By Jaya Govinda Dasa
I recently attended the ILS (ISKCON Leadership Sanga) in Sridham Mayapur. This event gathers over a thousand ISKCON leaders from around the world who attend presentations, seminars, and workshops.[1] During this time I also met with my spiritual master Lokanath Swami and whilst speaking with him he encouraged and inspired me to do padayatra in Zambia, where I live. I later attended a workshop on padayatra at the ILS and received further guidance from Gaurangi Dasi, the Padayratra Ministry Coordinator.
After returning to Zambia, padayatra was on my mind. I thought about how it would be the best way to spread the holy names and fulfill the desire of Guru and Gauranga. As Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu states:
pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma.
“In every town and village, the chanting of My name will be heard.[2]”
Upon arrival in Lusaka[3] I immediately met with our congregation’s committee members to discuss organizing a padayatra during the Easter weekend. Everyone agreed with the idea and how there couldn’t be a better way to spend the weekend then visiting Victoria Falls and spending time in Krishna Consciousness. We then presented our plan to the congregation. Twenty-two members including children volunteered to participate in the padayatra. There were a few devotees who approached us at the last minute wanting to come along, but unfortunately we had already arranged transportation and accommodation in Livingstone and Victoria Falls and could not take on more people.
We left on Friday the 25th of March. All those participating assembled at our ISKCON centre. After singing the Nrsimhadev prayers I telephoned Lokanath Swami who blessed the padayatris on the speaker phone. He also blessed us all for a safe and successful padayatra. We would be traveling from Lusaka to Livingstone – a stretch over 500 kilometers with seven towns and villages in between. Our party travelled together in a ten seater minibus along with two other vehicles. In total we would travel 1000 kilometers including the return journey.
Our first stop was the town of Kafue located 50 kilometres from Lusaka. We headed towards the town’s Hindu temple where we met with the local members. Our padayatra party held harinam in the town for about 30 minutes before leaving. We then set off for Mazabuka which was 70 kilometres away. The streets were very busy here –we took this opportunity to make the locals sing and dance in kirtana. We also performed kirtana at an Indian shop in the town. After this we travelled another 60 kilometres to the town of Monze where we arrived at the shop of Sandeep Prabhu. We held harinam on the streets and also at the local market. Sandeep Prabhu then arranged a satsang at his residence and invited some of the local Indian community members.
We continued our journey to Choma, a town located 120 kilometres from Monze. Our party arrived here late. The local Indian community had heard about the padayatra and were anxiously awaiting our arrival. When we got to the town we went to Jagadish Prabhu’s residence to have satsang accompanied by the local Indian people who had also been invited. The community had also arranged a satsang at the town’s Hindu temple. Finally before leaving we managed to do some kirtana at the main shopping mall in Choma. The local people danced and really enjoyed the harinam. We had planned to stop by Kalomo and Zimba, two more towns on the way to Livingstone, however the day was coming to a close and it was starting to get dark. So, we decided to visit these two towns on our way back from Livingstone. We arrived at Livingstone, the tourist capital of Zambia at 8pm that evening. We even managed to do a welcome kirtana in the town. Afterwards we retired to our accommodation for the night to rest. The next morning we held a satsang and kirtana at the Livingston Hindu temple which the local Indian community members attended. Thereafter we went out onto the streets on harinam.
We then travelled to Victoria Falls, described as one of the ‘Seven Natural Wonders of the World’. When we arrived we began kirtana but we were soon approached by some police officers who told us that we were not allowed to do that here. I explained to the officer that we were chanting the holy names of the Lord and that we had come all the way from Lusaka just for this purpose. Another officer said that we were causing ‘noise pollution’. I disagreed and said that chanting brings about a positive atmosphere. “How could the holy names of the Lord cause noise pollution?” I said to him. This was enough to counter his argument. At this point I was forced to see the senior officers in charge at the falls because these officers were not prepared to discuss the matter further. After speaking to the senior officers and giving them the details of the IG police in Lusaka as a reference, I managed to get permission for us to continue with the kirtana and to take our mrdangas and karatalas inside the falls. The local people and the devotees chanted and danced enthusiastically throughout the harinam. We succeeded and thanked Gauranga.
After visiting the falls we travelled back to Livingstone Town where a house program had been arranged at Mr and Mrs Solanki’s residence. We then made our way back to Lusaka the following day. We stopped over in Zimba and Kalomo on our return journey. We held harinam with the locals joining in on the chanting and dancing – even though they weren’t able to chant very well their dancing was ecstatic. In Kalomo we were just about getting ready to leave after having kirtana when the locals approached us to continue. We were really surprised when one local even asked, “Are you leaving already?” They enjoyed the kirtana so much, so we honored their request to continue with the singing and dancing. During our journey we managed to distribute books in Choma and Monze. We also took many photographs and videos – all of these were very interesting and entertaining. This is how our party completed padayatra in the Southern Province of Zambia. The next day was the weekly Sunday program and the congregation was excited to hear about padayatra. There are now so many people looking forward to another padayatra in other provinces of the country.
Altogether we distributed 50 of Srila Prabhupada’s books during our travels. We also distributed candy prasadam. Our party walked an average of 1.5 kilometers a day and held a total of 12 hours of harinam. In total we had walked 12 kilometers covering 7 towns and spending 3 hours at Victoria Falls.
My personal realizations after this padayatra have been tremendous. I admired the support we received from everywhere. The people are hungry for the holy name. This is what we experienced during our travels. After completing almost 48 hours of regular chanting especially in the towns we visited, I felt a great deal of transformation within myself. I developed a greater zeal to spread Krishna Consciousness in different places, though not qualified to do so. The planning for this padayatra went smoothly. We arranged a palanquin for Nitai Gauranga within a day after only realizing the day before that we would need one. Everything fell into place automatically – whether it was prasadam, accommodation or transport. I feel that there was some other force that was working with us and it was nothing but the mercy of Guru Maharaja. In fact one of the padayatris mentioned that we were blessed by Lokanath Swami before leaving for padayatra, hence a blissful padayatra
ISKCON Zambia padayatra ki jai!
To watch a video compilation of the places traveled by the Zambia Padayatra party, click on this link:
[1] http://www.ilsglobal.org/about-ils/ )
[2] Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Adi Lila Chapter 17 verse 203
[3] Lusaka is the capital and largest city of Zambia
