By Dayal Gopal dasa (Nepal Padayatra leader)
I had a nice experience when a group of Noida’s full-time devotees recently spent seven days with the Nepal Padayatra.
It was a precious time. Where would I get such an opportunity to be with full-time devotees for a week? By the mercy of Sri Guru and Gauranga, I got their association and liked it very much! I felt good as there was no duplicity, no reservation, we were all brahmacaris together as a team – new devotees, senior devotees and also experienced devotees.
The visiting devotees brought prasadam with them from Noida. Such prasadam I have missed a lot. It had kachori and so many other things, I don’t even know the names. I heard from other devotees about their experiences in their spiritual life. In difficult times, we could seek shelter from such devotees. There are times when it gets hard to live with nearby devotees, sometimes a little distance is required, therefore it becomes easy to go to distant devotees, to preserve our devotion and maintain good relationships with all devotees.
As everybody has various qualities, such as some having smiling faces, some being skilled in meditation, some being good at preaching, and some being full of talents, so I got an opportunity to meet different devotees. We went to many places for darshan. We met Patri dasa, ISKCON’s regional secretary for Nepal. It was a wonderful experience being with my dear Godbrothers.
I just want to say one thing: whenever devotees come together in a group to Nepal, they should join padayatra for a few days. We can do padayatra in one or two villages in the mountains. As it is a good opportunity, many new devotees could associate with us even if we do it in only one village. With preplanning, after the advance party have done their homework devotees could visit the village and give lectures. And then we can preach to them online.
Hare Krishna!
