By Ritudvipa Gaurachandra dasa, Uttar Pradesh Padayatra leader
On the occasion of Annada ekadashi padayatra arrived at Kalpi, a historical city on the banks of the river Yamuna in Jalaun district. It’s a location of importance as it is the birthplace of Srila Vyasadev, the writer of the Mahabharata and Puranas.
After some rest we went for darshan of Srila Vyasadev’s birthplace, where a grand temple in his honour has been constructed. We all took darshan of Baby Vyasadev as well as his parents, Sri Parashar Muni and Satyavati mata. We had a wonderful sankirtan and Their Lordships Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar were also with us to see Their dear Bala Vyasa. Then we went for darshan of Pataleshwar Mahadev and Sri Banke Bihari temple. We also had darshan of the Yamuna and did achaman. We performed sankirtan and circumambulated the area as we danced, amazing the people who joined us for the sankirtan.
It was a wonderful day. We were all fasting so the whole day was spent at this holy place chanting and hearing katha of Srila Vyasadev and discussing his glories. Vyasadeva is known as the literary incarnation of Lord Krishna because he imparted Vedic wisdom to the world by compiling the Vedas. By his mercy we have our beautiful Srimad-Bhagavatam, which shows us light in this Kaliyuga. It’s said that the Srimad-Bhagavatam is nondifferent from the Lord Himself.
We were blessed to have darshan of such an auspicious place and we all prayed to Srila Vyasadev to bestow us with wisdom and his mercy so that we can read and understand the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
