On Sunday, 19th September 2016, we had a wonderful ‘2nd One Day PADAYATRA’ in Ahmedabad, as a part of ISKCON 50th Annivarsary celebration. We have three more Padayatras to go, which we will have in every month of the current year. All the devotees suggested having such events every month, for the rest of the years to come. If Srila Prabhupada wishes, we can plan to do so in future.
Details of “2nd One Day PADAYATRA”:
On Sunday, we started the Padayatra from Shri Shri RadhaGovind Dham, ISKCON Ahmedabad at 8.00 am, after Guru Puja. All devotees gathered in the campus, very enthusiastically singing Maha-Mantra. We took the blessing of H.G. Jashomatinandan Prabhu (ACBSP) (Temple President, ISKCON Ahmedabad), before we started. He has not been keeping well these days and has many sleepless nights, but still always encourages all of us for the devotional activities. We have been blessed by such exalted Vaishanavas.
The Padayatra was arranged between ISKCON temple and the famous Jamalpur Jagannath Temple, which is about 10 km away. Sharp at 8.00 am, we started from our ISKCON temple with more than 150 devotees and many more joined on the way. The atmosphere was cloudy, but no rain, so we felt it’s Krsna’s mercy; otherwise we generally have very hot days even during the rainy season. Eventually, it started raining very heavily in the evening, after the completion of the Padayatra. The yatra went on very smoothly and reached in time, as decided, and we served breakfast to the Padayatris in Parimal garden (a well-known public garden). Here at Parimal garden, hundreds of people come for jogging in the morning and this being a Sunday, the crowd was also more than the regular days. Here we had very ecstatic Kirtan all the way in the garden; some of them joined us in Kirtan too. After breakfast Prasadam we continued walking. We halted at every 4 roads for few minutes, with the Kirtan resounding all around. We distributed around 67 Bhagavad Gita and 45 small books for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada.
Finally when we reached Jagannath temple, we performed an ecstatic Kirtan, in which all the Jagannath temple’s Sunday congregation devotees also joined. We tried to engage them in chanting by making them raise their hands high up in the air. Hence, many of them participated in the Kirtan and some even danced with us. We sung more of the glories of Srila Prabhupada in the premises of this temple, which was our success. Ultimately we recited Jagannath-Ashtakam and Maha-Mantra Kirtan continued for a long time, until it was time for lunch Prasadam. We took lunch at the ‘Sabarmati river front’, which is very nice place under the bridge. More than 180 devotees honored lunch feast Prasadam.
In this way, by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, kind inspiration of His Holiness Lokanatha Swami Maharaj and the blessings of His Grace Jashomatinandan Prabhu, we completed our second one day Padayatra and hence, purified the environment with Maha-Mantra and Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!!!
Comments