Madhavi Kumari devi dasi, Bhubaneswar
My husband Sundar Govind dasa and I recently joined the Utkala-Banga Padayatra for four days. Our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, always says, “Each one should join padayatra or if can’t at least do one-day padayatra,” and when padayatra reached Jatani, our hometown and suburb of Bhubaneswar in Odisha, we welcomed the padayatris and made arrangements for their accommodation.
The best part was I did book distribution with my daughter and son, Radha and Bhakta Chaitanya. As padayatra went for nagar sankirtan we distributed books, and that was very blissful. It touched my heart and I could feel the mercy of Srila Prabhupada coming to me. I realized why everyone says book distribution is a wonderful experience, being dependent on the Lord. Bhakta Chaitanya was so inspired that he joined the Utkala-Banga Padayatra fulltime as a brahmachari.
We also welcomed padayatra’s utsava deities of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar to our home. Whatever services were possible from our side we did, including inviting our god-brothers and god-sisters for our house programme. About sixty to seventy devotees attended. We arranged a prasadam feast for all and the padayatris’ enthusiastic kirtan was mind blowing, directly entering the heart.
People who saw our majestic padayatra oxen were amazed by their huge horns. They had never seen such big oxen or this type of bullock-cart sankirtan party. Janti residents enjoyed the evening sankirtan, arati and class. Some new people joined us during padayatra’s visit and now they are attending Bhagavad-gita classes and chanting, all by the mercy of the glorious padayatris’ association. The padayatris are very strong in their devotion so nothing can stop them, not the cold, rain or sun so strong are they in their sadhana and determination. Their life mission is preaching and that is very clear to them. They are wonderful book distributors.
The experience was totally new for us. I never even dreamed we would be this
fortunate. These four days were the best days of my life, so much have I learned from the padayatris. This comes only by Maharaja’s causeless mercy. He always keeps guiding us and I can understand why he stresses on padayatra, where every day is an adventure and one has to depend totally on the Lord’s mercy. I always pray to Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar that we keep getting such opportunities to serve Guru and Gauranga again and again.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
All glories to Guru and Gauranga.
All glories to the padayatris.
