By Giriraj Govardhana dasa
On April 28 a one-day padayatra was completed by devotees in Alibag, Maharashtra, the first to be held in this Arabian Sea resort about 100km south of Mumbai.
PREPARATIONS
Although the Alibag devotees have organized Rathayatras previously, we had never done a padayatra. Our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, instructed me to arrange a padayatra, “to let the people know what a padayatra is and feel its effects,” and having meditated on this and discussed it with our congregation the preparations were soon under way, with news of the event spreading to nearby towns. Nobody in our region has deities of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, and I was thinking how unfortunate it would be to have padayatra without Them, but after talking to senior devotees we considered that on this occasion, we would carry photos of Their Lordships and try to obtain deities to take on future walks.
PADAYATRA DAY
The padayatra route took us from our Laxmi-Narayan centre, passing the Old Market and the Ram mandir to our destination at Ramprasad dasa and Bhavatarini dasi’s house. We all assembled at the centre in Vaisnava attire and after praying to Sri Sri Laxmi-Narayan, our centre deities, padayatra began at 8:20am. It was a hot sunny day, but the devotees were happily absorbed singing and dancing in the ecstatic sankirtan with many people joining in along the way. At the end of our two-hour holy walk Bhavatarini mataji provided us with delicious prasadam to honour, after which we all shared our realizations.
REALIZATIONS
Ramprasad dasa: Today I realized what is real austerity. I wonder how the All-India padayatris walk so long in the scorching heat. All glories to them.
Vasanti mataji: I was reminded of the warkari dindi during Ashadi (the holy walk by Lord Vitthala”s devotees).
Dipali and Shweta (two sisters who are to be married on May 25): Prabhu, please organize the next padayatra before our marriage and we will participate before getting married.
Everyone was so satisfied with this padayatra that we have decided to hold another one-day walk in the third week of May, and we are hoping to have Gaura-Nitai deities and a bullock cart by then. We are doing all of this only for the pleasure of Sri Guru and Gauranga. We have only a few devotees in Alibag, but they are enthusiastic.
I would like to thank all the devotees who participated, among whom were Sadbhuja Gauranga dasa, Ramprasad dasa, Bhakta Narayan, Bhakta Rudra, Bhakta Vijay, Bhakta Narottam and Bhavatarini mataji, Bhaktin Mitali, Dipali, Parvati, Zinal, Vaishnavi, Vasanti, Varsha, Vimal, and Dalvi mataji. It was due to them that the padayatra was a success, and only by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and our spiritual master that it could be accomplished.
