{"id":2703,"date":"2016-08-15T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T07:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2016-08-15T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T07:38:10","slug":"august-1st-to-5th-padayatra-near-new-mayapur-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/august-1st-to-5th-padayatra-near-new-mayapur-france\/","title":{"rendered":"AUGUST 1st to 5th : PADAYATRA NEAR NEW MAYAPUR, FRANCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sundar Gopal Dasa<\/span><\/p>\n

From the 1st to the 5th August, a team of French devotees, headed by Devarshi Dasa and myself organized a padayatra around the New Mayapur farm in honor of ISKCON\u2019s 50th anniversary celebration. The theme of our padayatra\u00a0 was ‘Walk for Peace’. The first four days a group of about 20 devotees led by Janananda Goswami inundated the main cities around New Mayapur with the bliss of harinama.\u00a0Each day, we left the temple in the morning at around 9:30<\/span><\/span> and came back in the evening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first village we expected to find many tourists, but we found the place\u00a0almost\u00a0completely deserted, as can be seen from some of the pictures. Keeping in mind Lord Caitanya\u2019s and padayatra\u2019s motto, we kept chanting there and even met a few friendly souls who were very much appreciative of the fact that we came to such a \u00a0‘dead’ place.\u00a0Fortunately, the remaining cities we walked \u00a0through were very busy and we even had difficulties getting through the crowded market places.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the last day, padayatris walked\u00a0 -or rather danced- the 8 kilometers from the\u00a0neighboring\u00a0village of \u00a0Lu\u00e7ay-le-M\u00e2le, to the farm, accompanied by Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and Srila Prabhupada deities riding on a beautiful oxcart driven by Jaladuta Dasa, the caretaker of the oxen and cows in New Mayapur.<\/span><\/p>\n

During this five day event, devotees distributed 190 books, 90 of the ’50th<\/sup> anniversary’ magazines and \u00a0hundreds of flyers inviting the public to a special evening program concluding the walk. <\/span>The program attended with around thirty guests providing a reception for the walkers, arati in the temple room, a slide show on the history of ISKCON by Janananda Goswami, and finally a delicious prasadam feast. It was very blissful ! <\/span>Devotees unanimously agreed that from now on such a padayatra should \u00a0take place every year around New Mayapur.<\/span><\/p>\n