{"id":3592,"date":"2016-12-27T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T23:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=3592"},"modified":"2016-12-27T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T23:35:00","slug":"iskcon-latur-organizes-a-3-day-padayatra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/iskcon-latur-organizes-a-3-day-padayatra\/","title":{"rendered":"ISKCON LATUR ORGANIZES A 3-DAY PADAYATRA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sundarkrsna Dasa<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Latur to Goroba Ter<\/strong><\/p>\n

The devotees of Latur, Maharasthra, organized a three-day padayatra<\/em> to celebrate ISKCON\u2019s 50th<\/sup> anniversary. The padayatra<\/em> took place from Latur to Ter started on October 24th<\/sup> and ended on October 26th<\/sup>. Latur is a city in the Marathwada region of Maharasthra and is popular with tourists for its historical monuments. \u00a0Ter is a village located in the Osmanabad district about 50 kilometers away from Latur. The village was once home to Sant Gora Kumbhar (also known as Goroba) who was associated with the Bhakti movement and the Varkari sect[1]<\/a> in Maharashtra. He was a potter by trade and a devotee of Lord Vitthal. The village is presently known as Goroba Ter. Gora Kumbhar and other saints also wrote and sung hundreds of abhangs<\/em> (devotional poetry sung in praise of Lord Vitthal).<\/p>\n

Inspiration <\/strong><\/p>\n

The padayatra <\/em>was inspired by Lokanath Swami after he had spoken to us about doing one in our area. He was always sharing the experiences he had when he first started padayatra<\/em> after being instructed by Srila Prabhupada. He also mentioned the \u2018All India Padayatra\u2019 as an example, and of course, whenever he spoke about that padayatra <\/em>he would talk about Acarya Dasa. Lokanath Swami praised Acarya Dasa for leading the \u2018All India Padayatra\u2019 and told us to get ideas from him. So, being inspired by Lokanath Swami, we gained strength from his order much like the way trees and plants derive nourishment from the all-powerful sun.<\/p>\n

Day 1, October 24th<\/sup> Murud Akola<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our small team of ISKCON Latur devotees made all the preparations for the padayatra<\/em>. The procession consisted of a bullock cart carrying small deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Maiya together with a photograph of Srila Prabhupada and 40 padayatris<\/em> \u2013also traveling with us was a vehicle carrying all our necessities.<\/p>\n

We started the padayatra<\/em> at the ISKCON Latur temple and walked to our first destination, Murud Akola, located 18 kilometers away.\u00a0 We walked, sang and danced the entire way and reached there that evening. Upon arriving we had sankirtana <\/em>followed by a short lecture on the importance of harinam<\/em> and taking up spiritual life. It was the month of kartikka, <\/em>so we also sang the \u2018Damodarastakam\u2019 prayers with many of the local residents joining us in offering lamps to Lord Damodar, and since no program is complete without prasadam,<\/em> we also distributed prasadam <\/em>to everyone who attended. Finally, we made an announcement welcoming everyone to join us for mangal arati <\/em>the next morning.<\/p>\n

Day 2, 25 October<\/strong> Murud <\/strong><\/p>\n

We all gathered at 5.00 am for the morning program. We had mangal arati, nrishma arati, tulasi arati, <\/em>sang the shiksatakam<\/em>, recited the 10 offenses against chanting the holy names and paid our vaishnav pranams.<\/em> We then set off at 6.00 am for Murud, about 20 kilometers away. As we neared Murud we did sankirtana<\/em> and book distribution and when we arrived, that evening, we had another short lecture on \u2018how the holy names can deliver us\u2019. We even did a skit on Sant Gora Kumbhar followed by offering lamps to Lord Damodar and prasadam.<\/em><\/p>\n

Day 3, 26th<\/sup> October<\/strong> Ter<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the last day of the padayatra<\/em> after the morning program, we walked towards Ter the village of Gora Kumbhar located 17 kilometers away from Murud. It was ekadasi<\/em> so once we reached Ter we took darsan<\/em>a<\/em> of the temples there and then we had e<\/em>kadashi prasadam<\/em>. Afterward, we had sankirtana <\/em>and ended with a short lecture on the character of Gorakumbhar..<\/p>\n

Acknowledgements <\/strong><\/p>\n

We wish to thank all the devotees who made this padayatra<\/em> possible, the pujaris<\/em>, the kitchen department and most importantly those who participated in the padayatra<\/em> from start to finish. All the padayatris <\/em>were enthusiastic and courageous and everyone enjoyed the culture-combining experience. It was wonderful when devotees shared their realizations including how padayatra<\/em> means taking full shelter of the Lord. So, this padayatra<\/em> had indeed brought us closer to the Lord and to our Gurudev. Our goal for the future is to plan an ISKCON Latur Food for Life program once a month, on e<\/em>kadashi<\/em>, <\/em>in Ter. We pray that Lokanath Swami may kindly bless and empower is to serve him, for whatever we accomplish \u00a0he has inspired us and empowered us to do .<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Varkari refers to \u2018pligrim\u2019, it is a religious movement within the bhakti spiritual tradition and is associated with Indian states of Maharashtra and northern Karnataka.<\/p>\n

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