By Acarya Dasa
On May 27th our pādayātrā party reached Cochin, also known as Kochi located in the state of Kerala. This place is very important to all devotees because of its connection to Srila Prabhupada’s journey to the west. In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, Srila Prabhupada boarded a cargo ship sailing to the United States of America in order to fulfill the mission of his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. The mission was to establish Krishna Consciousness in the western world.
Srila Prabhupada’s stop in Cochin
On Friday, August 13th 1965 the cargo ship Srila Prabhupada was travelling on the, ‘Jaladuta’ set sail from Calcutta. The next day it reached the Cochin coast where Srila Prabhuada’s volumes of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam had arrived from Bombay. The books where loaded onto the ship before leaving for America. In memory of this day ISKCON Kerala celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s Cochin visit (1965 to 2015) on October 10th, 2015. The event marked the historic voyage of Srila Prabhupada from Kochi to America on August 23rd, 1965 aboard the Jaladuta, on which he was the only passenger.
Lokanath Maharaj attended the program along with the Honorable State Minister for Excise & Ports, Sri K Babu, who released an eighteen volume Malayalam version of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to the people of Kerala on that auspicious day. These are the very same books we are now distributing all over the Kerala region.
Remembering Srila Prabhupada’s sacrifices
While here, we all took darśana of a Memorial Plaque installed by ISKCON Kerala in memory of Srila Prabhupada. All the padayatris decided that we would board a boat and do saṅkīrtana in memory of Srila Prabhupada’s voyage on the Jaladuta. We were joined by Rupa Raghunatha Maharaj who spoke on the glorious journey of Srila Prabhupada. The cruise we took on the very waters that Srila Prabhupada sailed on, reminded us of the sacrifices he made to bring Krishna Consciousness to the world of humanity. Srila Prabhupada experienced many struggles to deliver Krishna Consciousness to us, otherwise we would be suffering here in this material world.
Thank you Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
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