By Radhakunda dasa
On September 17 the ISKCON Noida devotees embarked on the third 150km Radhastami Padayatra from Noida, Indraprastha, to Sri Vrindavana, scheduled to conclude at the holy dham on October 1.
In 2016, ISKCON’s golden jubilee, the Noida temple planned up to fifty activities to celebrate the occasion, one of which was to engage in a commemorative padayatra. At that time, we considered doing padayatra only once, but the devotees had such a wonderful preaching experience during the walk that our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, encouraged us to make it an annual event.
It was in Delhi on Radhastami in 1976 that Srila Prabhupada gave instructions to Lokanath Maharaja to begin organising padayatras. “Prabhupada asked me to start padayatra,” Maharaja said, “and since that day I always had the desire that padayatras should happen all over the world.”
For thousands of years people in India have done padayatras to visit holy places and to spread spiritual understanding. Like many great spiritual teachers before Him, Lord Caitanya also went on padayatra, walking for almost six years throughout India to spread the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and establish the superiority of Krishna-bhakti. Lord Caitanya wanted His holy name to spread everywhere, so taking His desire as our command and inspired by Lokanath Maharaja, we enthusiastically arranged this year’s walk.
At 4pm on September 17, Radhastami day, and as part of the World Holy Name Week, Lokanath Maharaja inaugurated the event with kirtana, stating, “I am giving the instruction to start padayatra from Noida to Vrindavana,” thus beckoning all souls in the vicinity to participate.
The padayatra was comprised of four vehicles, thirty full-time devotees (brahmacaris and congregation members), and two pujaris aiming to distribute 5000 books and perform a minimum of five hours of harinama daily. The books and musical instruments were kept in the harinama cart, while another cart, similar in structure to the All India Padayatra cart, carried the Gaura-Nitai deities. Behind that came the advance-party vehicle. At the back of the procession was a truck carrying the luggage.
By 9pm the padaytaris arrived at their first destination, a devotee farmhouse, CRPF camp, Noida, where the party happily settled down for the night having distributed 450 books, collected Rs 15,000, and completed five hours of harinama sankirtana.
On the morning of September 18, as per Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, we began our programme at 4.30am with darsana of Guara-Nitai, which all thirty padayatris attended. Lokanath Maharaja joined us as we chanted our rounds, and the book distribution score was announced during mangala-arati.
About 7am we set off for that day’s destination, Greater Noida. On the way we stopped for breakfast prasadam at V. P. Agarwal’s biscuit factory. Mr Agarwal, a renowned entrepreneur in the biscuit and juice manufacturing industry, donated the Noida property on which the Radha-Govind Deva temple is located, along with ISKCON’s Govinda Dham and Bhaktivedanta Academy, and through the years he has continued to support our yatra, including serving us breakfast on all three Radhastami padayatras.
Mr Agarwal and his wife and eldest son warmly welcomed us, and having garlanded Srila Prabhupada, Gaura-Nitai, and the devotees, they then performed arati of Their Lordships. As a gesture of our appreciation, we gave the family Gaura-Nitai’s maha garland and held a short kirtana. The devotees then gifted Mr Agarwal maha prasadam, whereupon he took us to his dining room and served us sumptuous prasadam, and for the third consecutive year donated Rs one lakh (Rs 100,000) to padayatra. He also donated a few boxes of biscuits to distribute to the village children on our walk.
We then proceeded to Greater Noida doing kirtana and distributing books. About 1.30pm we reached our destination, the Greater Noida centre, where Rasaraja Krishna dasa, the centre leader, held a grand welcome for us. There are ten devotees and several young bhaktas staying at the centre, where they worship beautiful 2ft tall Gaura-Nitai deities. Our accommodation was arranged in separate rooms, where we took rest until about 4pm when we left to give a brief lecture and take prasadam at the home of one of our congregational devotees. At 7pm we went out for harinama sankirtana in the busiest area of Greater Noida, distributing books and prasadam, returning to the centre by 9.30pm having distributed 300 books and collected Rs 8000 in donations.
At 6am on September 19, after mangala-arati and the morning programme, we left Greater Noida heading for Azampur Garhi. In keeping with our World Holy Name Week theme, we began the day’s 15km trek with the Vaishnava bhajan “Udilo Aruna” rather than playing one of Srila Prabhupada’s tapes, thus keeping the focus of the padayatra on sankirtana. About 8am we stopped at the house of Mahamuni dasa, one of the oldest Noida devotees who joined ISKCON in 1997. His family and the local congregational development group, Bhakti-vriksha, welcomed us, performed arati of Gaura-Nitai, and offered garlands to all the padayatris.
Continuing our walk, we stopped at a school for breakfast under a tree around 10am, as per the arrangement of our advance party, and distributed prasadam to the teachers and students. We then presented a small preaching programme and the children chanted and danced with us and bought some books.
Marching on we reached our overnight destination, a school in Azampur Garhi, at 1.30pm. After the principal had welcomed us, we took a well-earned rest before going on harinama in the early evening and then for prasadam at the house of our god-brother, Dayal Nitai dasa. Later that evening we went on harinama again, this time in the Azampur Garhi village square, where many of the residents joined in dancing with us.
On the fourth day of padayatra, September 20, and for the remaining 10 days of our walk, we opted to take in the rural aspect of the Vraja environment. Just as Caitanya Mahaprabhu had left the main path and went through villages performing sankirtana, we left the main road, the Yamuna Highway, and selected a route through the countryside. Sometimes there were no people, but as we have heard that even animals dance on hearing the holy name, we continued sankirtana thinking that at least the tress and birds would hear.
Every day we were doing sankirtana for more than seven hours. The devotees were enjoying virtually non-stop kirtana and were enlivened by senior devotees like Radha-Raman Maharaja and Vrindavana Chandra prabhu visiting our yatra and encouraging us. Every evening we spoke of topics like Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s visit to Vrindavana, the glories of harinama and padayatra, and sharing realizations of the All India Padayatra. Our schedule now took us from Azampur Garhi through the various villages and hamlets as we increasingly engaged with the mood of entering Vrindavana.
After being on the road for fourteen days, the padayatris arrived at ISKCON Vrindavana on the morning of September 30 and were treated to the perfect ending to their walk. Our arrival had been announced during the Krishna-Balarama mangala-arati, and when we entered the temple we saw hundreds of devotees waiting for us, along with the beautiful rangoli they had drawn for the pleasure of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai.
We then had a grand welcome at the Samadhi gate of the temple. Pancagauda dasa, the Vrindavana temple president, personally welcomed the padayatra, did the arati for our deities, and gave an inspiring talk. The padayatris were also humbled to see so many of our god-brothers and god-sisters in attendance to greet us.
On October 1, padayatra’s fifteenth and final day, we did a parikrama of Vrindavana dham.
Having completed ISKCON Noida’s third Radhastami padayatra, many devotees were happy to share their realizations with me.
Vamshidhari dasa, co-president of ISKCON Noida: Srila Prabhupada wanted many padayatras to be started. Accordingly, he instructed Lokanatha Maharaja, our spiritual master and Padayatra Minister, to fulfil his desire. We are making a small attempt to fulfil the desire of our spiritual master.
Bajarangi dasa: The bliss of padayatra is amazing. Prasadam on padayatra was very special. Every day we honour prasadam in the temple, but it was a wonderful experience on padayatra. Walking on the roads and then finding a place under the trees and honouring prasadam gave all of us great joy. Padayatra is the engagement for all the senses. No chance of the mind running away anywhere, it’s always focused on the holy names.
The PDC boys also shared their realizations.
Ratulhari dasa: This was my first padayatra and I had no idea what a padayatra is. It’s a very natural life full of bliss. “Simple living and high thinking.”
Rohinidulal dasa: In the Vedic days brahmacaris used to stay at gurukulas. I used to ponder how those days would be! But in padayatra I experienced and realized the simple life of a brahmacari, depending totally on the Lord, sleeping under the trees, staying in ashram. I realized the life of a sadhu is perfect on padayatra. If he follows this lifestyle, he will never face any problem. While walking we met many villagers who were amazed to see young boys in dhoti and kurta chanting the holy names.
Bhakta Sachin: I was in the kirtana team. Many villagers and children joined us in sankirtana and danced with us. I could see the prophecy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu coming true through padayatra.
Shivananda dasa: I was in the All India Padayatra and used to go to schools for preaching. In this padayatra also I went to schools and showed books to children and teachers. They bought books from me and chanted the holy names.
Bhakta Dipak: This is my first padayatra and I feel it should never end. I was in the book distribution team. Prabhupada’s books are filled with magic. If a person sees the book and takes it in his hand, he will buy the book. I had wonderful experiences distributing books.
Arjuna Krishna dasa: I was in the All India Padayatra for two years. In this padayatra I was in the book distribution team. People on the way were happy to see the books and many bought them from me. It was a blissful experience.
Mahesh Sharma, school principal at Navipur: We were blessed to have the Noida padayatra in our school. All of them had prasadam with us in our playground. We were glad to serve them. School children had darsana of the Lord and danced with them. I wish they would visit us every year and give us a chance to serve them and make us instrumental in the service of the Lord.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the devotees on the Radhastami Padayatra for their assistance in making the walk a success in book distribution and bringing the holy names to the public. It certainly exceeded our expectations regarding book distribution: our target was 5000 books, but by the mercy of Guru and Gauranga we were able to distribute 5200 books. We also distributed 10,000 pamphlets, on one side of which was printed the glories of the holy name, and on the other side the preaching programmes and daily schedule of the Noida temple along with the glories of padayatra.
Such a successful outcome would not have been possible without the input of those whom I’m happy to acknowledge: Bajarangi dasa, who was in the All India Padayatra for about twelve years, did the advance party and kitchen department service along with his team; Kalpavruksha dasa took charge of the eight Personality Development Course (PDC) devotees and did non-stop book distribution; Chakrapani Caitanya dasa, an excellent singer, did sankirtana service; Uttam Narahari dasa, an All India padayatri, was also a part of the sankirtana party; Rajkishore dasa served as head pujari. He never left the ratha, was punctual, and was always near Their Lordships and dressed Them beautifully. He also distributed prasadam to all who came forward for darsana as we were walking; Suddhabhakta dasa was the BBT devotee in charge of book distribution. He kept a record of all books distributed and did the morning announcements of the book scores for the pleasure of Sri Sri Nitai-Gauranga; and Bhaktipran dasa drove and took care of the ratha and the oxen (as they were from his village) and distributed books.
As for the PDC devotees: Arjuna Krishna dasa did book distribution; Shiva dasa assisted the pujari in his services; Rajudhari dasa was full-time kirtaniya and played mridanga daily for four to five hours; Rohinidulal dasa performed kirtana service and assisted the pujari; Bhakta Sachin was in the sankirtana party and was the cameraman who daily uploaded photos to the media; Keshava dasa drove the sankirtana ratha that carried our sankirtana instruments, books and pamphlets, and also charged the batteries daily and kept the ratha clean; Bhakta Mahesh did full-time book distribution; and Satyavrata dasa did mangala-arati and evening class arrangements, supplied water to the padayatris, and distributed books.
We also had three congregational devotees walking full-time with us: Indranilamani dasa from Vrindavana who distributed chocolates and biscuits to children along the way; Mehtaji, an elderly devotee who has walked with us on all three padayatras and is one of the top book distributors; and Bhakta Kuldeep who distributed pamphlets and halwah prasadam to villagers after the evening programme.
In addition, I would like to thank Vamshidhari dasa, Krishna Bhakta dasa and Vedanta Caitanya dasa for constantly inspiring and encouraging us. Without their help it would have been impossible to carry on this padayatra. Guru and Gauranga’s mercy kept us high and blessed us so that we could fulfil our mission.
I have been honoured and blessed to serve as padayatra commander of such a dedicated team. All glories to Guru and Gauranga.
