A two part padayatra in two different regions
This year’s summer Padayatra set off at the village of Kuteževo near Ilirska Bistrica and concluded in the town of Velenje, 170 km away, in the north- east part of the country. The distinguishing feature of the 2014 Ecocaravan was its division into two parts in different regions. The first part took place in the south near the Croatian border, walking towards the town of Postojna. The second part kicked off at the village of Gornji Grad in the region of Celje. Many devotees and padayatra supporters participated. During the week, the number of participants totalled between 35 and 40, and on weekends it rose to 50 or more. We could count 8 matajis during the week and more than 15 on weekends. On the average there were around 3 children; among them young Narayan and 6-year-old Kalindi were undoubtedly among the most active. There were also a few devotees in their sixties. All glories to our eldest participant, 76 year old Bhavananda Ray Prabhu!
Visit of advanced souls and dignitaries
We have always been honoured and inspired by the presence of notably advanced souls – this year again we had the great pleasure of welcoming Prahladanandana Swami and Kratu Prabhu. We were encouraged by their remarkable lectures as well as by their presence in sankirtana, where both unveiled unparalleled spiritual strength. Among the important people and dignitaries paying honourable visits to Padayatra were school principals and mayors . They very kindly offered us facilities to stay for the night, mostly in elementary schools and gym halls.
Big book distribution and prasadam scores for a small country
Padayatris distributed more than 1,900 Śrila Prabhupada’s books to Slovenian and tourists who were eager to gain spiritual knowledge. Quite an impressive number! We firmly believe and hope that by reading these books, they will get inspiration through Paramatma, and thus seek spiritual answers and solutions to their daily challenges and problems. We equally hope that they will eventually join us in our endeavours to raise people’s awareness about the importance of going beyond the animalistic mentality prevalent in our society. We also distributed around 3,500 leaflets on our Ecocaravan project and more than 15,000 delicious coconut biscuits. As we know prasadam, a gift of mercy, is the indispensible and secret weapon of the devotees. It is well worth also mentioning that during this padayatra the full-size Deities of Sri Sri Nitai Gaura Nataraj were travelling with us. Lalita Govinda Prabhu, our paramount event organiser and project initiator, took the most precious care of the Deities and their transport.
No adventures without dangers
In everyone of our padayatras there has always been some special situation, either comic or dangerous, and the 2014 Ecocaravan was no exception. Just before arriving in Postojna we experienced a good rush of adrenaline. As our procession could not walk on the narrow road which was dangerous due to heavy traffic, we had to use the grassy border of a landing field, with the permission of airport authorities, of course. The situation was rather exciting, but we feared that somebody might get hurt as we saw a plane arriving on the horizon. Everything ended well though and the plane started its landing just after we reached the opposite side. One more evidence that Krishna protects His devotees, no matter what the situation.
