{"id":112,"date":"2013-10-23T22:35:22","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T17:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=112"},"modified":"2013-10-23T22:40:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T17:10:01","slug":"mauritius-padayatra-during-world-holy-name-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/mauritius-padayatra-during-world-holy-name-week\/","title":{"rendered":"MAURITIUS: Padayatra during World Holy name Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two day padayatra<\/em> journey to celebrate Holy Name Week 2013 in Mauritius started off from Bhramstan, a small village in the eastern district of Flacq, at 11 a.m. on Saturday September 21st.\u00a0 Fifty devotees strong, \u00a0the team followed the magnificent three foot\u00a0 neem wood Deities of\u00a0 Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara who gave darshan<\/em> from Their beautifully decorated altar from the back of an open pick-up van.<\/p>\n

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\nHarinam in the crowd<\/em><\/p>\n

Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara were the centre of attraction wherever the padayatra<\/em> team went. Everyone who saw Them was attracted by Their beautiful lotus face and effulgence and came forward to offer Them laksmi<\/em>, incense, fruits, and obeisances.<\/p>\n

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\nLord Gaurasundar<\/em><\/p>\n

As the team approached their first destination, the town of Flacq \u00a0located 5 km from the starting point, it had grown to one hundred and fifty devotees. The town was bustling as it always does on a Saturday afternoon, but the busy crowds could not resist stopping and participating in the ecstatic kirtans<\/em> led by Sundarlal, Nrsingha\u00a0 and Harihar Prabhus. It seemed like the whole town was inundated with the chanting of the holy names. People were jubilant when the devotees started distributing sumptuous plates of free prasad.<\/em> Two thousand plates of prasad<\/em> were served, lovingly prepared by Sukhadev, Vrajadulal, Asita Krsna and Krsna-Sakha\u00a0 Prabhus and their team.<\/p>\n

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\nLord Nityananda<\/em><\/p>\n

When the harinam<\/em> and \u201cFood for Life\u201d in Flacq came to an end at 3.30p.m., the padayatra<\/em> team moved onto a small village called Providence-Flacq for the evening programme.\u00a0 Harinam<\/em> in Providence started at 5p.m. with forty devotees, but the number quickly grew. By the time the evening programme started there were three hundred guests in attendance. Sriniketana Prabhu,\u00a0 president of the ISKCON Sri Sri Krishna Balarama temple, addressed the eager crowd.\u00a0 After arati<\/em> a feast was served, once again prepared by Sukhadev Prabhu and his team.<\/p>\n

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\nNG in ISKCON temple<\/em><\/p>\n

The ten devotees who were the backbone of the Padayatra<\/em> stayed overnight in the village hall adjacent to the local Shivala. Sundarlal and Pancha-Tattva Prabhus joined them . The devotees had invited\u00a0 the inhabitants of the village for mangal arati, <\/em>so \u00a0the following day at 6 a.m. a group of them arrived in the hall. Panca-Tattva Prabhu explained the importance of tulasi worship and chanting the holy names, and Sundarlal Prabhu gave a presentation on the principles of Krishna consciousness. The participants, including the Shivala president, were very impressed and responded positively to this first and unique experience. They happily accepted sweets from the devotees and promised that they would keep in touch by visiting the temple.<\/p>\n

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\nNitai Gaurasundar on Their cart<\/em><\/p>\n

After breakfast one hundred and fifty devotees left for Mare Australia, another village\u00a0 in the Flacq district, where the walk started at 11 a.m. After walking eight kilometers, the padayatris <\/em>reached Lallmatie at 1.30 p.m. Everyone relished prasad<\/em> and proceeded to the Sri Sri Krishna Balarama temple for the Sunday Feast programme.<\/p>\n

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\nPrasad distribution<\/em><\/p>\n

In the evening the padayatra<\/em> group led a boisterous harinam<\/em> through Lallmatie, culminating with a hall programme at the Sita-Ram Mandir About three hundred people participated and enjoyed ecstatic kirtans, a dance performance by \u00a0the Padayatra<\/em> girls, and a talk by Sundarlal Prabhu. At the end everyone danced to Pradyumna Prabhu\u2019s roaring kirtan and was served sumptuous prasad<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\nProcession<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a fitting finale for the ISKCON Mauritius Padayatra\u2019s participation in World Holy Name Week 2013.<\/p>\n

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\nNG and Sign PY Mu<\/em><\/p>\n

More photos here…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two day padayatra journey to celebrate Holy Name Week 2013 in Mauritius started off from Bhramstan, a small village in the eastern district of Flacq, at 11 a.m. on Saturday September 21st.\u00a0 Fifty devotees strong, \u00a0the team followed the magnificent three foot\u00a0 neem wood Deities of\u00a0 Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara who gave darshan from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}