By Vraja Hari Dasa and Sadhana Sakti Dasi
On September 9th, the first day of ‘World Holy Name Week’ our pāda-yātrā team took to the streets of Lotus Park, a residential area located 20 kilometres south of the city of Durban. Our team consisted of the following devotees: Krishna Kesava Dasa, Dwarkadish Dasa, Radha Gopinath Dasa, Radha Prema Dasi, Krishna Balaram Dasa, Sadhana Sakti Dasi and Ayodhya Vasi Ram Dasa who joined us despite his ill health. We were also joyfully accompanied by the ‘Lotus Park Nama Hatta’ making a total number of 60 devotees on pāda-yātrā.
Palanquins, saṅkīrtana and prasādam
We started walking from Stork Place in Lotus Park and proceeded for 2.5 kilometres along a main street for maximum exposure. The pāda-yātrā procession was headed by a beautifully decorated palanquin carried by the devotees. The palanquin was transformed into an exquisite mobile temple when Srila Prabhupada was seated on top, in front of our most beautiful Sri Sri Nityananda and Gauranga Mahaprabhu deities. Our saṅkīrtana party danced and chanted enthusiastically along the way and there were many people who came out of their homes to take darśana of Their Lordships. On either side of the road where teams of devotees distributing prasādam sweets and Srila Prabhupada’s books –and bringing up the rear was our ‘Food For Life’ team freely distributing hot meals to everyone we met. The local municipality gave support by providing two police vehicles to escort the pāda-yātrā. We ended the walk at a devotees house, where we all honoured prasādam together.
During the pāda-yātrā we distributed approximately 100 books, unfortunately, one of our saṅkīrtana book bags went missing so we aren’t sure of the exact number; and ‘Food For Life’ distributed 600 plates of hot prasādam.
