By Acarya Das
The year 2015 commemorated the 500th anniversary of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Vrindavan yatra. Further, Lokanatha Swami also published a wonderful book called Vraja Mandala Darsana as an offering to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission. In addition, ISKCON celebrated its 29th annual Vraja Mandala Parikrama. So, a lot of devotees joined parikrama to honor this significant year.
Since Vraja Mandala Parikrama began the utsava deities of the All India padayatra, Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar, have accompanied the parikrama during the month of kartik. They shower Their mercy upon all who see Them; leading the way at the front of the parikrama and eager to visit the places where Lord Krsna conducted His past times. Their Lordships guide and inspire everyone participating to walk and serve the holy dhama. During the parikrama They are carried on the head of one of the devotees. The padayatris offer Them bhoga and perform all the pujari seva with great care.
The Lord is always performing wonderful past times. One such past time on parikrama occurs when it is especially hot and the devotees are very tired –at this point whichever devotee is carrying Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar suddenly becomes inspired by the Lord to turn around to face the parikrama group. Everyone who sees the Lord calls out ‘Haribol, haribol!’and the Bengali devotees make the ulu dhwani sound[1] . The devotees then walk on with renewed enthusiasm. The padayatris on the Vraja Mandala Parikrama are blessed souls; they provide extensive seva during the parikrama like serving prasadam to thousands of devotees. They also carry twenty liter water cans for everyone participating –it is one of the most laborious services on parikrama. The padayatra devotees happily do the seva and thereafter they are again ready to walk and dance and do kirtana. This is how the padayatra devotees are empowered by the holy names and the mercy of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar. There are some padayatris who also join the parikrama kirtana party and dance from beginning to the end. Sometimes the parikrama devotees tire and sit down but when they see the kirtana party approaching they become inspired again to continue the walk. This is how the padayatris use the power of the holy names to inspire all the devotees in parikrama. We often hear the parikrama devotees say, “Oh! Let us walk with the kirtana party then we will reach our destination sooner”.
By doing one month of parikrama we get transcendental energy and the mercy of Srimati Radharani. We get darsana of many sannyasis and we get to hear the wonderful lilas of Lord Krishna all over Vraja dhama. One of the padayatris Ananadambudi Dasa, shared an amazing vision: when we were leaving parikrama he saw the utsava deities of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar entering the bigger vigraha deities of the All India Padayatra. Whenever we stop padayatra and join a parikrama party we leave the bigger deities which are carried on the ratha at a temple and carry the smaller utsava vigraha deities with us. So, the Lord makes us realize that He is always with us throughout the year.
So if you want to walk with our Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar during the month of kartik we invite you all to come and join us for the 2016 Vraja Mandala Parikrama.
[1] A vocal sound made by a group of women. It brings auspiciousness and drives away evil spirits
