By Rasutsava dasa
The Uttar Pradesh Padayatra, which started on the auspicious occasion of Radhastami, is currently walking in the districts around the city of Kanpur. To celebrate our padayatra’s first World Holy Name Week we went to different parts of Kanpur every day. As we entered a new area performing sankirtan, people would gather and come near for darshan of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar.
Through the week we performed sankirtan for four to five hours each day while the book distributors busily encouraged onlookers to make a purchase. We displayed Srila Prabhupada’s books on the ratha so people would see them, give a donation and take one home. The response was generally very good, the young and the elderly alike keen to take books.
Our technique to reach as many places as possible was to centre ourselves in a location and cover three nearby villages in a day lasting from 4am to 10pm, and by the mercy of Guru and Gauranga as a result we visited about thirty villages in eight days.
After Gaura arati in each village we would then hold a small class on Harinama Mahatmya, which inspired people to chant the holy name on the beads we had given them. Every day we distributed halwa prasadam to the villagers, who would then join the padayatra chanting and dancing to the next village.
The UP Padayatra book distribution score for the World Holy Name Week was Bhagavad-gita 100 and small books 150.
