By Sundarkrsna Dasa
Latur to Goroba Ter
The devotees of Latur, Maharasthra, organized a three-day padayatra to celebrate ISKCON’s 50th anniversary. The padayatra took place from Latur to Ter started on October 24th and ended on October 26th. Latur is a city in the Marathwada region of Maharasthra and is popular with tourists for its historical monuments. Ter is a village located in the Osmanabad district about 50 kilometers away from Latur. The village was once home to Sant Gora Kumbhar (also known as Goroba) who was associated with the Bhakti movement and the Varkari sect[1] in Maharashtra. He was a potter by trade and a devotee of Lord Vitthal. The village is presently known as Goroba Ter. Gora Kumbhar and other saints also wrote and sung hundreds of abhangs (devotional poetry sung in praise of Lord Vitthal).
Inspiration
The padayatra was inspired by Lokanath Swami after he had spoken to us about doing one in our area. He was always sharing the experiences he had when he first started padayatra after being instructed by Srila Prabhupada. He also mentioned the ‘All India Padayatra’ as an example, and of course, whenever he spoke about that padayatra he would talk about Acarya Dasa. Lokanath Swami praised Acarya Dasa for leading the ‘All India Padayatra’ and told us to get ideas from him. So, being inspired by Lokanath Swami, we gained strength from his order much like the way trees and plants derive nourishment from the all-powerful sun.
Day 1, October 24th Murud Akola
Our small team of ISKCON Latur devotees made all the preparations for the padayatra. The procession consisted of a bullock cart carrying small deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Maiya together with a photograph of Srila Prabhupada and 40 padayatris –also traveling with us was a vehicle carrying all our necessities.
We started the padayatra at the ISKCON Latur temple and walked to our first destination, Murud Akola, located 18 kilometers away. We walked, sang and danced the entire way and reached there that evening. Upon arriving we had sankirtana followed by a short lecture on the importance of harinam and taking up spiritual life. It was the month of kartikka, so we also sang the ‘Damodarastakam’ prayers with many of the local residents joining us in offering lamps to Lord Damodar, and since no program is complete without prasadam, we also distributed prasadam to everyone who attended. Finally, we made an announcement welcoming everyone to join us for mangal arati the next morning.
Day 2, 25 October Murud
We all gathered at 5.00 am for the morning program. We had mangal arati, nrishma arati, tulasi arati, sang the shiksatakam, recited the 10 offenses against chanting the holy names and paid our vaishnav pranams. We then set off at 6.00 am for Murud, about 20 kilometers away. As we neared Murud we did sankirtana and book distribution and when we arrived, that evening, we had another short lecture on ‘how the holy names can deliver us’. We even did a skit on Sant Gora Kumbhar followed by offering lamps to Lord Damodar and prasadam.
Day 3, 26th October Ter
On the last day of the padayatra after the morning program, we walked towards Ter the village of Gora Kumbhar located 17 kilometers away from Murud. It was ekadasi so once we reached Ter we took darsana of the temples there and then we had ekadashi prasadam. Afterward, we had sankirtana and ended with a short lecture on the character of Gorakumbhar..
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank all the devotees who made this padayatra possible, the pujaris, the kitchen department and most importantly those who participated in the padayatra from start to finish. All the padayatris were enthusiastic and courageous and everyone enjoyed the culture-combining experience. It was wonderful when devotees shared their realizations including how padayatra means taking full shelter of the Lord. So, this padayatra had indeed brought us closer to the Lord and to our Gurudev. Our goal for the future is to plan an ISKCON Latur Food for Life program once a month, on ekadashi, in Ter. We pray that Lokanath Swami may kindly bless and empower is to serve him, for whatever we accomplish he has inspired us and empowered us to do .
[1] Varkari refers to ‘pligrim’, it is a religious movement within the bhakti spiritual tradition and is associated with Indian states of Maharashtra and northern Karnataka.
