Svetadvipa dasa, Mauritian padayatri
I am very much indebted to padayatra. I was in the All India Padayatra for seven years so basically, I am a padayatri and have lived as a padayatri. That’s why I feel very strongly that the glories of padayatra should spread worldwide, that everyone should know about padayatra.
Especially the AIP in the holy land of Bharatvarsa. Recently they did the char dhama yatra and this news ought to go round the whole world. What a glorious and wonderful walk was started on Radhastami 1984, but is still going on nonstop covering more than three lakh kilometres and going so many rounds around India. We can take our time and think about how to reach out, maybe more interviews must be done on social media and YouTube where Lokanath Maharaja’s great and selfless service can be known in every nook and corner of the world.
One of the verses we always recite during padayatra is: ṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma, sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma – “In every town and village throughout the world the chanting of My holy name will be heard.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya-khanda 4.126) Lord Rama came and He did fourteen years of padayatra in Treta-yuga and from time immemorial saints, yogis and acharyas did padayatra. Shankaracharya did for a few years. Ramanujacharya did for a few years. I don’t know the exact details, but Madhvacharya walked all the way to the Himalayas to study under Srila Vyasadeva. There are other organizations like Swami Vivekanand, who travelled around India before he surrendered to his guru, and Dayananda Saraswati from Arya Samaj who also walked. The main acharyas walked for four or five years. Even Lord Chaitanya walked for six years, four years around South India and the other two years in Vrindavan. Now there is Srila Prabhupada’s sankirtan padayatra, which he desired and strongly wanted his disciples to do, especially Lokanath Maharaja. And Maharaja did it with the help of dedicated disciples. In India and around the world this padayatra is still going on. That’s why I feel information has to be distributed universally. More effort should be made to spread padayatra’s glories.
Lokanath Maharaja’s contribution to padayatra is the biggest. He started the Navadvipa-mandal Parikrama with his close associate Radha Raman Maharaja, who was a brahmacari at the time. Wherever in India we were we padayatris would stop and join Maharaja in Navadvipa. Maharaja also started the Vraja-mandal Parikrama. I was there with him and at that time we all would walk for thirty days in the twelve forests of Lord Krishna. Parikrama was a great austerity back then, but Maharaja would walk with us in full Kartik masa. Jitamrita dasa also was with us. What Maharaja did for padayatra is not simple. He could do this because he is a great disciple and servant of Srila Prabhupada.
Now Maharaja still dances and does kirtan like a young man. He is taking care of his thousands of disciples. His contribution to padayatra is glorious and we should share these glories with everyone. I will give an example: in 1996 there was Srila Prabhupada’s centennial. Maharaja along with Sankirtan dasa and other disciples served. The padayatra office was at Sant Nagara in Delhi and from there Maharaja served hard to spread the glories of Srila Prabhupada all over the earth by the mode of the centennial.
We too should spread the glories of padayatra and Lokanath Maharaja around the world, because they are proving the prophecy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu true. I have done seven years of padayatra and I am again planning to join the All India Padayatra so that I complete fourteen years in padayatra. I am currently in South Africa and may the Lord give me strength so that I can join padayatra again.
All glories to padayatra.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
