By Acarya Dasa – All India Padayatra leader
On August 3rd we started our journey from Pandharpur dhama after celebrating the 69th Vyasa-puja of Lokanath Maharaja. The travel plan is from Pandharpur to Solapur, then to Tuljapur – Osmanabad – Barsi – Beed – Latur – Nanded – Yavatmal – Wardha – Chandrapur – Gadchiroli – Chamorsi – Nagpur – Amravati – Kaundanyapur and so on.
On the first day of our onward journey we reached a small village called Ajote at a distance of 10Kms. We performed sankirtana and showed Hare Krishna world videos to the villagers in the evening. Rasarasika Dasa who was with padayatra for 7 years performed arati. He also sponsored fodder for the oxen.
A DOG ENCHANTED BY SRI SRI NITAI GAURASUNDARA.
Few devotees from Pandharpur temple joined padayatra. Interestingly, one female dog was also following us. On the first day we thought that she will give up after some time because we had seen many such followers in the past. But she was so attached to the ratha that she followed us with determination, sometimes running and gasping. As soon as the ratha stopped, she would take rest under it. She ate very little and mostly spent the time near the ratha. Next day onwards devotees started taking care of her too. Devotees gave her names like Bhakti, Champa and Mohini. One day she could not keep pace with our oxen and was lost. One devotee searched for her and brought her back. We covered a distance of exactly 100km and travelled 15 – 18 Km on some days. She followed us till Solapur. But in Solapur city we lost her again and we could not find her. We observed that she was more attached to the ratha and deities than the devotees for getting something to eat. Every evening she followed the ratha during nagar sankirtana. She reminded me of the story of Bharat Maharaja in his life as a deer. Probably she has done some austerities in the previous life. That’s the reason she did padayatra with us from Pandharpur dhama to Solapur.
PADAYATRA ENTERS SOLAPUR
On August 11th padayatra reached Solapur. The Devotees warmly welcomed us and Parthasarthi Dasa, the president of Solapur temple glorified padayatra after a small sankirtana. Rupa Raghunath Maharaja visited padayatra and delivered a lecture in the evening. Congregational devotees participated in the program, the evening shobha yatra (procession) and distributed prasadam to all those assembled. We honored nice feast in the temple. Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara visited some devotees’ houses on the way and throughout the journey loud chanting of holy names continued. After evening arati, senior padayatra devotees shared their padayatra experiences with the audience.
RATHA YATRA IN SOLAPUR
Devotees in Solapur had planned Ratha yatra on 12th August and made a lot of arrangements beforehand. Our cart as well as the ratha of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra were beautifully decorated. All Solapur devotees assembled to participate in ratha yatra. Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara took the lead. Our cart was in front with the sankirtana party walking ahead and then ratha of Lord Jagannatha. It was a wonderful scene like Lord Caitanya escorting Lord Jagannatha.
ABHISHEKA OF THEIR LORDSHIPS
News of our arrival and programs was published in the local newspaper. Ganesh whom we call as Gopala, was delighted to get the news of our arrival as earlier he had spent one year with us. He approached and invited us to his residence. At his house we were surprised to see the arrangements for abhisheka of Their Lordships. Rupa Raghunath Maharaja addressed the audience assembled.
RATHA YATRA AT TULJAPUR
On our way to Tuljapur, we reached a small village Tamalwadi. We went out for kirtana in the rain. Due to rain, the next day we decided to perform Gaura arati in the nearby temple and to our surprise the residents of the village joined us ignoring the rain. Another day we reached Tuljapur, where devotees arranged a grand welcome for us. There is a big ancient temple of Goddess Durga called Tuljabhavani. People say that when Shivaji maharaja had gone for her darsana before the war against Aurangzeb, she personally appeared and gifted him a sword for the victory. We also took blessings of Goddess Bhavani and asked her blessings so that we could spread the holy name and please our Guru and Gauranga. The next day they had planned Jagannatha ratha yatra. About 1000 devotees joined the ratha yatra. Sundarkrishna Dasa took lead in organizing everything. Krishna Bhakta Dasa, a senior disciple of Lokanath Maharaja was present as a guest and led the sankirtana for some time. After the sankirtana the assembled residents pulled the cart loudly singing the holy names for the pleasure of Their Lordships. One of them stated, “These oxen are very fortunate and definitely Lord must be very pleased with them. We did a tiny service.”
RATHA YATRA AT OSMANABAD
Osmanabad is a city in the Marathwada region of the state of Maharashtra. We loudly chanted the holy names on reaching the city. The devotees had arranged our accommodation at a very big hall. Vitthalananda Dasa, a disciple of Lokanath Maharaja is a leading preacher in this area. After the sankirtana they invited us to a school for guiding the students about spirituality. One of the padayatris went and took wonderful session for them. Students were very happy.
Devotees here also had arranged a ratha yatra. After the ratha yatra we organized evening program in a hall whose owner also bought a Srimad Bhagavatam set. Lokanath Maharaja, our Gurudev says, “Each devotee should take inspiration from All India padayatra and start padayatra and ratha yatra together in his/her respective town.” I could see his words becoming true. Since we left Pandharpur dhama this was the third ratha yatra we were attending.
BALARAM JAYANTI AT BHOOM
Bhoom is a town in Osmanabad district. It is situated on the banks of Banaganga River. We stayed and celebrated Balarama Jayanti at Gurudev Datta School. The program consisted of abhisheka of their Lordships, kirtana, Balarama katha and prasadam. Congregation devotees organized everything. Mohanrupa Dasa is a preacher in this area. He is a vice president of ISKCON Pandharpur temple and he was in padayatra for few years. He along with other devotees did sankirtana and also gave class on the glories of Lord Balarama. After the program, in the evening we went out for sankirtana and book distribution.
