{"id":3729,"date":"2017-02-20T08:59:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T03:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=3729"},"modified":"2017-02-20T08:59:50","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T03:29:50","slug":"tea-or-me-padayatra-assam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/tea-or-me-padayatra-assam\/","title":{"rendered":"TEA OR ME? PADAYATRA ASSAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yasodadulal Dasa<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

– Report on the North East frontier<\/p>\n

– offering respects and begging for mercy<\/p>\n

– breaking coconuts on the doorstep of Kamakya Maa, the lady of forested hilltop and the istadevi of Assam<\/p>\n

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

I have no doubt that it is the mother who moves the whole universe.<\/p>\n

As Hanuman came looking for Sita Devi, carrying a message from Lord Rama, I came to Assam on a mission, sent by guru<\/em> to fire up p<\/em>adayatra<\/em> in yet another country.\u00a0 With my tail dipped in the ghee of guru nistha[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> and set ablaze by his simple words of,<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, do it,\u201d<\/p>\n

I jumped here and there like the wind, fanning any spark of interest.\u00a0 A full moon had passed and the last days of the last month of 2016 waned toward the New Year.\u00a0 In my own heart, I wanted it to go off like fireworks as a celebration blast.<\/p>\n

This remote mystical oasis of Indo-China sports the fertile floodwaters of the sacred Brahmaputra (a male river) \u2013it is also a great starting point for sacred pilgrimages.\u00a0 Assam is the shakti<\/em> pit of Bhumi, seated in the sacred arena of the Seven Sisters (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura).\u00a0 It is also a place chosen by Krishna where He came to acquire 16,000 queens.\u00a0 On the black heart of Bhaumasura\u2019s ways, Krishna struck His lightning bolt victory, of spirit over matter.\u00a0 When Krishna traveled over this land by horse from Dwarka he left His lotus footprint imprinted in the rock as a seal to testify His visit (Ashwaklanta). He then returned to Dwarka with His numerous queens.\u00a0 After understanding the importance of this sacred place we held a significant pilgrimage here to mark the 50- year celebration of ISKCON.<\/p>\n

As the time ticked closer to midnight, a few well-wishers nibbled away at the fuse, embarking on several small initial pilgrimages that caught fire from simple ideas.\u00a0 With the flame of a small crew burning with enthusiasm for kirtan<\/em>a,<\/em> we were able to ignite some test flight p<\/em>adayatras<\/em>.\u00a0 We chanted through many small villages of tribal folk, who enthusiastically joined us flaring up like dry grass on fire.\u00a0 The good word spread fast. After all, this was a time of year for goodwill and celebration.\u00a0 After two weeks of trial padayatras<\/em> and feeling a sense of urgency of \u2018time running out\u2019 we conducted three separate walks, each one successfully more sophisticated and elaborate then the last.\u00a0 We called these efforts \u2018Steps Toward Peace\u2019.\u00a0 Due to being in rural environments, the padayatras<\/em> were very successful in uniting people of very different ethnic and tribal backgrounds under one banner, celebrating ISKCON\u2019s 50th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n

Save Earth now<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are some rare times in life when everything just seems to line up without much effort and when things happen very positively, producing results beyond our expectation. These walks were like that. It seemed that our core p<\/em>adayatra <\/em>party was in the right place at the right time to inaugurate a short but significant p<\/em>adayatra<\/em> pilgrimage from Kamakhya Devalaya to Vashistha ashram.\u00a0 Initially, the proposed route was to carry us through Guwahati,the very busy and congested capital city of Assam, which would afford us noteworthy public exposure.\u00a0 We used the catch phrase \u201cSave Earth Now\u201d, as inspired by Srila Prabhupada\u2019s first newspaper article featured in the Lower East Side, New York City, 1966.\u00a0 The local people here related to our simple but double-edged theme.\u00a0 \u201cSave Earth Now\u201d is a slogan that directly addresses the current world ecological and environmental crisis.\u00a0 It can also be used to deliver the deeper spiritual message that the solution to all material problems is, in fact, a spiritual answer.\u00a0 Armed with these words, we were able to \u201cgo in like a needle and come out like a plough\u201d, with our simple but successful philosophy.<\/p>\n

And so, it came to pass that, on Saturday, December 31st <\/sup>, the last day of 2016, we rolled out our exotic little rath<\/em>a<\/em> (cart) onto the streets.\u00a0 It was a humble presentation.\u00a0 The cart was constructed with handcrafted bamboo canes and decorated with the crafts of local village skills.\u00a0 It was our intention to use the subtle suggestion that preserving a down to earth agrarian lifestyle is, in fact, the best way to \u201cSave the Earth\u201d.\u00a0 But how to change the way we think had to be delivered in Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books, which we distributed during the march through the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to change the way the world thinks.\u201d \u2013 Srila Prabhupada.<\/p>\n

Blessings and support <\/strong><\/p>\n

It was also fitting that our cart was pulled by a small pony since it was Christmas, and Jesus himself rode on a donkey to show his humility.\u00a0 Before beginning our walk we had made good friends with Mohit Sharma, the Deloi (mahant) of the famous Kamakhya Mandir.\u00a0 So, our public relations were first class. For us, receiving Mohit Sharma\u2019s sincere blessing was like receiving a touch on the head by the mother of the universe herself.\u00a0\u00a0 Along the route we were met by a favorable police department, they gave us their total support escorting our extensive party of over 150 devotees.\u00a0 We also met other important dignitaries including the Minister of Railways of Assam, who walked with us for two days, and the Vice Chancellor of one of the local universities.\u00a0 They were duly presented with garlands, Bhagavad<\/em>-g<\/em>itas<\/em>, and prasadam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The two-day, 40-kilometer walk to Vashistha ashram culminated in meeting the head pandit<\/em> there.\u00a0 He spoke meaningful words to us at the holy tirth<\/em>a<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, if we take good care of the mother Earth, she will take good care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last dance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our challenge now was how to come down off the mountain of p<\/em>adayatra <\/em>ecstasy and how to land the consciousness back into regular day to day life. Anyone can fast but it takes a wise person to know how to break a fast. Our now seasoned p<\/em>adayatra<\/em> team, high on the mission of giving Nitai and Gaura out to anybody along the way, now needed to come down with an introspective finish.\u00a0 It was, therefore, a fitting choice to embark on a \u201clast dance\u201d which, we called \u2018Parasurama Papanasanam Padayatra\u2019, a 108 kilometer trek to the holy site of Parasurama kund<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A group of ISKCON sadhus<\/em> floated on the mellows of meditative kirtan<\/em>a<\/em>, walking steadily each day into the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh.\u00a0 This was a fitting tribute to the powerful Bhargava Rama (Parasurama), who thousands of years before had come to free Himself of the \u201cpap\u201d (sin) of repetitive violence committed to the ksatriya<\/em> race.\u00a0 The destination of our parikrama<\/em> brought us to the holy site of Brahma\u2019s kund.\u00a0 Parasurama visited and planted his axe in the boulder dam there, slicing it open and allowing the pure and clean Brahmaputra (son of Brahma) river to flow.\u00a0 It is known from ancient scriptures that with His parasu<\/em> (axe), He gouged the course of the Brahmaputra river all the way down the back of the Himalayas from Lake Mansarovara (origin of Mount Kailash), located in modern-day Tibet (China).<\/p>\n

Time for reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

We then left behind the floodwater plains of the mighty Brahmaputra River and edged our way into the lower end sweep of the Himalayan range.\u00a0 The busy, close, hubbub of Hindu faith gave way to the more distant impersonal solitude of Buddhist ways.\u00a0\u00a0 This gave us time to reflect on the historical significance of what our \u2018Padayatra Assam\u2019 had achieved.\u00a0 Every step taken was a way to free ourselves from all sin.\u00a0 Simultaneously, we desired to be torchbearers in this dark age of Kali by lighting the sacred flame of h<\/em>arinam sankirtan<\/em>a<\/em>. We could see the faces of the tribal folk light up, experiencing for the first time Gauranga\u2019s sankirtan<\/em>a<\/em> joy.\u00a0 We all took a sacred bath at the very site where Dasavatar Parasurama Rsi had performed penance which was definitely a karmic release for us.\u00a0 It is also described that the craggy stone outcrop in the middle of the river is believed to be the blade of His parasu<\/em> (axe).\u00a0 The benefits of visiting this holy tirtha<\/em> are well documented and yet, it felt like our mission, on behalf of Srila Prabhupada was one of purifying this holy site, where traditionally, thousands of pilgrims come to dump their troubles.<\/p>\n

Hari Charan Baba, a staunch yogi sadhu<\/em> who came here in 1961 all by himself, and is still currently overseeing this ashram<\/em>, was very pleased to have us visit.\u00a0 He magnanimously supplied us with sweet ahimsa<\/em> milk from his famous goshala <\/em>along with fire cooked rotis from his own heart and hand.\u00a0 We all sat around his sacred dhuni<\/em> (fire pit) with his cherished deities of Ram, Sita and Laksmana.\u00a0 This was in itself a ritual of acceptance and respect to honor Prabhupada and his boys, something usually afforded only to chosen rsi sadhus<\/em>.\u00a0 I feel we are now ready to move on into the next 50 years of ISKCON.<\/p>\n

My sincere gratitude to the following devotees:<\/p>\n

Vrindapati Das (senior leader, Assam) and Sri Jeeva Das (Temple President, Guwahati) for their full support and guidance.<\/p>\n

Tapan Prabhu, Uddhava Das Brahmachari, Kamal Lochan Das Adhikary, and Jitamitra Prabhu for their complete attendance of p<\/em>adayatra <\/em>and their endless chanting, blissful dancing and cooking of delicious prasadam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And to all the devotees of the Assam yatra<\/em> who participated to make this padayatra<\/em> so successful.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> To have faith in one\u2019s Guru<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n