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By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

We padayatris were in Vraja-mandala parikrama from October 20 onwards while our Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar’s chariot remained parked in the courtyard of the Sri Sri Krishna-Balaram temple. Our oxen were on vacation at the Bhaktivedanta goshala and having completed parikrama we were then staying in Vrindavan dhama. I regularly visited the oxen at the goshala and they were all in good condition. One day I suddenly got the news that Vitthala had left his bo

By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

On July 1 the All-India Padayatra reached Sanwara village in southern Rajasthan, the largest state in India. Sanwara is only about 25km north of Sirohi city, the district administrative headquarters, but the roads in the area are in such bad condition the oxen could not walk properly. At one point our ox Vijay picked up an injury to his leg which then troubled him.

That evening Vijay was sitting quietly and as we checked his condition, we found he had

By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

The All-India Padayatra has been on the road for thirty-six years – big time. Wherever padayatra goes, it implants the seeds of bhakti in people’s hearts. Some people become devotees by darshan of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, some by reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, some by seeing the purity and love of padayatris, and some by honouring prasadam. Some also get attracted to our four-legged souls in padayatra, our oxen. Whoever took darshan of Their Lords

By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

January 6, 2021, marked the start of the All-India Padayatra’s seventh chapter of its grand march around India, including the char dham yatra. Leaving in 1984 from Dwarka padayatra has continued nonstop for thirty-six years, covering all of India and completing its sixth round in Dwarka on New Year’s Day. Having enlightened Dwarkawasis with sankirtan for five days the padayatris then departed on their current tour.

The seventh whole-of-India padayatra i

By Acarya dasa, Ritudeep dasa, Damodarleela dasa, and Radhavallabha dasa

(respective padayatra leaders)

All-India Padayatra

Just as the AIP reached Mahuva, a large town on the Arabian Sea coast in the Bhavnagar District of Gujarat, the Indian Government announced a three-week lockdown to inhibit the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the community. Initially, as people became aware that we are travelling all over India they were reluctant to provide us with anywhere to stay. The residents sa

By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

Srila Prabhupada once declared that he would personally travel by car taking dozens of men to preach in the villages of Gujarat.

“In the afternoon Kartikeya drove us five miles to a local village for a programme. In the car Prabhupada talked enthusiastically about village-to-village preaching. He is eager to see this programme established and said that mass propaganda of sankirtan and prasadam distribution will save India. He said that if programmes ar

This year’s Vraja Mandala Parikrama was special due to there being a confluence [sagam] of padayatris from three different padayatras:the All-India Padayatra, the Maharashtra Padayatra, and the Uttar Pradesh Padayatra. Also present were the devotees from the soon-to-be-inaugurated (on October 17) Andhra Pradesh Padayatra.

Normally in our Vraja Mandala Parikrama tent city we have tents of various groups such as volunteers, matajis, and prabhujis, but this year we had tents named after the padaya

By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

This year is a special year: All-India Padayatra was at Srila Prabhupada’s office in Juhu Beach, Mumbai, for the World Holy Name Week which began on September 17. Just as every year, the padayatris celebrated the occasion with enthusiasm but being in Juhu meant that at every step we were reminded of Srila Prabhupada.

On an overcast September 16 we left Kharghar and walked towards Koparkhed, dancing and singing in the rain along with a few local devote