By Acarya Dasa
Our padayatra party reached Ayyampettai, a panchayat town on September 17th. This town is located in the Thanjavur district, in the state of Tamil Nadu and is approximately 18 kilometers from the main city of Thanjavur. Here we met Caitanya Vigraha Dasa, our godbrother. Once when we were both in Pandapur Caitanya Vigraha Dasa had expressed his desire to Lokanath Swami to organize a ratha yatra or chariot festival in Ayyampettai. Later Lokanath Swami introduced me to Caitanya Vigraha Dasa. Maharaj advised that when the ‘All India Padayatra’ reaches Ayyampettai, we should arrange a ratha yatra and padayatra in the town, both at the same time. We kept the desire of our Guru in our hearts and always remained in contact with each other. It was from then on that Caitanya Vigraha Dasa carefully tracked the padayatra travel progress in India, awaiting our arrival in his town with much eagerness.
When we arrived in Ayyampettai, Caitanya Vigraha Dasa together with the entire congregation happily received Their Lordships. A group of namahatta devotees soon arranged a big ratha for the Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra Maiya deities. Smithkrishna Dasa, the president of the namahatta expertly engaged everyone in service for the event. There were many wonderful arrangements made and banners were put up all over the city. The devotees were very excited about the combined ratha yatra and padayatra program since this was the first event of its kind in their city.
The day of the ratha-pada yatra began with a grand procession –the sankirtana devotees headed up the front followed by the ratha of Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra and Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar following from behind. We continued with sankirtana for three hours while Their Lordships gave Their darsana to the residents of Ayyampettai. It was as if Mayapur and Jagannath Puri had manifested here at the same time. The whole atmosphere was surcharged with the holy names by the mercy of our Gurudev, Lokanath Swami. Caitanya Vigraha Dasa said that this was all made possible because of Maharaj’s desire to combine ratha yatra and padayatra –we just followed his instructions. This reminded me of a verse from Sri Guru Vandana:
guru-muka-padma-vakya, cittete koriya aikya
Which translates as: ‘Attachment to his (spiritual master) lotus feet, is the perfection that fulfills all desires’. After the procession, we distributed prasadam to about four to five hundred people.
After this rapturous occasion, another godbrother from Kerala, who also attended the program told me how inspired he was by the event. He informed me that he wanted to organize a similar program in his city and asked me when padayatra was scheduled to travel to Kerala. I advised him that we would be there soon. This is how Nitai Gaursundar inspires each and every one of us to preach and fulfill their desire.
All glories to Lokanath Swami who motivates us and gives us the strength to continue with this incredible program.
Jai Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar ki! Jai!
