By Jayabhadra devi dasi, IGF preacher
Every year Amravati’s ISKCON Girls’ Forum team along with other matajis organize a Vaishnavi padayatra on International Women’s Day. This year, however, we didn’t get permission for the event and consequently, we were all morose and had given up hope for our padayatra. But our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, gave us back our lost hope.
His arrival at our Sri Sri Rukmini-Dwarkadish temple on March 25 awakened our desire for padayatra. We all had darshan of Maharaja and met him personally. He looked at us and asked, “What about Vaishnavi padayatra this year?” We were silent, but his words hit our hearts. We had a meeting after that and decided to organize a padayatra and our temple president, Advaitacarya dasa, gave us permission.
We were busy with summer camp in April so we selected May 7, the eve of Mothers’ Day, for padayatra and agreed it would start and end at a Vaishnavi temple. Preparations included inviting all the mahila mandal groups in Amravati, getting approval from the police department and placing media advertisements. We all decided on Maharashtrian navavari sari and pheta turban as the dress code. That would represent Maharashtrian culture and thus attract the hearts of Amravati residents. We also invited Amravati’s member of the Legislative Assembly, Mrs Sulabha tai Khodke, for the inauguration.
The objectives of padayatra:
- To spread the glories of the holy name.
- To imbibe the culture of padayatra in everyone’s heart.
- World peace.
- To show the world how women can come together and work for a higher cause.
We made posters to carry on the walk that emphasized some important issues so the public would feel connected: Save the Earth, Save Water, Save Trees, Save Girls, Tuberculosis Free India and the World.
Because summers are very hot in Amravati, 47°C, padayatra was in the evening. All were saying it would still be hot, but the all-merciful Lord has a plan for his devotees. The temperature was suddenly cooler from 4pm! We all thanked the Lord for His mercy.
Everyone assembled at the Sati Dham temple and the girls and matajis were ready in their beautiful saris and phetas waiting for our guest of honour. The congregation and temple devotees started sankirtan and as she arrived the girls escorted her to the stage. Sulabha tai was welcomed by the senior matajis offering her garlands. She gave the inaugural talk and said, “I am happy that I am invited for this Vaishnavi padayatra. And we would be walking from the temple of one Vaishnavi and marching towards the temple of another Vaishnavi and all Vaishnavis will be taking part. It’s a wonderful event.”
At every square we stopped and danced to our hearts’ content. Temple devotees and congregation members performed wonderful sankirtan and we distributed invitation cards for Rukmini maiya’s appearance day. As we reached our destination, the Ekvira Devi temple, we were welcomed by garlands and again had a grand sankirtan in the temple courtyard and all the temple ladies danced with us. Then everyone did sankirtan in front of Ekvira Devi. She is our gram devata and definitely would be pleased. We ladies come to this temple during the Bhagavad-gita marathon and by her mercy a good amount of book distribution takes place. Her blessings are always with us.
More than 100 ladies participated in the padayatra and we had good media coverage with the news displayed on the city’s television channel and in all the newspapers. All the matajis were happy and said it was a special occasion. Our team was enthusiastic and declared we would do it more powerfully next time. Halwa prasadam was distributed to all those assembled and having thanked everyone the padayatra was completed.
Acknowledgments:
It’s all the mercy of our beloved spiritual master who inspired us to organize the padayatra. We had almost dropped the plan this year.
We would like to thank our temple president, Advaitacarya dasa, and all other temple devotees for their help. We thank Bhakta Ratnakar dasa and Badra Balaram dasa for providing prasadam.
We thank the sankirtan team and all the matajis who participated. I thank all my team for their wonderful services to make this event successful. Finally, I thank the police department for their support.
Third annual padayatra, ki jai.
Srila Prabhupada, ki jai.
Srila Gurudev, ki jai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b324tvxGwLo
