By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
Padayatra reached the city of Parli Vaijnath, about 90km east of Beed, on March 26, 2022. Parli is identified by its Shri Vaijnath temple, an ancient Shiva temple which is claimed to be, without notable evidence, one of the twelve jyotirlingas in India. As well as a pilgrimage destination for Shiva devotees, the temple is also a place where major festivals of both Krishna and Shiva are celebrated.
The All-India Padayatra visited Parli twice and there are several initiated devotees here, many of whom are well acquainted with padayatra. They arranged a grand welcome for us and Subal Bandhu dasa, a senior devotee who assisted us when the All India Padayatra was last here, requested that we stay at his house.
Parli is a very auspicious place for us. We will never forget that by the mercy of Lord Shiva it was here that we got a new tractor for padayatra. We went to Pune with a Parli devotee whose brother has a garage there, and with his knowledge of vehicles we were able to buy a first-class tractor. We received the vehicle two days later and until then we remained in Parli doing nagar sankirtan and house programmes throughout the city. A Parli devotee, Mr Gitte, took a Srimad-Bhagavatam set from us at one of our home events.
In Parli we also got the association of Srila Prabhupada disciple Parmeswar dasa who is taking care of a preaching centre at Chamorshi, a tribal area of Gadchiroli in eastern Maharashtra. We rarely get the association of Prabhupada disciples and were blessed by his presence. He told us, “You are already doing great preaching work. Keep it up, it’s the way back to Godhead. My best wishes are with you. You all are tolerating sun, rain and cold wind – and walking.” Parmeswar also invited us to Chamorshi.
One day we went to take darshan of Lord Shiva along with our utsava deities. Their Lordships were welcomed at the temple by the pujari with a garland. We prayed to Lord Shiva to give us strength to serve for the pleasure of Guru and Gauranga.
As we were leaving Parli we thanked all the devotees who helped us and prayed at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar for their devotional lives.
