| By Caitanya Jivan Dasa and Vitthala Dasa
The devotees of Malegaon nama-hatta center, under the guidance of Caitanya Jivan prabhu, Vitthala Prabhu and Vraja Prem Prabhu organized a first ever one day padayatra on February 11, 2018. Malegaon is village located in Muktainagar Taluka in the Jalgaon District. Devotees got their inspiration from the one day padayatra organized the previous December by nearby ISKCON Jalgaon. Ram Govinda Maharaja, who participated in that walk, urged us to do the same in Malegaon.
The Goal of Padayatra The main goal of our padayatra was to make people aware of the importance of harinama and inspire them to take it up (Kali yuga kewalnamaaadhara). It was also to fulfill our Guru Maharaja’s desire to follow in the footsteps of the All India Padayatra by having walks in every village in India. And we wanted to distribute lots of books.
Preparations Preparations started 15 days in advance under the guidance of the Jalgaon devotees. Sri Sri Gaura Nitai of Nasik BACE had taken their seats on the cart, ready to travel, with their cart drivers eager to serve Them. The devotees had decorated the cart and oxen with beautiful flowers and leaves.
Padayatra Day About 270 devotees from nearby villages (Bodwad, Nimkhedi, Muktai Nagar, Jalgaon, Malegaon, Medhoda and Faizpur) assembled a the main square of Malegaon village where we had a small inaugural arati ceremony for Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, seeking their blessings for our first venture on the road. From there we walked towards Nimkhedi Jagannath Kutir. What made this padayatra special was that not only men and women were enthusiastically participating, but also many young children, jumping and dancing all the way, encouraging the adults. Onlookers were surprised to see children so happily chanting and walking; they would fold hands and pay obeisances to Their Lordships and the vaisnavas. The devotees of Nimkhedi welcomed us when we reached their village; they appreciated that we were walking on the day of Vijaya Ekadasi for the pleasure of Guru and Gauranga. After honoring some fruit prasadam and resting for some time we moved towards our destination, covering a total of about 17 kms. As we reached the Old Muktai Nagar temple at Prabhupada Niwas,Vraja Prema prabhu spoke about the glories of padayatra and how it had brought all of us together. Dhanvantari prabhu had sponsored the delicious feast that ended that blissful day, during which we distributed about 200 books.
Realizations At the end of the day the varkaris (devotees of Lord Vitthala) shared their realizations: – We felt like we were in the Dindi (the Padayatra of Lord Vitthala’s devotees). – The deities of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai were very beautiful and this padayatra helped us remember our dear Lord Vitthala of Pandharpur. – Padayatra filled us with enthusiasm and love for the holy names. |
Acknowledgements
This padayatra was not a one man show but a joint venture of the devotees from Malegaon and Nimkhedi. It would have been impossible without the help and support of the following devotees:
Cart driving –Suryavanshi Ram prabhu, Vitthal prabhu
Kirtan singing – Aniket prabhu, Sagar prabhu, Chetan prabhu
Prasadam – Pundarikash prabhu, Umesh prabhu
Water seva – Ganesh prabhu, Malegaon devotees
Book distribution –Vitthal prabhu, Baliram prabhu and others.
Concluding words
The pleasure we derived during this padayatra was truly out of this world, and we realized why Guru Maharaja insists so much for us to organize more padayatras. We are eager to arrange many such padayatras in the near future.
