This padayatra <\/em>was our humble attempt to please Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and our dear Srila Prabhupada.\u00a0 We took on the service with guidance from Jasomatinandan Dasa and Lokanath Swami. The Ahmedabad padayatra <\/em>was inaugurated with a ribbon cutting ceremony by Jasomatinandan Dasa and we were set to begin.\u00a0 We had initially planned on having bullock carts on the padayatra <\/em>and had already acquired strong bulls, much like those on the \u2018All India Padayatra<\/em>\u2019.\u00a0 Unfortunately the noise of the kirtana <\/em>and the crowd of people dancing frightened them so much that they started running here and there in an attempt to escape. This went on for about an hour until we decided that it would be too much of a risk to have them walking on the roads with us.\u00a0 We left them at the temple to ensure a safe padayatra<\/em>.\u00a0 The devotees were disturbed when we told them that the bulls would not be joining us.\u00a0 A further concern and even more worrying was what was to be done with the cart, not having any bulls to pull it. Everyone was so determined that we started pulling the cart ourselves! Kirtana <\/em>started and we all sang \u201cKrishna Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Krishna he<\/em>\u201d and meditated on how Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had sung this as He left for South India. We then sang the Nrsimhadev prayers and off we went. This was the only hurdle we had encountered and it occurred right at the start, the rest of the five days of the padayatra <\/em>went very smoothly and blissfully. We did not receive any complaints from any of the devotees and by the mercy of Sri Sri Radha Govindaji, Gaura Nitai and all the vaisnava<\/em>s,<\/em> everything went accordingly.<\/p>\n Our five day plan began on January 15th<\/sup> from Ahmedabad.\u00a0 We travelled to Maninagar Swami Narayan temple and then to Hathijana Swami Narayan temple where we spent the night. On this day we had about twenty-five to thirty devotees who joined us from different groups, some even staying for two or three days on padayatra<\/em>. On January 16th<\/sup> we left Hathijana and travelled to Ranachod Rai temple in Kaniz \u2013we then made a pit stop at Siddhi Vinayak temple in Mehemdabad and stayed the night there.\u00a0 We left Mehemdabad on January 17th<\/sup> and travelled to Ranchod Rai Trust in Vanthvadi and then ended the day in Radha Krishna Trust in Sihunj.<\/p>\n The 18th<\/sup> of January saw us travelling from Sihunj to Nani Khadol and later that day we travelled to Alina and spent the night there. Lokanath Swami met us at the Radha Krishna Trust in Sihunj.\u00a0 On that day he led the guru-puja kirtana <\/em>and gave morning class until 9:10 a.m. After that he sang kirtana <\/em>and walked with us for 7 to 8 kilometres before leaving. Maharaj then joined us again that evening singing kirtana <\/em>all the way to Alina village, a place populated by many Muslim people. We distributed BTG\u2019s (Back to Godhead magazines) and small books for free and a lot of kitchiri prasadam <\/em>was distributed compared to the other four days on padayatra. <\/em><\/p>\n On the last day, the 19th<\/sup> of January, we travelled from Alina to Vrundavan Dham which was about 4 to 5 kilometres away. We left early that morning, around 6:30 a.m. after guru-puja, <\/em>morning class and breakfast. Lokanath Swami gave the morning class \u2013there were also a few female disciples of Jain Maharaj who attended. \u00a0After travelling for about 10 to 11 kilometres we ended padayatra <\/em>in Dakor Dham at 1:30 that afternoon. Lokanath Swami sang kirtana <\/em>distributing the holy names to everyone along the way. In total there were about seventy-five to eighty devotees walking with us consistently during all five days of the padayatra<\/em> together with a few devotees who also joined and then left intermittently.\u00a0 In all we had a grand total of a hundred plus devotees walking every day. \u00a0On the last two days we noticed that even more people had joined us and on the final day we counted three hundred and fifty devotees who walked with us to Dakor.<\/p>\n After reaching Dakor we served a prasadam<\/em> feast which went on until\u00a03.30 that afternoon.\u00a0 An hour later we held\u00a0an \u2018ending\u2019 ceremony attended by three disciples of Srila Prabhupada , Lokanath Swami,\u00a0Jasomatinandan Dasa and Sarvopama Dasa who sang a wonderful kirtana <\/em>and gave krsna- katha<\/em>. Many other senior devotees also graced the occasion. At the end of the program Harshad Dasa, a disciple of Ranchod Rai (Krsna), a Dakor\u00a0dham<\/em>–<\/em>vasi<\/em> gave a detailed katha<\/em> on Ranachod Rai.\u00a0 We ended at\u00a06.00 p.m.\u00a0with all the devotees taking darsan<\/em>a<\/em> of Dakor Rai.<\/p>\n Our routine on padayatra <\/em>was simple, every day we would rise at 3:30 in the morning, take bath and get ready for mangala-arati <\/em>at 5:15 followed by Nrsimha arati <\/em>and tulsi puja<\/em>. After which we had japa <\/em>time for forty-five minutes, then Guru puja <\/em>for Srila Prabhupada and morning class from 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. We then had milk and breakfast and at 9:00 a.m. we would start walking. We kept to this routine sadhana <\/em>for all five days. Devotees would chant the mahamantra <\/em>constantly either on their beads or in kirtana. <\/em>Lunch was usually served at 1.00 p.m. every day.\u00a0 Thereafter we would rest for one and a half hours before walking again at\u00a04.00 p.m.\u00a0to reach our destination for that day. After reaching the place where we would spend the evening, devotees would prepare for\u00a0sandhya-arati<\/em> followed by Nrsimha<\/em>–<\/em>arti<\/em>. Dinner\u00a0prasadam <\/em>would be then served and everyone would take rest.\u00a0Not a single devotee became tired from walking because they were chanting their respective rounds the entire journey and were fully engaged in kirtan<\/em>a<\/em>.<\/p>\n Throughout the course of the p<\/em>adayatra<\/em> we also distributed\u00a0books and after five days the total number of books distributed was more than eight hundred and fifty big books, hundreds of small books and more than a thousand\u00a0BTGs (Back to Godhead magazines). On the way we also continuously distributed prasadam<\/em>\u00a0such as teel laddhus <\/em>and sesame sweets and in the evenings we distributed\u00a0our famous\u00a0ISKCON kitchiri<\/em>. Madhavmohini Dasi and her team\u00a0were in\u00a0charge of\u00a0the cooking during padayatra <\/em>and described the experience as a short five day\u00a0Vraj<\/em> Mandal<\/em>a<\/em> Parikrama <\/em>or Navadwipa<\/em> M<\/em>andal<\/em>a<\/em> Parikrama<\/em>. \u00a0I myself also felt like it was training for Vraj Mandala Parikrama<\/em>.<\/p>\n We were happy to see padayatra <\/em>featured in the Divya Bhaskar newspaper, Anand edition in Dakor. This newspaper has one of the highest circulations in Gujarati.\u00a0 There was also a feature in Ahmedabad which appeared on the 22nd to the 25th. \u00a0I am very thankful to all those devotees who had extended their helping hands to make the Ahmedabad\u00a0p<\/em>adayatra<\/em> a memorable and successful event, for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and his anugas<\/em>.<\/p>\n
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