By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
The Maharashtra Padayatra was in Beed in the first week of February 2022. We had a grand reception there and the congregation devotees welcomed us to the house programmes we had in various areas of the city. ISKCON’s Sri Sri Radha-Govind temple president, Vithalananda dasa, made all the necessary arrangements for our accommodation and prasadam. We had been thinking of moving ahead but he insisted we stay and celebrate Nityananda Trayodasi at the temple.
We remained in Beed for a few more days and kept doing our evening sankirtan and house programmes until the festival on February 14, when we attended mangal arati and fasted till noon. Sankirtan was going on in the temple throughout the morning and we also sang Vaishnava bhajans. At noon the padayatris were invited to perform abhisheka of the temple deities along with our utsava deities of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. More than fifty-six bhogas were offered to Their Lordships and then all of Them were beautifully dressed in new outfits. We also got a new asana for the deities sponsored by our god-brother Yadav dasa, a congregation preacher at ISKCON Yavatmal and a well-wisher of padayatra who is always organizing one-day walks. Maha arati and maha sankirtan went on and on with all the congregation devotees dancing to their hearts’ content. Then there was katha glorifying Nityananda Prabhu followed by prasadam.
