Introduction
In 2016 ISKCON celebrated its 50th anniversary. Every ISKCON leader, member, project and zone was immediately inspired to jump into action. All festivals were geared at glorifying ISKCON and ISKCON’s Founder Acarya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. We at the Padayatra Ministry gave serious thought as to how we could celebrate this auspicious event. So we pledged to organise fifty Padayatras during this Golden Jubilee Anniversary year. We appealed to everybody far and wide. The response was so overwhelming that we surpassed our own expectations. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the organisers and participants who assisted us in making this offering to ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada possible.
We completed a total of 64 Padayatras for ISKCON50
Due to our previous experience with the Prabhupada Centennial celebrations, we knew that if we wanted to reach our target by the end of 2016 we had better start early. Gaura Purnima 2014 marked the inception date. The duration of these padayatras, excluding the ongoing and annual ones, varied from one day to one year. There were 22 oxcart padayatras, 3 with a horse cart, 19 with a palanquin, and 7 using vehicles in between towns and villages. Three devotees undertook solitary walks: the Walking Monk, Bhaktimarga Swami, Devarshi Dasa and Yasodadulal Dasa.
The heroes of the road
Yasodadulal Dasa is clearly the hero of the day with his one year padayatra across New Zealand, first with Gaura Nitai Deities carried on a horse cart, then only accompanied by a mrdanga, a small bag, his big faith and beaming smile. When you see him it’s easy to understand how our adventurous avadhuta padayatri touched people’s heart and how Krishna reciprocated with his full dependence on Him. Being one of these few devotees belonging to the padayatri class, he then continued to exotic lands, Fiji and Assam. Who knows where he’ll walk next? Being well over 60, he’s demonstrating that the soul is always young and joyful.
The All-India Padayatra has been on the road non-stop since 1984, under the expert and devotional leadership of Acarya Dasa since Radhastami 2009. This party of about twenty young men are fired up about book distribution and sharing Krishna consciousness with others. They undergo many physical austerities and sometimes even risk their lives for the pleasure of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara. Another heroic unalloyed padayatri is Narada Dasa from Russia. After leading an energetic fund-raising campaign to raise sufficient laksmi to get the vehicles and the devotees on the road, he led a blissful and colorful party of 70 devotees for 4 months, performing harinama and distributing thousands of books and magazines through 29 cities, covering a distance of 16 000 kms.
In the spirit of honoring Prabhupada’s own 3 day Padayatra in 1952 near Jhansi, ISKCON Jhansi organised a 30 kilometre Padayatra following in Srila Prabhupada’s footsteps by walking from Jhansi to Chirgaon.
Pleasant surprises
There was a one day drive-and-walk tour organized by Bhakti Carudesna Swami in Togo. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Murali Mohan Dasa astonished us with a series of short walks. The padayatris who astonished me the most were Narottama Dasa and his friend Mukharavinda Dasa. These two young brahmacaris walked the very austere 654 kms from Johannesburg to Durban in South Africa in order to raise funds to purchase their new sankirtana van.
The vision for the future of Padayatra
I’m also happy to announce the completion of my Padayatra Story Book. It was quite a challenge capturing the sheer volume of the contents in one book, or even in two books. The immediate plan is to post its entire contents on the Padayatra website. Abhay Dasa, one of the ex-padayatra America leaders, is currently working on the book reducing it to a manageable size while also giving it a format that will make it attractive and compelling reading for everyone. Stay tuned!
Besides continuing to enthuse, encourage and train young devotees worldwide to organize more Padayatras, even short ones, we keep suggesting to the organisers of World Holy Name Week to celebrate this festival – partially or entirely – through a Padayatra. With concerns for the environment and animal rights steadily increasing in most countries, it’s high time that devotees of Krsna preach strongly about cow protection and ox power by practically demonstrating how useful these animals are. Oxcart padayatra organisers are encouraged to work with animal rights groups, and I suggest that all ISKCON farmers put their oxen behind a cart and do regular Padayatras, at least around their farms, chanting the holy names of the Lord. It would be encouraging to see new faces taking the initiative. ISKCON leaders are all very busy and there are many ISKCON projects in progress which we have to oversee. Become a leader yourself! Krishna helps those who help themselves.
One of these padayatra leaders is Chandrabhaga Dasi. Yes, Vaisnavis can do it also, all it takes is some solid determination and a strong desire to reach out to people. For 4 years she walked with her husband and a horsecart from Pennsylvania, America, to the border of Peru. She recently organized two padayatras – one in Sweden and one in Iceland. Based on all this we are considering giving her some greater responsibilities in the world of Padayatra.
I want to thank Gaurangi Dasi who’s been organising, coordinating and managing the ministry for close on to five years. She has done a sterling job. Gaurangi is thinking of moving on, but will stay connected and associated with the Padayatra Ministry. She will be available for advice, Padayatra shows and writing some articles. She wants to organize her own Padayatras in France, where she will also be engaged in several kinds of outreach programs. She is currently working with a team of French devotees on a book on oxen and cows, which will obviously talk about padayatra.
Finally…..
I don’t know how many more years Krishna will give me in this body. I just hope and pray that together during the rest of my lifetime, we can solidify this Padayatra Ministry and that the new generations adopt this padayatra, in as many ways that they like to adapt it. Preferably with bullock carts, of course! Did not Srila Prabhupada say that he wanted millions of such carts all over the world? No better time to start than right now. Let’s go!
To read the whole Padayatra Newletter: http://www.padayatra.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Padayatra-Newsletter-.pdf
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