By Jayabhadra devi dasi, IGF preacher at ISKCON Amravati
Padayatra is the best way to preach. It includes book and prasadam distribution and it also increases the enthusiasm of those who participate.
By the mercy of our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, I am always meditating on how we can organize a padayatra in any village. One day in Amravati’s Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarkadhish temple Meghashyam dasa and I met Bhakta Ramjivan from Malegaon village. I asked him, “Can we come to your village and have a padayatra?” He immediately agreed. He had an intense desire that devotees should visit his village and have sankirtan. We stayed in touch with him and eventually he called us and we agreed on 16th December as the day for padayatra.
I informed our temple authorities of the arrangement and Ranchod Krishna dasa and Ramavatar dasa joined us, along with congregation devotees Ramkrishna and Seva-premi mataji (a nurse by profession). On padayatra day we travelled to Malegaon, a remote village 20km from Amravati. The road was in a very bad state and there was not a single person along the way to guide us. Google Maps did not have the village either and we became lost. Remembering how much pain Srila Prabhupada took for all of us we kept going until at last we saw a man who directed us.
When we arrived Ramjivan escorted us to a quiet part of the village called Tanda. All the roads were washed and decorated with rangolis. Then I learned that Ramjivan went around the whole village telling everyone that devotees were coming from Amravati for padayatra. As we reached his house the people assembled there welcomed us. Immediately Ranchod started sankirtan and we all followed him. As they heard the sankirtan matajis came from every house with a wooden board and water to wash the padayatris’ feet. We all appreciated that every lady also welcomed us with an arati plate.
Side by side Ramkrishna and Seva-premi distributed nineteen Bhagavad-gitas, a surprising amount for such a small place. Villagers are very simple. As they saw some saints coming to their house, with all faith they would take a Bhagavad-gita as a saint was insisting. They were pleased that devotees had come to their village and some of them invited us for sankirtan at their house. We halted for some time at the house of Mr Rahul Adasad and had sankirtan there. After padayatra drona prasadam was distributed to the villagers, including the children who had enthusiastically joined padayatra and helped us by holding the padayatra banner and flags – and none complained.
Ramjivan’s wife Laxmi is a devotee as her parents are initiated disciples of Lokanath Maharaja. After marriage, due to Laxmi’s association Ramjivan also became a devotee. They have three daughters. We encouraged Laxmi to take Bhakta Prahlad School classes for children in the village and we honoured Ramjivan for his efforts in organizing padayatra. His entire family was very happy to have devotees in Malegaon.
All by the mercy of our spiritual master, our source of inspiration.
