By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader
Following our extended stay in Bharkawada we continued with our journey heading towards the village of Changa. On the way we passed through Vijaypur village, the residents of which had heard the news that padayatra was in the area. The village leaders welcomed the padayatris on the outskirts of Vijaypur and requested them to enter the village with the chariot. However, the roads were so narrow a chariot could not enter. The villagers insisted they wanted Their Lordships to bless Vijaypur by Their auspicious presence, so they arranged a Jeep for our utsava vigraha to sit in and we performed sankirtan through the whole village, distributing 150 Bhagavad-gitas.
We reached Changa that evening and to our surprise a huge gathering of villagers from Bharkawada, along with a large contingent from Vijaypur, more than 1000 in total, joined us in Changa for Gaura arati. Everyone was missing Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar and the padayatris so much they had followed us. It was wonderful to acknowledge that once Nitai-Gaurasundar steal your heart you can never get it back.
The next day we moved on to Sagrosana village and then to the city of Palanpur where we stayed at the house of Kishori Bhai. He welcomed us, took a Srimad-Bhagavatam set and very nicely served Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. Many people had assembled at Kishori Bhai’s for a house programme, and later at the evening programme several youths joined the sankirtan and pulled the chariot, releasing the oxen, thus offering seva for Their Lordships.
We will soon enter Rajasthan having enlightened Gujarat with the holy name. The Bharkawada devotees cannot forget padayatra and are following us wherever we go. One of them said they would follow till the Rajasthan border. Every day one group or another joins us for mangal arati or Gaura arati. They walk with us the whole day and return to their village in the evening or the next morning.
They also reported that a miracle had happened in Bharkawada. There is a pond in the village that is usually dry. Some water would collect in the rainy season but that would evaporate quickly. Previously I had said to the villagers, “As there was so much sankirtan in your village for six weeks, I am sure this year the pond will be filled.” As the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita: yajnad bhavati parjanyo – rains are produced by performance of yajna (sacrifice). Yajna, specifically the sankirtan-yajna prescribed for this age, must therefore be performed to save us at least from the scarcity of food. And so it happened. One day it rained so heavily that the locale was inundated and the village pond was overflowing.
The villagers’ faith in Their Lordships has become very strong and they are saying the Lord came to their village specially to bless them. They also said that the village children were missing sankirtan so badly they would tie an empty oil drum to their waist to play and sing the holy name loudly. I was happy to hear that the holy name has entered everyone’s heart, especially the children, the future of the village. The villagers have also invited us to Bharkawada for one more big Hare Krsna festival on July 3. This shows the impact of padayatra on their consciousness. They continually discuss padayatra and how they can have the padayatris at their village again. They have asked for photographs of Nitai-Gaurasundar and Srila Prabhupada and they are planning a big procession in their village with Their Lordships and Prabhupada on a vehicle just like a padayatra chariot. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu must be so pleased with all of them.
