Padayaatra Newsletter 2016_EDITORIAL
Here we are, at the beginning of 2016, the year of ISKCON’s Golden Jubilee, which brings me back to the beginning of 1996, Srila Prabhupada’s centennial year.
At that time the Padayatra Ministry had pledged to have padayatra in 100 countries, but in May 1996, even after holding a global Padayatra Week, we still hadn’t reached our goal.
We had made so much noise about padayatra in one hundred countries, and we sincerely didn’t want to fall short. I believed that as long as Padayatra India, the mother of all padayatras, stayed on the road, padayatra would continue to spread worldwide.
And it did! The Lord’s infallible plan became clear when Ramiya Dasa, North American Centennial coordinator, inspired several devotees to take padayatra to the Caribbean, when Bhakti-tirtha Swami arranged walks in West Africa, and when Parasurama Dasa helped organize padayatra in East Africa. And especially when Ekanatha Dasa, the leader of Padayatra Europe, toured most of the thirteen new countries ( now CIS and Central Asian countries) that timely political changes had created in the ex-USSR. By the end of 1996 Padayatra Worldwide had reached 105 countries – five more than its quota.
For ISKCON 50, the Ministry has pledged to have 50 padayatras from Gaura Purnima 2014 to the end of 2016. It does not mean that they will have to take place in 50 different countries, like at the time of the centennial.
Every different padayatra in the same country will be counted, unless it is an annual walk or a continuous one spanning a few months or years. This new system allows us to honour the various walks taking place in large countries such as America, Russia, and especially India.
To this day, the beginning of January 2016, 26 padayatras have been completed, 9 are planned and 15 remain to be done. Once again, we feel some apprehension about being able to reach our goal.
We are praying to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, knowing that They are the Supreme Controllers, and if They want something, nothing or nobody in this world can stop Them. They have Their infallible plan, no doubt.
But since we are all Their servants, it really depends on all of us, including you, to jump on the bullock cart wagon if you have one, or just to put on our best walking shoes and get moving.
As our international walking monk, HH Bhaktimarga Swami stated, Krishna has given us these two legs to walk and this mouth to speak about the Absolute Truth, chant His glories and His holy names.
Here is your chance to get in shape, both physically and spiritually, and to give yourself a break from the daily routine. Are you not tired of spending hours in front of your computer or on your cell phone,and hankering to hear the sound of birds chirping, of cowsmooing, of rivers flowing, of the wind blowing, and of the holy names sung with great love by a group of blissful devotees?
Our goal is not just a numerical one - counting up to fifty – and then blowing our own trumpets once it is achieved. There is much more at stake.
Padayatra is an essential part of Srila Prabhupada’s preaching strategy for ISKCON to bring the whole world together with the holy name, festivals and prasadam in every town and village.
As it was stressed twenty years ago, padayatra is also a great opportunity to unite and reunite Srila Prabhupada’s family, to have friendly exchanges with devotees, to invite or visit devotees who have done much service to ISKCON, but may have taken distances for various reasons.
I’m sure that promoting this spirit of unity in diversity will be most pleasing to Srila Prabhupada, our dearmost founder-acarya and the eternal well-wisher of all his followers.
For this fiftieth anniversary, we are proposing that padayatris do something that has not been done much in ISKCON before: get feedback from the public.
It’s always interesting, positively challenging and very educational, both individually and globally, to know how we are perceived by others. We may think of ourselves as the saviours of this world, but we might be annoying or even antagonizing some people without being aware of it.
We thus invite all of you to take a bold step and use the survey printed in this newsletter. As usual, the dynamic Czech Padayatra team is leading the way. After all, the process of bhakti is all about loving exchanges, with Krishna, His devotees, His sons and daughters of different nationalities, races and creed, His creatures, and His entire creation.
So, get into action now. Become a leader yourself if your present leaders are too busy to organise a padayatra. It’s very simple, as you’ll see in the guidelines. When there’s a will, there’s a way.
Wishing you all a joyful, exciting and rejuvenating time on
padayatra!
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