By Shadbhuja Gauranga dasa
On December 11, 2022, the Alibag yatra held its ninth one-day padayatra, this time walking from Kihim village, 8km north of Alibag, to our destination at Chondhi village.
Devotees assembled at Kihim’s Krishna temple where the walk was inaugurated by the auspicious hands of sarpanch Adhik Narvekar. We were also welcomed to Kihim by Sri Ganesh Navratri festival committee president Nilesh Anant Pawar, who worshipped Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar as the villagers took darshan. Padayatra began at 7:30am and harinam sankirtan was going on as it was marathon time and the devotees were in the mood of distributing Bhagavad-gitas.
We were greeted at Kamat village by Kalbhairav Bhajan mandal president Arun Lohar. Villagers then took darshan of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar and joined our padayatra. At Kamat we had breakfast prasadam and then headed for Sainagar village, where Their Lordships were worshipped by mataji Sadhana Kiran Thakur and other residents.
From Sainagar we walked towards Chondhi and were welcomed there by gram panchayat member Prasad Gaikwad and his family. As we sang and walked people along the way would join hands and greet Their Lordships and join us in sankirtan. In villages there is a culture that the villagers welcome the saints and people walking on a holy procession – so we all had a good time in padayatra, for being warmly received increased our enthusiasm.
Arrangements had been made in Chondhi for our afternoon prasadam and after sankirtan in the village we honoured prasadam and shared realizations of padayatra. The padayatris distributed 120 Bhagavad-gitas by the mercy of Sri Guru and Gauranga and walked about 12km, with 500 devotees and congregation members joining us for the occasion. The Alibag congregation was overjoyed with this most recent of our walks, which have now become a part of their lives.
Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, ki jai.
Padayatra, ki jai.
Srila Prabhupada, ki jai.
