By Jayabhadra devi dasi, IGF preacher ISKCON Amravati
On April 24, 2022, Amravati’s Bhakta Prahlad School teachers and ISKCON Girls’ Forum team held a Bala (little Vaishnava) padayatra. Every year we organize a three-day summer camp for children at ISKCON Amravati and on the last day we have our padayatra.
In the craft session on the final day of camp the children made frames for photos of Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and posters with messages such as Save Water, Save Girls, Save the Earth
By Radha Vallabha dasa, Andhra Pradesh Padayatra leader
On April 26, 2022, our padayatra ox Govinda left his body. He had been serving since the start of the Andhra Pradesh Padayatra three and a half years ago. He was sadhu in his behaviour – he never hit anybody and was very silent. Even when children touched him or climbed on him when he was seated and pulled his tail and horns, Govinda was always quiet. He served our Lordships very nicely. We stopped in a village for some time during the pan
By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
We brought two oxen from Gujarat for our padayatra on the auspicious day of Gita Jayanti in 2021. Our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, mercifully named them Krishna and Arjuna. Happily, they both were serving. We never tied Arjuna to the chariot because the oxen require training and then they are yoked to the chariot, so Arjuna always walked behind the chariot. Three months back he fell causing a fracture of his right leg. We took him to a v
By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
On April 14 padayatra reached the town of Majalgaon 70 km northeast of Beed, the district headquarters, where the residents were happy to receive us. We carried the chariot to the house of a devotee family and had a wonderful programme. After some rest, we went on nagar sankirtan and people eagerly joined in and danced with us. That evening many villagers assembled for Gaura arati and I gave class on the importance of the holy name and the Bhaga
By Muralimohan dasa
On April 3, 2022, my team and I from ISKCON’s Ahmedabad temple, also known as Sri Radha Govinda Dhama, held a one-day padayatra at Nani Devti gram, about 30km southwest of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
We arrived at the village to hear that a samuha chandi yajna was being conducted and many people had assembled at one place. Moving ahead we started sankirtan and as we reached the yajna everyone there was pleased to see a group of devotees performing sankirtan and asked us to say som
By Jayabhadra devi dasi
A one-day padayatra is a nice way of sensitizing villagers to ISKCON and the most-powerful holy name. As a Tuberculosis Officer in Maharashtra, I am continually sensitizing people to the disease, how to avoid it and control it, but we are all suffering from the disease of bhava-roga, repeatedly taking birth, and we need to bring this to people’s attention.
On February 19, 2022, the day of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja jayanti, I accompanied several devotees to a one-day pa
By Dhirnayak dasa, Utkala-Banga Padayatra leader
The Bengal-Orissa Padayatra reached the town of Kantilo, about 100km west of Bhubaneswar, on February 8, 2022. There is a Sri Nilamadhava temple in Kantilo situated on the banks of the Mahanadi River atop twin hills with surrounding green forests. The temple is a miniature form of the Sri Jagannath temple at Puri and observes similar rites and rituals.
Tribal king Visva Vasu was secretly worshipping Nilamadhava. Later the Lord vanished and subseq
By Madhavi Kumari devi dasi, Bhubaneswar
My husband Sundar Govind dasa and I recently joined the Utkala-Banga Padayatra for four days. Our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, always says, “Each one should join padayatra or if can’t at least do one-day padayatra,” and when padayatra reached Jatani, our hometown and suburb of Bhubaneswar in Odisha, we welcomed the padayatris and made arrangements for their accommodation.
The best part was I did book distribution with my daughter and son, Radha
IGF preacher at ISKCON Amravati Padayatra is the best way to preach. It includes book and prasadam distribution and it also increases the enthusiasm of those who participate. By the mercy of our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, I am always meditating on how we can organize a padayatra in any village. One day in Amravati’s Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarkadhish temple Meghashyam dasa and I met Bhakta Ramjivan from Malegaon village. I asked him, “Can we come to your village and have a padayatra?” He imme
By Radhakunda dasa
ISKCON Noida recently held its fifth eighteen-day padayatra to Vrindavan under the leadership of Noida temple president Vamsidhar dasa. The first padayatra was in 2016, ISKCON’s golden jubilee year, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it had to be cancelled in 2020. However, by the mercy of our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, we were successful this year. Padayatra began on October 3 from the ISKCON Noida temple as a large group of devotees and congregation members set off o
By Nrsimha Caitanya dasa, Czech Padayatra leader
While the world was still gripped by the Covid-19 madness the twenty-ninth Czech Padayātrā took place in the second half of July, and according to its participants was one of the best padayātrās in which they’d been involved. For a second successive year we were able to find a sweet spot during the summer holidays when most of the restrictions had been lifted. After all those lockdowns people were happy that something was going on and as there we
My material name is Krishna Govind Vaidyu. I was born 1990 in the town of Jaysingpur, about 35km from the historic city of Kolhapur in southern Maharashtra. I came to devotional life in 2008 through ISKCON Belgaum, eventually getting in touch with ISKCON Aravade and then with Pandharpur. I was in Pune as a fulltime devotee for six years, enrolling in the Personality Development Course in 2012. I was initiated in Pune in 2014 and with the permission of my spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, joi
By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader
The padayatris stayed at Bharkawada village in Gujarat for forty-five days during the second coronavirus lockdown. Although at first the village leaders were keen for us to move on, eventually we were permitted to stay at the Panchmukhi mahadev Lord Shiva temple and by the mercy of Their Lordships the village people became Hare Krishna devotees. Even after we departed, the new devotees followed us till we entered Rajasthan. They were missing the associ
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 Indian government extension of the country’s second Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown has determined that the All-India Padayatra will currently remain in Bharkawada where the padayatris recently celebrated Ramanavmi. Fortunately, we are still staying at the Panchmukhi mahadev temple on the outskirts of the village and are still doing our programmes.
When we were performing sankirtan not long after the Ramanavmi festival the police came and all the vi
By Ritudvipa Gaurachandra dasa, Uttar Pradesh Padayatra leader
April 10, 2021, was a sad day for all of us. Having been unwell for almost five days our ox, Haribol, left his body at Sasni, a town in southwest Uttar Pradesh. Haribol was named by our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, and whenever we called him, indirectly we were telling others to utter the name of Lord Hari. He was a very silent and cooperative ox and never attacked anybody.
Our UP padayatra began in September 2019 and Haribo
In a recent ISKCON Leadership Sangha (ILS-2020) Lokanath Swami requested ISKCON Nepal regional secretary Patri dasa to organize a padayatra (pilgrimage) in Nepal. Patri took Maharaja’s words to heart and discussed the idea with the Nepali devotees.
A friend of Patri, Brahmacari Sahastranam dasa from Ukraine, who has been serving in Nepal for twelve years engaged in community and farm services, was inspired by the proposition and used his own money, to buy oxen and construct a cart from his uniqu
By Dayal Gopal dasa, Nepal sankirtan preacher
Padayatra in Nepal began on January 19, 2021.
In a recent ISKCON Leadership Sangha (ILS-2020) our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, instructed Nepal regional secretary Patri dasa to organize a padayatra in Nepal. Patri took Maharaja’s words to heart and discussed the idea with the Nepali devotees.
A friend of Patri, Brahmacari Sahastranam dasa from Ukraine, who has been serving in Nepal for twelve years engaged in community and farm services, was
By Damodarleela dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
Padayatra reached Bastavade village in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district on January 21. When we went for advance party to the village the previous day the leaders happily received us and quickly arranged our accommodation. As the news spread that some saints would be arriving with a rath carrying the Lord the residents prepared by sprinkling the roads with water and decorating them with rangoli, then welcomed us at the village entrance on the day
By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader
On November 15, 2020, Govardhan-puja day, padayatra was in Lodhva in Gujarat’s Junagadh district, the village of Bhakti Vikas Maharaja disciple Prabhu Krupa dasa. When he got the news that padayatra was coming to his village, Prabhu Krupa was delighted for he had a strong desire that the padayatris should stay at his house. However, as there was insufficient space at the house, we ended up staying in a school.
ISKCON was conducting a six-day Gita cours
