On October 25, 2015, the inaugural day of Sri Govind Gau Gram Prachar Yatra in ISKCON Hyderabad, several devotees from city had accompanied the Yatra devotees to the first village of Ramapuram. They had tasted the nectar of preaching in village. They did not wish to come back to the artificial life of city but were forced by their conditions. Again when they got the opportunity of weekend break, they fled towards Mattampalli in their cars. The stock of books with Rupanuga prabhu was exhausted and needed to be replenished. HG Ramasharan prabhu filled his car with hundreds of copies of the Bhagavad-gita and other small books of Srila Prabhupada, leaving just the right space for two devotees to fit in his car. Surrounded by the words of the Supreme Lord Krishna, HG Rasamandal prabhu and HG Jananivas prabhu (who had to take break from the Yatra to attend to some urgent issues joined them. The other car was driven by Bhakta Shivaprasad prabhu, with HG Haridas prabhu, and HG Harikirtan prabhu sitting behind while His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj seated right in front beside him.

The whole team of Sri Govind Gau Gram Prachar Yatra was jubilant to learn that His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami, the iron-man behind the Yatra and the Minister, ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry-India had changed his plans to be with them. Flying from Indonesia and brief stay-put at Hyderabad he would soon be there amidst them. It was their seventh day in a row. They were now in Mattampalli village in the district of Kodad. They waited anxiously for His Holiness’ arrival. He along with other devotees from Secunderabad city reached round 3 p.m. After a short break for prasadam he was ready to join the team for the program.

The program started with arati and chariot pulling of Lord Jagannath. Carrying the deities in the Sankirtan bus was difficult. The lanes and roads in the villages were narrow, not allowing a bus to move freely. The devotees thought of bullock cart, but that also had its own problems. Finally they resolved to use tractor – demon of farming – yukta vairagya? Tractor which otherwise is the culprit behind dwindling population of cows and bulls in the villages; and also killing of pure spirit of cultivation and farming was brought to some meaningful use of its innovation.

Like always, the devotees moved with the Lordships and Maharaj through the village lanes. The villagers were curious to see a white man in their village, and further impressed to see that he was speaking something about their welfare and concerns– about organic farming, cows, bhudevi and rich spiritual heritage of Bharatvarsha.

The villagers with no exception listened attentively to His Holiness’ words. Maharaj explained the picture of an ideal village – Vrindavan. He beautifully described the pastimes of the Supreme Lord in Vrindavan – How the simple life of inhabitants of Vrindavan revolved round making the Lord Govind happy as they tended to cows and engaged in simple farming. And the result was they were very wealthy. They were so wealthy that Nanda Maharaj alone had 9 lakh cows, and all of them were richly decked with varieties of gold jewelry and other ornaments. There was so much production of milk and milk product that the state flowed with river of milk, butter and other such products. There cannot be dearth of anything if the Supreme Lord Govind or Krishna is pleased. He emphasized how cows are dear to Lord Govind and without they being happy, He cannot be happy, and thus nobody could be happy. The inhabitants of Vrindavan were happy and lived a life of contentment protected directly by Him. Maharaj then said that even their village of Mattampalli could be turned to Vrindavan if they followed the instructions of the Supreme Lord Krishna as given in the Bhagavad-gita, while chanting His Holy Name- Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

They were intrigued to know how fertilizers marred farming, pushing farmers to commit suicide. Farming could be compared to yagna, as it is a sacred duty if done properly. It is not something demeaning, but an activity that provides the world with their basic requirement of food. Lord Krishna’s eternal associate, Lord Balaram always carries a plough (not a tractor), symbolic of traditional method of farming. It helps build the sambandha with Bhudevi (His consort) and gomata (His dear ones) and thus with the Supreme Lord too. He is thus pleased. There were interesting questions related to organic farming which maharaj explained very nicely.

The lecture was given in an open ground in the village. There were about 150-200 people sitting. The crowd consisted of primarily youth, women and farmers. Happy to hear from maharaj 150 villagers took the sacred oath of protecting Mother Cow. About 70 small books and 34 maha-books were distributed on the occasion. Soon as the melodious sound of sankirtan flowed in the air, they could not resist from dancing. All the devotees and the villagers danced in ecstasy keeping maharaj in the middle of their circle. The wonderful scene could be compared to the transcendental lotus flower where every devotee and villager was like a petal and maharaj the middle golden stamen spreading the fragrance of Harinam everywhere.

With the blessings of all the vaishnavas, especially His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami another day of successful Yatra was over. Tomorrow was another day, another new village.

Please click on below picture to view all pictures from this event

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhakti Vedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj ki Jai!!

Sri Govind Gau Gram Prachar Yatra ki Jai!!!

Hare Krsna.

Source...http://www.iskconvarnasrama.com/home/sgggpy-to-mattampally-village-lucky-seven/