By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
The Maharashtra Padayatra reached Risod in central Maharashtra one day before Ramanavami. The city has historical importance. It got its name from the word Rushivat, meaning rishis would stay in this place under banyan trees, and it’s said the Pandavas stayed here during their exile.
There is Draupadi-kunda in the city near the Siddheshwara temple. We stayed in an ashram there and celebrated the Ramanavami festival. Lord Rama appears at 12 noon so we made arrangements for abhisheka of Their Lordships at that time. Many people participated in the celebration. There is a village named Savad close to Risod and more than fifty congregation devotees from there attended the festival, along with the parents of a brahmacari at the Radha-Gopinath temple in Mumbai who also stayed at Sava.
We sang bhajans glorifying Lord Sri Rama followed by abhisheka of Their Lordships at midday. After that came katha by Srila Prabhupada disciple Akhildhara dasa who spoke about the glories of Lord Rama. He also glorified the padayatris, saying that just as monkeys were the army of Lord Rama which helped Him to make the Ramasetu and win the war against Ravana, so too the padayatris are the sincere army of Srila Prabhupada and are carrying the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to every nook and corner of villages and towns where people do not know about ISKCON. Padayatris are sowing the seed of devotion in thousands of hearts.
The programme ended with prasadam for all the assembled people. We also distributed books during the festival and Risodvasis were very happy that such a wonderful celebration took place in their city.
