By Manoj Barai
The All-India Padayatra celebrated Gaura-purnima at the end of its month-long stay at Maharashtra’s Kaundanyapur dhama. At that time the padayatris were so close to my hometown of Amravati that I felt a tremendous urge just be with them. With my wife and son, Nimai, I followed them to every village they visited after Kaundanyapur, until on the morning of March 27 the party finally entered our city.
On hand to greet the AIP with a grand sankirtan were our temple president, Anantasesa dasa, and a large contingent of temple devotees. As padayatra approached the outskirts of Amravati onlookers were astonished to see the majestic oxen walking royally along the road, and many of them followed the padayatris to their pre-arranged accommodation at the Dr Narendra Bhivapurkar Blind School in Shivneri Colony.
A POLICEMAN HELPS US
Following rest and prasadam, that evening the padayatis went on sankirtan in the surrounding area and did Gaura arati in a square. During arati, with the rath parked near a major intersection, a man came along and said, “Move ahead. Traffic is being hampered.” While I was watching, a traffic policeman went up to him and held his hand, saying softly, “In our country everyone has a right to practise his or her religious activities. Why are you worried?” Hari bol! From then on, the kirtan was more powerful and without hindrance.
SCHOOLCHIDREN WERE BLESSED
The next morning as we were singing mangal arati in the school hall some children were at the windows. While we were chanting after arati we heard one of the kids saying, “You know, they all got up at 4am and were singing. I wish we could have joined them, but the gate was locked.” I was so glad to see their curiosity. Later Sharada Mataji held a chanting session for the youngsters, after which the padayatris performed sankirtan and made all of them dance, which they did very joyfully. We also distributed prasadam to them. This is all Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, or how would these children ever have danced to the holy name or taken prasadam. I asked them if they knew the big oxen were in the school courtyard. I was surprised when they said they did, but then one child explained that a few of them had partial sight and told the others what was happening. I was really taken aback to learn how much they help each other.
Anantasesa had arranged that each corner of the city would have darshan of Their Lordships, so the next day the padayatris moved on to Sai nagar, where they were joined by the congregation devotees. When we reached Mr Bade’s house at Kalyan nagar he gave us a grand welcome by offering garlands to each padayatri along with the oxen. That evening Guara arati was at the Sai temple, the congregation joining our sankirtan and buying books.
SURRENDERED AND DEPENDENT ON KRISHNA
“One selfie – one book” is the formula of Russian Bhakta Alexander, who has recently joined padayatra. He says “irbandha krsna samandhe” – I should use this body in the service of Krishna. I was pleased to note his dedication and asked him how many days he would be with padayatra. When he replied “let’s see,” I asked, “Who will decide for you?” Without a second thought he said, “Krishna will decide.”
MAHA MANTRA MAKES THE SOUL DANCE
As we were performing sankirtan through the city a handicapped man walking with crutches suddenly lifted one of them and started dancing on one leg. We were all amazed and encouraged him with shouts of haribol. That’s the magic of harinama – it makes the soul dance, and after that those already dancing did so with even greater joy.
On day three the padayatris stayed near the Ambadevi temple and did sankirtan with the congregation matajis on the temple premises. Situated in the heart of Amravati, the Ambadevi temple is one of the city’s oldest and it is often said that after Lord Krishna kidnapped Rukmini He was married there.
Having stayed at the Vitthal-Rukmini temple on day four, the padayatris marched to the ISKCON temple the next morning. When they reached the temple the devotees welcomed them and Madhupati dasa performed arati. As it was a Sunday, that evening all the congregation members came for darshan and heard Ruparaghunatha Maharaja give class on the glories of padayatra. Earlier the padayataris went to a home programme and honouring of prasadam at Dwarkanath and Sachikumar dasa’s house, and Their Lordships also graced Mr Ramkrsna’s house, the home of my in-laws.
During the evening arati AIP leader Acarya dasa announced that padayatra’s rath had done the char dhama yatra, that is visited the four pilgrimage sites of Badrinath, Dwaraka, Puri, and Rameswaram. He then told the congregation, “If you join arati, you will get the benefit of char dhama yatra.” Many people then came towards the rath and participated in the arati.
With their four days of sankirtan in central Amravati now at an end, the padayatris bade us farewell and continued on their non-stop tour of India.
