By Acarya dasa – AIP leader
On September 1 the All India Padayatra reached Beed, a city with a population of almost 150,000 that is the administrative headquarters of the Beed district in central Maharashtra.
The ISKCON Beed devotees were anticipating our arrival – the padayatris could hear their enthusiastic sankirtana while still 5km from the city centre – and gave us a truly grand welcome. In their eagerness to receive Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara, the local devotees adorned us with garlands on the outskirts of town, the occasion reminding us of King Uttanapada and his wives coming out of their palaces to welcome Dhruva. The two sankirtana parties then walked united into the city loudly chanting the holy names.
Having secured our accommodations in three apartments near the ISKCON temple, that evening we took darsana of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda and attended the temple programmes, where we were graced with the opportunity to hear about the Lord’s pastimes from the Noida temple co-president, Krishna-bhakta dasa, who had been in Beed for several days delivering Bhagavata-katha.
According to the local calendar the Janmastami festival was to be held the following day, and Krishna-bhakta dasa kindly invited me to perform mangala-arati of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda and give Srimad-Bhagavatam class. During the class I shared some of our padayatra adventures, which enchanted the local devotees. Later we performed harinama in the city and attended a home programme.
That evening there was a large public gathering in the pandal in front of the temple and in the temple room. The temple devotees were extremely appreciative to have the padayatris attending the festival, allotting us sankirtana-seva. Krishna-bhakta dasa’s Bhagavata-katha was followed by children’s cultural programmes and abhisheka of Their Lordships. We also celebrated Krishna-bhakta dasa’s birthday, as well as that of senior padayatri Damodar-leela dasa, who happens to be a native of Beed. The devotees then served a prasadam feast.
The next day was the Lord’s appearance day as per the Vaishnava calendar. The celebrations included harinama sankirtana by the padayatris from morning until just after noon and again at 5pm, followed by cultural programmes, abhisheka and arati at the temple. At midnight the congregation honoured Ekadasi prasadam.
With Srila Prabhupada’s appearance festivities taking place the following day, the devotees began sharing their realizations and paying tribute to Srila Prabhupada just after 9am. Krishna-bhakta dasa gave class on the glories of Srila Prabhupada, which was followed by pushpa abhisheka of Srila Prabhupada. The abhisheka was highlighted by the two Prabhupada deities, one from the temple and the other from padayatra, being showered with flowers, a wondrous spectacle for all. This was followed by maha-arati and prasadam.
Due to the torrential rain that evening, instead of going for kirtana we held a namma-hatta programme with small Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara deities at the home of local devotees.
In the morning, after prasadam we bade farewell to the Beed devotees and began the 130km walk towards Latur, where we planned to celebrate Radhastami in conjunction with the thirty-fifth birthday of Padayatra India.
