By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
Confined to the Sawantwadi centre on Maharashtra’s Konkan coast for six months, the padayatris nonetheless enthusiastically helped the local congregation cap the festival season at a well-attended Radhastami celebration. Two days before the programme ISKCON Solapur temple commander Krishna Bhakta dasa called me with the good news that he would be joining us for the occasion, something the padayatris along with the Sawantwadi devotees were elated to hear.
Arrival of Krishna Bhakta dasa
With preparations for the event well in hand, the celebration actually began the very next day when we all welcomed our senior god-brother and several other devotees from Solapur. That evening Krishna Bhakta gave a class on the prayers of Queen Kunti, discussing how she faced so many problems in her life but never left serving Krishna, thus inspiring us to always serve Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Krishna Bhakta then glorified padayatras, sharing with us how Srila Prabhupada instructed our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, to start padayatra and as a result the All-India Padayatra was inaugurated on Radhastami 1984.
Radhastami
The appearance of Srimati Radharani, Krishna’s dearest servant and His pleasure potency, on the eighth day of the bright moon in the month of Bhadra, is a very significant festival for the devotees. Radharani is the mother of the entire universe and on this auspicious day devotees pray to Her to bless them with Krishna-bhakti.
In the morning the devotees were busy dressing the deities for an abhishek and decorating the altar with a dazzling array of flowers that spread their fragrance everywhere. During the evening programme all the senior devotees performed the abhishek, after which there was a class by Krishna Bhakta about the glories of Radharani. A fifty-six-bhoga preparation was then offered to Their Lordships followed by maha-arati by Krishna Bhakta and prasadam distribution. This was the first time Radhastami had been celebrated at the Sawantwadi centre in such a grand manner and the devotees showed how pleased they were as everyone danced with joy.
Without the mercy of Srimati Radharani it is difficult to get the mercy of Lord Krishna, and it is known among Vaishnavas that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is:
sri krsna caitanya radha krsna nahi anya [Chaitanya Bhagavat]
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is none other than the combined form of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.
We padayatris therefore serve Radha and Krishna together on our ratha and They both take care of us through all our ups and downs. We prayed to Radharani that She may bestow Her mercy on us that we can serve Their Lordships till our last breath.
Srimati Radharani, ki jai.
