By Jayabhadra devi dasi, IGF preacher ISKCON Amravati
The Amravati ISKCON Girls’ Forum recently held a three-day children’s summer camp in the temple, as per the instruction of temple president Anantasesa dasa. We organize such camps every year and then follow the kids in Bhakta Prahlad School (BPS) classes. However, as this year is the 70th Vyasa-puja of our spiritual master, Lokanath Swami Maharaja, our team thought of offering something very dear to his heart: a dedicated padayatra. So as a part of the camp we organized a mini-padayatra by young Vaishnavas to be held on April 28. It was a pleasant surprise for everyone and all our devotees were glad to hear about it.
Our objectives were to sow the seeds of padayatra in little hearts and to inspire their elders to start padayatra. Our team got busy with the arrangements almost three weeks earlier. We began by printing a banner with photos of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, for the All-India Padayatra is the mother of all padayatras and our children’s padayatra would be her grandchild. We then established a Vaishnava dress code: girls in gopi dresses and boys in dhotis.
Padayatra means we needed posters, so at the start of the camp we had a “Padayatra Preparation” session where the kids made posters and handouts announcing the event. The coming ashadi ekadashi would be special for all of us, so we decided to try to give padayatra the appearance of being a dindi, seeking kartals for all the kids but at first without much success. I was sad to think how ineffective a padayatra without kartals would be, so Bhakta Subham Kapile, a staunch supporter of padayatra, searched every nook and cranny of Amravati and eventually found enough kartals for us.
On day one of the camp we did a rehearsal of padayatra and on day two we had kartal classes for the kids so they would be able to play them while walking. Initially we were thinking of carrying a large photo of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, but padayatra without deities would not have been as powerful, so IGF member Vaishnavi dasi suggested we take her little fibre Gaura-Nitai deities from Mayapur. We now had to think about Their stand, but searching through my house I found a box which was perfect. Vaishnavi decorated the box and put a small plastic umbrella on it. It was a wonderful coincident Vaishnavi had named her deities as Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar so once again we had Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar with us on padayatra, just as They were on our recent Vaishnavi padayatra.
On padayatra day all the kids assembled in front of the temple with the deities and Srila Prabhupada and two boys holding the banner. It was a wonderful scene, reminding us of Vraja Mandala Parikrama. Haripran dasa performed arati of Their Lordships, and by the Lord’s arrangement we had Shatiparayan dasa, an All-India padayatri, in the temple, so I requested him to show the flag and inaugurate our padayatra. He also joined us and held the flags till the end.
One by one the children sang the Hare Krishna maha mantra and played their kartals. We then walked for about 2km and everyone was amazed to see these little Vaishnavas on padayatra and with folded hands as they had darshan of Their Lordships. I did the advance party escorting the group. There was a big Hanuman temple on the way which we had not planned to visit, but I thought the kids could relax a little there and drink some water. We entered the temple, offered our obeisances to Hanumanji and in a loud voice said “Jai Sri Ram” to please him. As we performed sankirtan there it was like Hanumanji was happy with our padayatra, as a Ram bhakta meeting Krishna bhaktas.
Bhakta Vilas Wankhade distributed sweets for the children, which they were all very glad to receive, and we then headed towards Vaidarbhi mataji’s house where the children had darshan of Sri Sri Radha-Kunjabhihari and we all honoured breakfast prasadam. All glories to the family, for they are always ready to serve devotees and were pleased to have the balgopals at their house. When the All-India padayatris go for a home programme, they keep Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar on the heads of the family members as blessings of Their Lordships, and we were happy to comply with that example as we kept the deities on the heads of the family’s children.
After prasadam we walked towards our temple where Anantasesa was waiting to congratulate us. He was glad to see the children walking and singing and he inspired us by saying that ISKCON Amravati had pioneered the first Vaishnavi padayatra, and now the first little Vaishnava padayatra. Then Dr Manoj gave all the kids a check-up, just to rule out any potential health problems. They were perfectly fine, happily saying that they had never done anything like padayatra. A few of them also asked if they could have such walks on Sundays. All of them wrote about padayatra on the feedback poster, with comments such as “I liked the padayatra,” “I was happy walking,” and “Padayatra is good.”
The realizations of other devotees included Shantiparayan dasa: Walking in this little padayatra reminded me of All-India Padayatra and Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar; Anantasesa dasa: It reminded me of warkari dindi as I saw the kartals hanging on the necks of all the children; and Dayalgauranga dasa: It was very good to see the kids happy walking and it is a very nice samskara. The IGF girls thought that due to its valuable preaching potential, we should arrange a padayatra such as this every month.
A children’s padayatra is cost effective: we invested just Rs 180 – Rs 160 for the banner and Rs 20 for the adhesive tape, with everything else found at home. The kartals came as a gift for the summer camp. Anybody can organize such a padayatra.
This was a small attempt to please to our spiritual master Lokanath Maharaja and Srila Prabhupada.
