By AcaryaDasa, leader of the All India Padayatra
THREATENED IN HUNSUR
In the beginning of 2018, on our way to the town of Hunsur near the city of Mysore in Karnataka, we came across the bus stop of a village while we were performing nagar sankirtana. A man came towards us and started shouting, “Stop this! Stop this!” He was screaming,“Speak in Kannada! You are in Karnataka! Why are you speaking in Hindi ?” I tried to explain to him that we were not promoting any sectarian religion, we are just servants of the Lord and we don’t believe in any caste system either. But he turned a deaf ear and on top of that he raised his voice and called 10 to 12 young boys from somewhere. All of them started yelling at us, “Go away! Leave this place!” They were about to beat us so we moved towards the hotel where we were staying. Somehow the hotel owner got news of the incident. Within no time these boys reached the hotel by following us. The owner got scared that a riot might break out, and asked us to vacate the place immediately. We were faced to answer this big question: Where to take shelter in this terribly cold night? We all felt very helpless, so we moved out on the road with some little hope that something good might happen. Finally we came across a small dairy shed where five to six of us could be accommodated but the dairy owner also got scared. Somehow he allowed us to stay for the night. Those boys threatened us, saying they would return back in the night to kill us. We were terrified. Our lives were in danger, so we approached the police but didn’t get any encouraging response from them. To add to the problem our gas cylinder got empty, so we could not cook. The dairy owner’s wife offered a helping hand by giving us another gas cylinder. Because of being afraid that these boys would return all of us couldn’t sleep throughout the entire night. We were praying to Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara to help us. By the Lord’s mercy the boys didn’t return during the night. The next morning, after completing mangala arati, we started to walk towards the next village.
As we entered Hunsur, a couple of policemen approached us and told us not to carry on our sankirtana in the particular area where we were about to go. On enquiring about the reason, they said that 3 years before some riots had taken place there and that nobody dared to do kirtana or a religious procession in that area. But we were all prepared for nagar sankirtana. Observing the police conversing with us, some local citizens approached us and said, “Don’t worry, we will help you.” So with all faith in the Lord and the holy name, we continued harinama in that area. A huge number of people joined our party and by the Lord’s mercy nothing bad happened.
HONORED IN CHILKUNDA
The next day we entered the village named Chilkunda where there is a Nityananda Swami’s matha. During our last visit in that area we had stayed there but this time some new committee member refused to give us accomodation. Immediately, from nowhere, a man approached us and offered help in the form of accommodation and prasadam. He cleaned the big ground near his house and arranged a large pandal program for us. As we entered the pandal we all were offered garlands. About 1000 individuals attended the program. People were so amazed to hear the glories of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara that they requested us to release the oxen and they themselves pulled the cart on their shoulders as a way of honoring to the Lord .On receiving the news that we were still in the village, Nityananda Swami asked us for forgiveness and welcomed us to his math. As we entered, all the residents of the math came for darsana of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara. One of them said,“We worship Nityananda and you also worship Nityananda.” I explained our philosophy and elucidated who our Nityananda Prabhu is, none other than the Supreme Lord. They performed arati of our Lordships and also donated 1 lakh rupees (100 000 Rupees= US$ 1533 = 1244 Euros). They were mayavadis but the all merciful Lord accepted their seva. It was His plan that the new committee member denied us accommodation so we could arrange a big pandal program. In the previous village we had faced such a terrible situation where our lives were in danger. In contrast here we were welcomed wholeheartedly. Such is the life of padayatris, where everything is being orchestrated by Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara.
