By Caitanya Jivan dasa, President ISKCON Jalgaon
With three padayatras behind us in Jalgaon, I had a strong feeling that we should organize walks more frequently. Therefore, when Khirdi devotees Tapaswi baba, of the Falak Family, and Bhakta Hemant discussed with Kanhaiya dasa and myself the possibility of taking padayatra to Khirdi, I happily agreed to their proposal.
We selected February 17 for our fourth one-day padayatra, as being a Sunday all devotees from the district could attend. Our new devotees were much inspired by the idea of travelling to Khirdi village, about 150km south of Jalgaon, to hold padayatra there, and they participated enthusiastically in bringing the event to fruition, even calling their friends and family to join the procession. This would be a wonderful occasion for them, a perfect package of sankirtan, devotee association, katha and prasadam, as well as the opportunity to walk and sing together.
OX-CART AND FLOWERS
By the Lord’s mercy we were provided with an ox-cart for our walk, thus allowing us to do padayatra in the mood our Gurudev, Lokanath Maharaja, was instructed by Srila Prabhupada: “You preach in bullock cart.” Under the guidance of Vitthala dasa, the cart and oxen were both decorated to a high standard. A major attraction was the showering of flowers on Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara by the public as the cart moved along the route, leaving the road covered in a floral display. The public enthusiasm was due to the awareness of padayatra generated by the local devotees, and the welcome the villagers gave us was much appreciated by the padayatris.
PARTICIPANTS
About 200 devotees participated in the 6km walk, including those from Jalgaon, Faizpur, Muktainagar and Mendhala. The padayatra began at 11am at the Khirdi Ram mandir and the cart conveyed Their Lordships through the entire village, the procession ending back at the Ram mandir at 3pm. After a lecture by ISKCON Pachora’s Jagannath-yatra dasa, the 2000 people assembled for the katha were then served full prasadam.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The success of padayatra was due to the organisational skills of the Khirdi devotees, whom I would like to thank along with all those who participated in the event. I also thank Maharaja, who has always been a source of inspiration for all of us.
