By Deena Bandhu dasa

A couple of days ago, while I was studying for giving Bhagavatam Class, one of the members of the Vrindavan Municipality called me. He informed me that there were 25,000 people from all over India walking by foot from Gwalior to New Delhi. They were protesting different issues, including pollution of the Yamuna and various problems of poor people. I was informed that they were not connected to any specific political group and were being led by one respectable gentleman who had received a National Award. He wanted us to come with our kirtan party to greet them as they entered Mathura District. They were due to arrive at 10 am, which is just after breakfast prasadam.

With only a few minutes left to give class, I rushed to inform our Co-president Srestha Prabhu who made all arrangements. With very short notice, I made an announcement after my class and at prasad time to try and collect some devotees.

Then Sri Vasistha, our municipality member and President of the Brahmin Society of Vrindavan, came along with the son of a famous Bhagavatam reciter. We filled up our Braja Darshan bus and rushed off to the site on the highway where they were all sitting as you can see in the photo. Half of the National Highway to Delhi was blocked off and traffic was going two-way on the opposite side. They walk, they sleep, and eat all on the highway.

The organizers asked Srestha Prabhu to speak and even though he is not proficient in Hindi, being from South India, he had them all cheering. He announced that to welcome them all to Braja, we would be doing Harer Nama Sankirtan. So after a few other speeches, the organizers requested us to begin our kirtan. As you can see there were four lines of people lining the highway in lines that stretched for 3 km!

All along the route we danced down the middle of them. They were all carrying green flags which they happily waved in the air as they joined the joyful kirtan as we passed. Although they were sitting on the highway in the hot sun, seeing Lord Caitanya’s kirtan party, they all broke into bright smiles.

After about an hour, we reached the end of the line. By Krishna’s arrangement, it ended exactly in front of our devotee Jankinatha Prabhu’s family house. Jankinatha, you may remember from other postings, is the head of our Prison Preaching Dept. He guessed that the procession would end somewhere near his house, so he had phoned ahead for them to arrange nimbu pani and snacks. Was he surprised to find the line ended directly in front of his house? We just walked off the highway into his house.

And the nimbu pani was delicious and refreshing. This was one of the most unusual Harer Nama parties I have ever been on. And 25,000 people got to chant the Holy Names and see the foreign ISKCON devotees on entering Braja. Sri Krishna Sankirtan ki Jaya!

In service of Srimati Vrinda Devi, Deena Bandhu dasa

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