained sankirtan will not be very effective. But the padayatris are used to perform sankirtana either in pouring rain or scorching heat. I told them, “Don’t worry! Rain will not stop us. Sankirtan must go on.”
As we were about to move the cart, it started raining, and the padayatris became more excited. Seeing their enthusiastic singing and dancing in the rain, the Ulssor Vaishnava’s joined the party, forgetting all about the rain. It was the best harinama we ever had. It’s been 35 years that Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara have been walking all over India, renouncing all temple comforts. Why can’t we perform sankirtana against all odds? All is due to their mercy. The Lord can empower anyone who wishes to spread their glories, and, as the saying goes, “when there is a will there is way”.
AT KRISHNA RAJA PURAM NAMA HATTA
The Padayatra party halted for the next three days at Krishna’s Raja Puram nama-hatta. One of our godbrothers, Venu Madhava Dasa had made nice arrangement for our stay and had scheduled different events. We performed harinama in different areas around the nama-hatta center, along with the congregation devotees, who joined for all the all programs. We distributed a few Srimad-bhagavatam sets and Caitanya-caritamrita sets. One day, we had a house program at Bala Krishna Dasa’s house. We all went there along with the small festival Deities of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara. His family was so happy to receive the Deities and the devotees at their house and they served us an opulent prasadam. Bala Krishna Dasa said, “I am so fortunate to have Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara and devotees at my house.”
OUR NEW COMPANION
While in the area of Bangalore, young AbhayCharan Nitai Dasa from Mayapur joined the padayatra for a few days. He had heard a lot about the experiences on padayatra from us padayatris so he decided to join us to know what it is to be there in person. He loves padayatra, and really wanted to bepart of it, serve the oxen and perform sankirtana. He is already travelling with the Mayapur Bus Sankirtan Party. Every morning he gave Srimad-bhagavatam class and shared his realizations; “I learned how to give Srimad-bhagavatm class on padayatra and I love being on that program.”
PADAYATRA LEADING RATHA-YATRA
March 19th was the day of Jagannatha Ratha Yatra in Bangalore, organized by the Sri Sri Gandharvika Giridhari temple. As Varadakrishna Dasa, the temple president, knew that the Padayatra party was around, he heartily invited us to join the procession and we happily accepted his invitation. The padayatris were honored to lead the procession with Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara, followed by the ratha of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra.
The combination of Ratha Yatra and Padayatra was great. Our enthusiastic padayatris performed wonderful harinama sankirtana and became the talk of the town. Our oxen were a great attraction for the general public. Many people would come for their darsana and be amazed to see their huge bodies with long horns. Varadrajawas so fascinated with one of our oxen named Narasinga that he wanted to keep it in Bangalore to serve him. We respected his love and emotions but, of course, that was not possible. Everywhere devotees would arrange shade and grass for the oxen with love and care. Everyone appreciated their seva on padayatra.
Shyamasundara Dasa, a Prabhupada’s disciple, was the chief guest, and spoke about the glories of Ratha Yatra. Giridhari Shyama also addressed the gathering. Being so touched by padayatra, he decided to join the party till Karnataka. Being a local devotee knowing the place and local language, his help will be so much valuable. He will be doing advance party seva by informing the leaders of the various nama-hattas before our arrival, by arranging our accommodation and prasadam. We would like to thank Rasabihari Dasa and Gopinatha Dasa who helped a lot by performing different sevas.
CONCLUDING WORDS
In Bangalore, we had an excellent time. Almost daily we had house programs and Ratha Yatras with good support from the congregation devotees who collected donations for padayatra. Anadi Jagannatha Dasa sponsored a projector for us, saying “It would be great if wherever you go you could show people videos of Padayatra, Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON. Let people know about ISKCON!.”
