Sixth annual Vaishnavi Padayatra adds stars to Women’s Day celebration

By Jayabhadra devi dasi, IGF preacher and padayatra coordinator

By the mercy of Sri Guru and Gauranga Amravati’s ISKCON Girls’ Forum team has successfully held its sixth annual Vaishnavi Padayatra.

Every year we arrange padayatra to be on or around International Women’s Day which is observed on March 8, and March is a special month for devotees because Gaura-purnima maha-mahotsava is in March. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s advent occurred to spread the holy name, and our padayatris also try to do the same.

Our Vaishnavi Padayatra is the most-awaited event by temple matajis and our IGF team. We matajis come together for a higher cause and serving together increases love amongst us.

The objective of padayatra is to spread the holy name and as we walk, we chant the holy name. For those who hear the chanting their life will be successful, but we also plead with them to chant with us. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma, sarvatra pracāra hoibe mora nāma: “In every town and village throughout the world,” said Lord Chaitanya, “the chanting of My holy name will be heard.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) Krishna is not just for India. He is for everyone, because He is God. Mahaprabhu says “My holy name will be heard throughout the world.” This is not possible for us ladies, but at least we can cover the streets of our city and surrounding villages by the mercy of Guru and Gauranga.

Padayatra preparations started one month earlier with the taking of police permissions and other formalities. On padayatra day we assembled as always at the Satidham temple in the main market area in central Amravati. This year’s dress code was the unique-looking yellow Gujarati-style sari worn by the more than sixty Vaishnavis who joined the walk. All were welcomed with offerings of garlands including this year’s chief guests, Amravati’s senior Vaishnavis Gundicha Devi Dasi (mother of Nityaharinam Dasa in our temple) and Manlila Devi Dasi. They inaugurated padayatra by cutting the ribbon and performing arati of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar as kirtan went on throughout.

We presented a street play at the commencement of padayatra and then headed towards our destination, the Ekvira Devi temple ??km away. All the Vaishnavis and IGF girls enthusiastically performed sankirtan and danced as we moved ahead while making announcements about the importance of padayatra and the maha mantra. We had grand sankirtan and the Vaishnavis danced to their hearts’ content.

It is so wonderful to walk and dance and sing the holy name. As it was a Saturday the market and the shops were open and the streets were crowded. People were amazed to witness this eye-catching display, many of them chanting the holy name. We distributed mantra stickers and temple pamphlets and even offered prasadam to the policemen. Everyone was asking “where is the palakhi from?” and we all proudly replied “it’s by ISKCON Amravati.”

Srila Prabhupada ki jai.

Prasadam was offered to the Vaishnavis and the congregation following our arrival at the Ekvira temple. I personally talked about ISKCON’s padayatras and how the padayatris are doing so many austerities and spreading the Lord’s message everywhere as they distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books throughout the year. Our padayatra is very small and our efforts practically worthless compared with their sacrifices and tapasya. Nonetheless it is a small attempt to please Sri Guru and Gauranga.

Our motto for padayatra was to serve Prabhupada and our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, and we walked with our banner prominently at the front of the procession followed by a photo of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. By the Lord’s arrangement the Gaura-mandal Parikrama is also happening at this time, all in our mood of Gauranga. We could not join that parikrama but while walking we were thinking as we are also part of Gaura-mandal Parikrama, because our leaders are our Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. It’s said “you are where your heart is,” so our hearts were in Mayapur dham. Daily we had been watching the parikrama updates and all the functions going on in Mayapur and missing the dham.

Mayapur dham ki jai.

Throughout the padayatra all the Vaishnavis were taking leading roles. Our padayatris looked so graceful and became the talk of the town. This festival is remarkable in our lives. Filled with enthusiasm we come together to make the day successful, and with the added support of congregation matajis it provides the opportunity for many ladies to confidently address the assembly. Our spiritual master is our inspiration: whatever good we are doing is his causeless mercy and whatever bad we are doing is due to our conditioning.

Our team thanked the assembled ladies for joining us and the police department for helping us and giving us permission for the padayatra. We also thank our temple authorities for supporting us, putting faith in us and encouraging us: ISKCON Amravati temple president Advaitacarya dasa, temple commander Sacipran dasa, and temple management committee members Sundarnath dasa, Nityaharinam dasa and Ranchod Krishna dasa.

Thanks too to our support system: Bhadra Gauranga dasa, the eldest devotee in our temple, and Meghashyam dasa, Bhakta Bhusan and Bhakta Madhusudan for managing the sound system and covering the event. A special mention goes to Prabhupada Sharan dasa for arranging media, his yearly seva, as well as to little Bhakta Nimai for joining us. Our IGF team, my strength, also served hard to make padayatra a success. Our thanks also go to Dinanukampa mataji for always inspiring us in all of our sevas.

We all thank Sri Guru and Gauranga for blessing us and organizing padayatra.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

All glories to Srila Gurudev.