By Acarya Dasa
Rupa Ragunatha Maharaj joins the team
Our pāda-yātrā party reached the town of Tiruvalla on Narasiṁha Caturdaśa on May 9th. The town is located in the district of Pathanamthitta in Kerala, South India and covers an area of approximately 27 kilometers. We received wonderful news when we arrived there: Rupa Raghunath Maharaj would be joining All India Padayatra for one full month. We felt honored he would be travelling with us and giving us his transcendental association.
Celebrating Narasiṁha Caturdaśa
We celebrated Narasiṁha Caturdaśa with the devotee congregation at the Tiruvalla Namahatta Center. The devotees performed abhishek (bathing ceremony) of Lord Narasiṁha Dev which was then followed by kathā (spiritual discourse) on the glories of Narasiṁha Dev. The program ended with kīrtana and prasādam.
Transcendental association, book distribution and more surprises
While travelling with us, Rupa Ragunath Maharaj would give lectures on different topics. He gave classes every day from 4 to 5 pm followed by sankīrtana and book distribution. Maharaj also distributed many books; he distributed several Srimada-Bhagavatam sets and about 194 Krishna books. Our pāda-yātrā party was also joined by Bhakta Daniel from New York and Bhakta Sahadev from Russia who distributed 295 books between themselves. To our surprise we were joined by Bhakti Vinod Maharaj for a few days too. We were all very happy, we were hearing nectarine katha from Rupa Ragunatha Maharaj and preaching with him and then we were joined by another Maharaj. We were inspired by their enthusiasm and both sannyāsīs were always ready to do book distribution and kīrtana. After having sankīrtana every day we held a class for the members of the public and then we would make announcements for the morning program.
This is how we were blessed this month with the auspicious presence of Rupa Raghunatha Maharaj and Bhakti Vinod Maharaj and how we did lots of book distribution in their association.
Jai Nitai Gaurasundar!
Jai Prabhupada!
