{"id":5129,"date":"2018-10-13T17:43:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T12:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2018-10-13T17:43:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T12:13:11","slug":"all-india-padayatra-celebrates-janmastami-at-beed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/all-india-padayatra-celebrates-janmastami-at-beed\/","title":{"rendered":"ALL INDIA PADAYATRA CELEBRATES JANMASTAMI AT BEED"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Acarya dasa \u2013 AIP leade<\/strong>r<\/p>\n

On September 1\u00a0the All India Padayatra reached Beed, a city with a population of almost 150,000 that is the administrative headquarters of the Beed district in central Maharashtra.<\/p>\n

The ISKCON Beed devotees were anticipating our arrival \u2013 the padayatris<\/em> could hear their enthusiastic sankirtana<\/em> while still 5km from the city centre \u2013 and gave us a truly grand welcome. In their eagerness to receive Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara, the local devotees adorned us with garlands on the outskirts of town, the occasion reminding us of King Uttanapada and his wives coming out of their palaces to welcome Dhruva. The two sankirtana<\/em> parties then walked united into the city loudly chanting the holy names.<\/p>\n

Having secured our accommodations in three apartments near the ISKCON temple, that evening we took darsana<\/em> of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda and attended the temple programmes, where we were graced with the opportunity to hear about the Lord\u2019s pastimes from the Noida temple co-president, Krishna-bhakta dasa, who had been in Beed for several days delivering Bhagavata-katha.<\/p>\n

According to the local calendar the Janmastami festival was to be held the following day, and Krishna-bhakta dasa kindly invited me to perform mangala-arati<\/em> of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda and give Srimad-Bhagavatam<\/em> class. During the class I shared some of our padayatra <\/em>adventures, which enchanted the local devotees. Later we performed harinama<\/em> in the city and attended a home programme.<\/p>\n

That evening there was a large public gathering in the pandal<\/em>\u00a0in front of the temple and in the temple room. The temple devotees were extremely appreciative to have the padayatris<\/em> attending the festival, allotting us sankirtana-seva<\/em>. Krishna-bhakta dasa\u2019s Bhagavata-katha was followed by children\u2019s cultural programmes and abhisheka<\/em> of Their Lordships. We also celebrated Krishna-bhakta dasa\u2019s birthday, as well as that of senior padayatri<\/em> Damodar-leela dasa, who happens to be a native of Beed. The devotees then served a prasadam <\/em>feast.<\/p>\n

The next day was the Lord\u2019s appearance day as per the Vaishnava calendar. The celebrations included harinama sankirtana<\/em> by the padayatris<\/em> from morning until just after noon and again at 5pm, followed by cultural programmes, abhisheka<\/em> and arati <\/em>at the temple. At midnight the congregation honoured Ekadasi prasadam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With Srila Prabhupada\u2019s appearance festivities taking place the following day, the devotees began sharing their realizations and paying tribute to Srila Prabhupada just after 9am. Krishna-bhakta dasa gave class on the glories of Srila Prabhupada, which was followed by pushpa abhisheka<\/em> of Srila Prabhupada. The abhisheka<\/em> was highlighted by the two Prabhupada deities, one from the temple and the other from padayatra,<\/em> being showered with flowers, a wondrous spectacle for all. This was followed by maha-arati<\/em> and prasadam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Due to the torrential rain that evening, instead of going for kirtana<\/em> we held a namma-hatta <\/em>programme with small Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara deities at the home of local devotees.<\/p>\n

In the morning, after prasadam<\/em> we bade farewell to the Beed devotees and began the 130km walk towards Latur, where we planned to celebrate Radhastami in conjunction with the thirty-fifth birthday of Padayatra India.<\/p>\n