By Candrabhaga Devi Dasi
On December 20, 2016 an international group of around 35 devotees (12 matajis, rest prabhus) left Sri Mayapur Dham from Srila Prabhupada’s Bhajan Kutir for a seven day, 80 km padayatra to Katwa tirtha. Katwa is the place where Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had taken sannyasa. Along the way the yatra passed other tirthas including Nrsimhapalli where Lord Nrsimhadeva had washed His nails after the battle with Hiranyakasipu.
Krsnapada the ox, on his first walk out of Mayapur lead the party through Krishnanagar, Baluka, Kanainagar, Navadvip, Srirampur, Kalikatala, Agradvip, and on to Katwa. Thanks to HG Hrimati mataji who entrusted him and the rath cart which became home to Nitai Pada Kamala, Gaura Nitai who reside at the Bhajan Kutir in Mayapur.
Our team was graced by the presence of many sincere devotees who wholeheartedly walked, chanted, distributed books and prasadam. We had devotees from 6 different countries walking together. In the evenings after settled in our camp, the PY team would do nagar sankirtana to invite the locals to Gaura arati and katha. With the help of Gauranga Prem Swami Maharaj and the Nama hatta leaders in Navadvip and Bardhaman districts, the PY was hosted each night by Nama hatta families, with full hospitality. After the long day’s walk, prasadam was always timely and abundant, thanks to Avadhuta Nitai prabhu for organizing the kitchen!
Ragukula prabhu did wonderful Gaur Katha in several of the places we stopped to have darshan. In Agradvip, we crossed the Ganga in the evening and visited the temple of Gopinath. Here we heard the life of Sri Govinda Ghosh, and his special relationship with his Gopinath Deity. After Govinda Ghosh’s son passed away, Gopinath agreed to do his Sraddha ceremony and each year this festival is still celebrated on his disappearance day (Papamocani Ekadasi). After reaching Katwa, we did nagar sankirtana to the place of Sri Gauranga Bari temple where Lord Caitanya took sannyasa, and saw His hair samadhi. On the final day, we visited Jajigram, an important tirtha of Lord Caitanya’s associates and Srikhanda. Srikhanda is a magical place that was home to many Gaudiya Vaisnavas, including Locana das Thakur, author of Caitanya Mangala. Here we visited different temples and tirthas of these great Vaisnavas and heard of their qualities and pastimes.
For the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada during his marathon month, the Mayapur to Katwa PY distributed 72 Maha big books, Bhagavad Gitas; 1400 BTG magazines, 599 small books, and 50 kilos of Mahaprasadam with 12,000 laxmi points. Thanks to the stalwart Mayapuri mataji party who really took up the challenge to distribute books the whole way! Thanks also to Istadeva prabhu for bringing everyone together and doing everything needful to make it all happen. It was a beautiful hybrid of Padayatra, book marathon, and Gaura Mandala parikrama. Many devotees were inspired to continue making these local Mayapur padayatras a regular event.
