By Murlimohan Dasa
On Sunday November 29th we started our trial padayatra from Samrat Nagar (located in Isanpur, 14 kms from the Ahmedabad ISKCON temple) at 8.15am, right after breakfast, to the sound of kirtana. We installed my home Deities of Nimai-Nitai on Their asana, just like we do on the Vraja Mandala Parikrama, taking them on our head, and someone carried Srila Prabhupada’s murti in their arms. They were leading all of us. In case some devotees wanted to join the party later on, the day before we had sent details of the route to all those who had confirmed they would attend the padayatra. We walked from Samrat Nagar, through Isanpur, Ghodasar, Jashoda Chokdi, CTM, Rabari Colony, Ring Road Ramji Mandir,.Odhav Circle , all the way to our Kathawada Hare Krishna farm.
All together we were more than 108 devotees, 118 including children. We did not just walk and chant along the route, we also did sankirtana and devotees distributed Bhagavad-gitas door to door.
Some devotees also took a few bulk orders. We also visited the Rama Mandir near Ring Road: the trustees there took many books and ordered Bhagavad-gitas. We thus distributed more than 400 big books.
As the devotees had to walk 17kms, some of them got tired, but there were refreshments on the way, mineral water and ice cream, and candies to give a little boost of energy. We reached our farm at 1.35pm where we had a fantastic final kirtana, followed by hertfelt prayers to Lord Narasimhadeva.
January15 to 19 : more padayatra during the « Week Walking Festival »
Join us all for our great padayatra, called the « Week Walking Festival » (WWF), that will take place from January 15 to 19, 2016. These dates have been chosen because Thursday the 14th (thursday) is uttarayan,a holiday in Gujarat, and most people are on holiday till the following Sunday. We are planning to invite Lokanath Maharaja for the 18th and 19th. We are inviting devotees to join un on padayatra for these five days
Acknowledgements :
Cooks : a group of devotees lead by Madhavmohini Dasi, Padmaradha Dasi and Harimurari Dasa
All day prasadam sponsor : Bhakta Rajesh Shah and family
Harinama leaders : Naradamuni Dasa, Antaratma Dasa and their teams
Management team : Bhaktas Rajesh, Prakash and Dilip
Book distribution party leader : Bhakta Rana Paresh and Neha Chauhan Dasi
Photography : Bhakta Krsna Dutta and Mohan Dasa
Transport Party (dropping devotees to their homes after Padayatra): many devotees
Yasomatinandan Prabhu also graced the occasion by speaking for few minutes at the end and taking prasadam with us.
