by Acharya Dasa , assisted by Jayabhadra Dasi, with contributions from Subhang Balarama Dasa
The devotees of the All India Padayatra have been walking through Andhra Pradesh for nine months. The party now found themselves in the Chittoor district and heading towards Tirupati. There are currently more than 30 devotees including a disciple of Srila Prabhupada’s, Akhiladhara Prabhu.
In Marathi[1] there is a saying: “Sadhu santa yeti ghara tochi diwali dussehra”. It translates as, “When sadhus and vaisnavas come to your home that day is to be celebrated like the Diwali[2] and Dussehra[3] festivals.” So, when the padayatris heard that Lokanath Swami was to be joining them, they celebrated and became overwhelmed with ecstatic happiness
Our hearts were filled with joy and our eyes were eager to take darsana of Maharaja. We cleaned the ratha and the trolleys and made preparations in the same way that we do for Janmastami or Gaura Purnima. The feeling can be compared to when a mother goes to visit her daughter’s home. The daughter is so happy that she makes many preparations in anticipation of her mother’s visit. We were doing the same thing as we eagerly waited for the auspicious day of Maharaja’s arrival.
Lokanath Swami reached Tirupati on the 11th of October. There were many arrangements being made by ISKCON Tirupati to accommodate him but Maharaja was more eager to join the padayatra party and to stay wherever we stayed. And so, he came along with us. We took a moment to appreciate Narasimha, a bull that had joined padayatra in Tirupati and has been pulling Nitai Gaurasundar’s cart for 9 years. He has successfully completed a circumambulation of India.
We reached Akkarampalle, a town in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh on the 12th of October. There is also a nama-hatta centre here run by ISKCON Tirupati. Upon reaching we started kirtana with Lokanath Swami joining in. Soon many of the town’s residents and even the nama-hatta devotees joined in as well. As our procession made its way through the town the local women came with arati plates, coconuts and lamps –they washed the feet of the oxen and offered arati to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. We also distributed books, as is our usual practice and invited the locals to come purchase them. Maharaja also requested everyone to buy Srila Prabhupada’s books. Most of the town’s residents had followed us all the way to the nama-hatta center.
After kirtana Lokanath Swami sang the gaura arati prayer followed by more melodious kirtana – hearing Maharaja singing and unable to control themselves, everyone began dancing with happiness. Each person present was blessed by the darsana of Gaura Nitai and their pure devotees. Maharaja then gave a katha in the Ram Mandir of the nama-hatta centre, speaking about how Balaji is Krishna and that Krishna and Balaram come in the form of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda in the age of kali yuga. In this way he explained that actually Krishna and Balaram had come to give everyone darsana. He went on to glorify Srila Prabhupada and padayatra. During Maharaja’s talk there was some disturbance in the sound system. Unfortunately, whilst we were washing the cart the inverter somehow became wet, and because the microphone was connected to the battery it was causing a problem with the sound. Despite this, Lokanatha Swami was not at all disturbed; instead he remained calm and tolerant and continued to speak more about the Lord and padayatra. After the katha the nama-hatta devotees made arrangements for accommodation for the night. Maharaja also stayed with us.
The next morning October 13th, Lokanath Swami sang the mangala arati prayer which was then followed by Srimad Bhagavatam class. Soon after all the devotees marched towards Tirupati whilst Maharaja drove the ratha. There were almost 2000 devotees walking on padayatra towards Tirupati. On the way there Lokanatha Swami held sankirtana on the streets which became drenched with the power of the holy names. At one point prasadam was arranged for Maharaja but he insisted that he would eat prasadam cooked by the padayatris. The cooking was done by the padayatra kitchen team, offered to Nitai Gaursasundara and served to Maharaja and the other padayatris. Lokanatha Swami commented on the prasadam, saying it was very nice and eating on a farm was just like being on a picnic. “You all enjoy picnic every day, so one day I also enjoy picnic with you,” he said to us. That evening a procession started from the nama-hatta center with a melodious kirtana led by Maharaja. More than 500 devotees from various nama-hattas and congregational devotees from ISKCON Tirupati greeted and joined the sankirtana. The procession reached ISKCON’s Radha Govinda temple in Tirupati amidst great enthusiasm, the padayatra devotees were nicely welcomed with garlands and juices. After arriving in the temple, Lokanath Maharaja spoke on the history and goal of padayatra and stated that, “the devotees are walking back to Godhead by participating in this padayatra program.”
The following day, October 14th,, Maharaja held an ista-gosthi. We had a very personal exchange with him, he even asked us about our health on padayatra and whether anyone was suffering from any disease. We assured him that nobody was suffering to which he exclaimed, “Oh! That means Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s medicine is keeping all padayatris fit and fine. They ( the padayatris) are spiritual doctors moving door to door to give relief to each and everyone from the bhava roga (the disease of material existence)–and doctors can’t afford to be unwell.” We did mention that we felt a little tired after walking but after kirtana and dancing on harinama we always became surcharged with energy. Maharaja also asked us about our sadhana, we explained that only a few padayatris can chant 8 rounds before mangala arati. We asked him for his blessings so that we can continue to serve padayatra for as long as we lived and so we can please Guru and Gauranga. He responded by saying, “You all are doing a lot of tapasya and Gaura Nitai is very pleased with your seva.” He then gave each of us prasadam from his hand; we were so excited we jumped for joy like little kids.
Lokanatha Swami appreciated the seva of each and every padayatri, and he told us, “The Lord walks and you walk. The Lord stops and you stop. Your walk is a holy walk, a walk back to home, back to Godhead.” We replied that that it is Gaura Nitai who are making us walk, otherwise we are useless. Maharaja also spoke personally to me. He mentioned that I had completed six years on padayatra and that this year was my seventh. He encouraged me to continue with my service and then in Marathi he said, “Murti iahan kirti mahan” translated as, ‘although you are short in height, your fame is beyond comparison.’ I was filled with love and gratitude for all his causeless mercy. Our Gurudev is very tolerant; he has accepted fallen souls like us under his shelter.
Then came the day when Maharaja was about to leave us. He had enriched us with his divine association and showered his blessing on us, and now he was leaving –we were almost in tears. We were very sad to see him go but we were now filled with more enthusiasm to serve Gaura Nitai than ever. We asked Lokanatha Swami to please join us again on padayatra because we know that padayatra is his heart and soul.
Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
Jaya Lokanatha Swami!
[1] A language spoken in the Western Indian State of Maharashtra
[2] Hindu festival of lights.
[3] A Hindu festival celebrating the victory of good over evil.
All India Padayatra Arrived in Tirupaty 13th OCT 2015
Gour Arati Kirtan in Padayatra at Akarampalli (Tirupaty)