By Asa-lata Devi dasi
We did it again! By the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, we had an extremely successful Padayatra here in Hungary – so much so that we extended it by a week! (August 1 to 17).
Apparently, the energy and enthusiasm devotees had in anticipation for this year’s pilgrimage was bursting at the seams! Sankirtan results were soaring, the Harinams were enthralling, and devotees were completely in their element preaching to the Hungarian public.
This year, we were unsure if we could go ahead with the Padayatra until quite late notice, because of the pandemic, but this didn’t stop devotees from coming out and taking part in this prodigious pilgrimage. Our largest turnout was on the final day of the initially proposed Padayatra schedule when over 80 people joined us, including students from New Vraja Dham Gurukul, devotees from Eger, Budapest, Debrecen, Krishna-Valley in Somogyvamos , and Aruna and Utsava, the oxen from the eco-village.
We continued with the same successful slogan from last year, ‘Take a Leap – On the Road to Change,’ which focused on promoting a cruelty-free lifestyle which we tried to encourage and speak about through the distribution of our Back to Godhead magazines – our sankirtan results were also the greatest that they have ever been! We distributed over 2800 books and Back to Godhead magazines in just 15 days!
We also had some interesting encounters, in Keszthely, we met one aged woman, who seemed almost in her 90s, who ran down to greet the Harinam, from her high-floor apartment, with Laxmi in her hand. She told us that she waits for us to come every year so she can give Laxmi and see the Harinam (picture attached). We had very special Harinams, in villages, in cities, and even on the beach!
For this yatra, devotees stayed in a school in a nearby village called Seregelyes. The school had very nice facilities, including a large sports hall, where devotees, especially young children (but also many adults!) would go to play badminton or basketball after a taxing full day of Harinam. The family mood was hugely prevalent between devotees on this auspicious trip.
This pilgrimage was also special because it coincided with very key festivals in the Vaisnava calendar such as Balarama Jayanti, Sri Krishna Janamastami and Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja. Fortunately, we were able to celebrate them all very nicely. We had a very sweet festival in the school to celebrate the appearance day of Lord Balarama – a devotee also brought a beautiful stone carving of Balaram which we enthusiastically sang and danced to. Prasadam for the Padayatra was made by Gulab Prabhu, a devotee from Eger who goes above and beyond when making prasadam for devotees. For the extended week, we were lucky to have Sesa Prabhu, one of the best cooks in Hungary, who agreed to come and cook for the devotees, and it was really professional standard prasadam. They cooked in the camp kitchens which we set up in the school.
We spent two days from the last week in Krishna-Valley, celebrating the appearance of Lord Krsna and Srila Prabhupada, which gave us the needed boost for the final weekend of the Padayatra.
At the end of the initially planned 10 days of the pilgrimage, Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra Maharani came to the school and we had a beautiful festival in their honour, with kirtan, aarti, a lecture and a big feast. We were honoured to have the fortune of being able to listen to a wonderful online class by His Grace Madhavananda Prabhu. He spoke beautifully about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s lila-pracar (preaching through his pastimes), and he emphasised how the experience devotees get on Padayatra is just as important as the preaching.
Although this year the situation was different to what was planned and many devotees were unable to come, especially our favourite Asita-Krishna Maharaj, whose presence and association we really missed this year, we still had an incredible and very successful Padayatra. And even after 17 days of being away from home, devotees still wanted to continue the Padayatra, and we are enthusiastic to organise a bigger, better, and even longer one next year!
