Yatra to Gollapalem Village.
Gollapalem is a small hamlet surrounded by green fields all around. People are mostly from Yadava community and there are around 60-70 houses in the village. Though the village is small, almost every house has cows and bulls. The main occupation is agriculture and salt production. January 14, 2016 being sankranthi festival, everyone was busy decorating their houses with festoons and big colorful rangolis in the courtyard. Everywhere there was pounding of rice in traditional mortar to prepare fresh sweets for the festival. The Yatra bus reached the village in the morning hours at 7:30. As soon as we arrived in the village, children crowded us and later a group of nearly 30 young men assembled to volunteer in the proceedings. The program started with the procession of taking Sri Jagannath-Baldev-Subhadra mai in the chariot; almost all the men in the village joined the procession. Though the village was small the procession went on for three hours stopping at almost every house as the people made various offerings to Lord Jagannath. At the end of the procession we received not less than 50 kgs of different vegetables. Later villagers assembled in a newly built Sri Rama temple. Go puja was performed in solemnity. It was followed by lectures on the Holy Name and mother cow. We could not show visual presentation because it was day time. Young men asked questions related to differences between many faiths. The village head offered to build an ashram and a temple for Lord Krishna if we were prepared to take up preaching there.
Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=19061
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