By Acarya dasa, All India Padayatra leader
We padayatris reached Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh in mid-February shortly before the annual Maha Shivratri festival. ISKCON’s Radha-Madanmohan temple devotees welcomed us with sankirtan and warm hearts. They also made all arrangements for our stay and prasadam.
After we had rested, we went for nagar sankirtan with Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar then returned to the temple for darshan of Sri Sri Radha-Madanmohan, after which the head pujari gave us the Rajbhoga prasadam.
We remained in Ujjain for one day. We were all very happy. It was like the Lord was happy with padayatra’s arrival at the temple and the devotees were cooperative and happy that we were there. They would ask, “Did you have prasadam, is the accommodation fine, how can we serve you?” I was overwhelmed by their service attitude.
The next day we were leaving Ujjain for the Navadvipa-mandal Parikrama. Back in 1996 the Radha-Madanmohan temple pujari had darshan of the All India Padayatra at Mayapur and also joined us on padayatra for a few days. He now committed to offer daily Rajbhoga to Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar and Srila Prabhupada in our absence and said he would daily arrange garlands for Their Lordships. This was not all – he also sponsored a dress for Them.
In Mayapur we met Bhakti Prema Maharaja. We told him that our padayatra was in Ujjain and we had an excellent time there. I also told Maharaja that we would be celebrating Gaura-purnima at Ujjain. Maharaja was pleased to hear that and said, “Yes, I have seen photos and also devotees told me about padayatra.” After parikrama we returned to Ujjain and Maharaja joined us there for the festival.
On Gaura-purnima evening we all went for maha sankirtan, joined by Bhakti Prema Maharaja, many temple devotees, brahmacaris and congregation devotees. It was a grand procession. Maharaja led the kirtan and everyone danced to their hearts’ content. It was a feast for our eyes to see Maharaja dancing. We then returned for the festivities at the temple and following bhajans glorifying Gauranga there was abhisheka, katha, kirtan and maha prasadam.
The next day was Jagannath Mishra and there was katha by Srila Prabhupada disciple Mahaman dasa, after which at Maharaja’s invitation the padayatris travelled to Indore, 55km south of Ujjain, where we performed kirtan at a programme he presented. I encouraged the assembled congregation there to chant the holy name. Maharaja is always very enthusiastic. He is planning to start padayatra in the region and he sent some ISKCON Ujjain temple devotees with us so they could learn how padayatra services are done.
Maharaja also invited us to join him for Narsimha Caturdasi and told the temple devotees to escort padayatra around Ujjain’s nearby villages. One day I was told to have a class on my realizations of padayatra and the assembled devotees were very inspired by the talk. The padayatra life is filled with austerities, but to quote our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, “in padayatra or parikrama there is no comfort but happiness is there.”
In Ujjain we performed sankirtan daily for two hours for almost a week. Bhakti Prema Maharaja was very impressed. At the community hall at Ujjain there were deities of Sri Sri Madan-Gopalji. Devotees would stay there and one family with two daughters would always support the temple and come to eat halva in the temple.
One day as we were going for sankirtan we came across that family’s house. The girls were now grown up and to our surprise, it was the marriage day of one of them. We had no idea about the occasion, we were just out on sankirtan. We stopped the kirtan and Maharaja talked to the girls.
I realized it was all the mercy and plan of our beloved Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. The family’s girls had served Madanmohanji since childhood. No-one knew but the Lord cannot forget a little service rendered to Him. The Lord came to their house personally to give blessings.
This was a special pastime of the Lord.
Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, ki jai.
