By Vishnu Swami dasa, Telangana padayatra leader
Since December padayatra has been back on the road in Telangana, a state in the centre-south stretch of the Indian peninsula. The padayatris are currently in Nizamabad district where the Nizamabad ISKCON centre president, Harikirtan dasa, is extending his cooperation to us and informing all nearby centres about us. The local congregation devotees are joining padayatra and welcoming us and offering us prasadam.
On March 15 we were invited to Varni village, about 20km from the large town of Bodhan where we have a Nama hatta centre. Forty devotees and villagers participated in a grand nagar sankirtan led by Ashokatma dasa and Harinama Kirtan dasa and we distributed prasadam, honoured by about 110 people, after the evening programme.
The book distribution scores in Varni were Bhagavad-gita 20; Ramayana (Telagu) 8; Krishna Book (Telagu) 2; Science of Self-Realisation (Telagu) 2; Small books (Telagu) 60; Back to Godhead magazines (Telagu) 20; Total 112.
The Bodhan Nama hatta nagar sankirtan participants were Srinivas Sevananda dasa; Ashokatma dasa; Ratnamayi Radhika devi dasi; Harinama Kirtan dasa; Ganga Vishnu Pari devi dasi; Bhakta Shrikant; Bhakta Naveen; Bhakta Sai Krishna; Bhakta Anji; Pramila mataji; Saritha mataji; Bhaktin Alekhya; Bhakta Manikandan; Narasimhalu prabhu; Bhakta Sai Babu; Bhakta Gauranga; Bhakta Bala Shiva Sai; Bhaktin Pavani; Bhaktin Tulasi; Padma mataji; Lakshmi mataji; Bhaktin Achitha; Bhakta Sai Teja; Bhakta Shankar; Bhakta Akhil; Thimmanna prabhu; Bhakta Srujan; Bhaktin Nagasantoshi; Bhaktin Vidya; Bhakta Sailu; and Rambabu Movva prabhu.
An appeal to join padayatra
We have fewer padayatris than before but the programme is still going on very well. With the help of congregation devotees, we are walking and carrying out our preaching mission. I had taken a six-month break as padayatra leader for family reasons, and during that time padayatra was under the leadership of Srinivas Sevananda. There is a scarcity of devotees for padayatra, with only two there at present. Now I am a guest only, but I will try to spend at least ten to fifteen days with the padayatra until a good team can be formed. You are invited to join this padayatra and serve the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada.
