By Dhirnayak dasa, Utkal-Banga Padayatra leader
The Utkal-Banga padayatris celebrated Narasimha Caturdasi on May 4, 2023, at Kendpali village, 16km from the town of Bargarh in northwest Odisha. Kendpali is a very special village for us because it gave us a wonderful devotee, our dear most-senior Godbrother and ex-All India Padayatra leader, Rupa Goswami dasa.
We invited all ISKCON devotees from nearby places and also called many big personalities for the celebration. The day started with mangal arati, joined by Rupa Goswami. He was very happy to have padayatra in his village and made all arrangements for us.
The festival was well-attended, the padayatris having prepared prasadam for around 1500 people. The programme began with bhajan and kirtan. We didn’t have the deity of Lord Narasimha so we performed an abhishek of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, the heroes of our padayatra. Whatever the festival, we perform Their abhishek. Several dignitaries were called to join the abhishek and this was followed by a lecture from Rupa Goswami on the glories of Lord Narasimha.
The finale was a maha arati of Their Lordships and a grand kirtan. Then it was time for feasting. Maha prasad was distributed to all the assembled devotees. In this way, with a great devotional spirit, Narasimha Caturdasi was celebrated.
Every day for padayatra is a new day, filled with adventures with full dependence on the Lord. We prayed to Lord Narasimha Dev to remove all obstacles from our path of devotion, so that we could serve with all our strength to bring a smile on the face of our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, our only shelter.
Hare Krsna!
