By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
Since the start of the second coronavirus lockdown, for more than two months we have been in the shelter of ISKCON Pandharpur where we celebrated Gaura-purnima. We had not intended going to Pandharpur having planned a different route, but at Sawantwadi on Maharashtra’s Arabian Sea coast we got a call from our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, asking about our wellbeing and as the virus was spiking again and another lockdown looked imminent, he invited us for Gaura-purnima.
We reached Pandharpur on March 26, where we had a warm welcome with sankirtan at the entrance by the Pandharpur devotees and were fortunate to have darshan of Maharaja, our inspiration. The best part of Pandharpur was that Lord Vitthal and our spiritual master were in the same place and we could have darshan of Gurudev and his auspicious association daily.
Our oxen were placed in the care of the Pandharpur goshala and we all attended the grand Gaura-purnima festival as well as the sannyasa ceremony of our godbrother Ekalavya dasa, now Sri Krishna Chaitanya Maharaja. We padayatris miss the temple morning programmes and the association of senior devotees, so it was a very nice arrangement by the Lord for us. We took up different services in the temple and gladly attended all the programmes.
Days passed and we were relishing our stay in the dhama, but a padayatri can’t forget his responsibilities; he has to walk and preach. I heard on June 3 there was a chance the lockdown could end, but that didn’t happen and the padayatri in me could not sit quiet. I went to Maharaja and asked if we could move ahead but he said, “It may be a problem for all of you and again you will be stopped at some place with no resources. One thing that can be done is you can go for sankirtan in the nearby villages of Pandharpur dhama.” As I heard this, I jumped with joy. I shared the news with the other padayatris who were delighted and the temple devotees also planned to join us on sankirtan.
Day 1 – The main road of Pandharpur and nearby residential area.
At 10am we were ready at the temple gate with Their Lordships on the chariot. After performing sankirtan we moved ahead. It was a very nice experience in the dhama with devotees everywhere. Each one would wait and take darshan of Their Lordships and Srila Prabhupada while we carried on distributing books and prasadam. The people welcomed us and joined the sankirtan. Our oxen too were happy resuming their services for the Lord.
Day 2 – Shegaon Dhumala.
Ladies came from their houses to offer arati to Their Lordships and wash our oxen’s hooves. Many of them sang and danced with us. For children it was a great occasion, as schools are closed and they were all free. They also joined the sankirtan.
Day 3 – Circumambulation of the Vitthal temple.
Day 4 – Jagannath Temple, Pandharpur.
Day 5 – Colonies in Pandharpur.
Day 6 – Gopalpur.
Here we attended a programme at Raghavendra dasa’s house and also went for darshan of Lord Gopal and Vishnupada, the footprints of Lord Vishnu.
In the coming days we will cover the nearby villages till the restrictions are eased and we can move ahead.
All glories to Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
