Kirtaniya Sada Hari
Padayatra Forever

Some devoteescome on Sunday. What about other, devotees? You should come visit theLord and devotees. Come – go, come – go, and then once come and never go.Do this kind of preparation. AttainLord and return back to Godhead from where we all actually belong, that planet is Vaikuntha planet or Golok planet. Do you all belong to Krisna?
You belong to Ram, onlyLord is yours and mine.

tvama eva mata
tvam eva pita
tvam eva bandhu

Tvam eva, Tvam Eva, we say tvameva, it is formed from two words evameans only you, you only are the mother, you only are father, you only are brother, you only are friend, tvam eva dravinam that is knowledge and wealth. Our spiritual life begins with the sambandha (relation) in this way, we should re- establish our relationship with theLord. Who we are?Who isLord? And what relation we have with theLord? These are the basic things we should learn and understand in this human life.

“athato brahma jijnasa”
‘Translation: “Now is the time to inquire about the Absolute Truth.”

Atha means now and now means whenyou have become human. Atha means for this reason you become inquisitive about spirit.Lord Krishna says in Gita
“pari prashnena sevaya,

Ask questions, who am I? Ke ami, kema amay, jare tapa trya.

What is mine? ask questions and you will get answers, every question has an answer. No one can ask any question which is not asked before. We cannot ask any new question. Before us, many had asked that question and now we are asking. Whenever the question was raised, answer was available there because answer is truth and truth is eternal. Satya meva jaite, truth always win.

sarvam eta dhritam mane yanmam vadasi keshav

Arjun also says in Bhagavat Gita said that whateverLord you speak, you speak only truth. The Vedas are also the Vani (speech) of theLord and all is truth. So, it is expected from us that we should be curious, not just curious but curious with relation to Brahma, Parabhrama or soul. But what we ask questions are about price in the market. All these question and answers are going on day and night in court or vegetable market or in school and colleges, but many of the questions are not spiritual and related to Brahma. (Kirtan Hare Krishna …) Hare Krishna mahamantra do you all liked it?
Devotees: Hari Bol!!!

Lokanath Swami Maharaja : It is not any manorajan (entertainment) programme, it is atmarajan, atmarajan means for the peace and satisfactionof the soul or for the nourishment of the soul so that we can becomemahatma than just atma everyoneand also woman because, here we are talking about the soul so there is no question or difference of female and male. In this way, you all in your home, or wherever you are, do kirtan, this is told by Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself and to tell this he went from village to village, town to town, there is a possibility that from Jagannath Puri to Jharkhanda, now it has become a state, before it was a forest so he went from there to Mathura-Vrindavan. Does Kanpur come in between?
Devotees: Yesss!!

Lokanath Swami Maharaja : I wanted to sayLord must have come here also, there is a possibility, also it is said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu here somewhere took a bath on the banks of Ganges, in this area and then moved ahead. Krsna who is merciful, if he was not merciful what kind of Krishna? If not, ours then at least listen to the words of Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said?

“bolo Krishna bhajo Krishna karo Krishna Shiksha”

Like this he said two-three more things, he himself would also do this,as well as said to Haridas Thakur and NityanandaPrabhu who were the leading preachers. Who was Haridas thakur? Brahma himself, Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh from which the Brahma he became Brahma Haridas thakur or his name became Haridas thakur.

And Balaram hoilo Nitai, Krishna Balaram ki jai, Dauji ka bhaiya Krishna Kanhaiya”

That Dauji 500 years ago appeared as NityanandaPrabhu”Balaram hoilo nitai”.There were many teams who used to preach on behalf of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, so one of that teams ,’leading team’ was of Haridas thakur and Nityananda prabhu so Chaitanya mahaprabhu said,

suno suno Nityananda, suno Haridasa,
sarvatra amara ajna koroha prakasa,
prati ghare ghare giya koro ei bhiksa,
bolo Krishna, bhaja Krishna, koro Krishna siksa

“O hear Me, hear Me Nityananda! Hear Me Haridasa! Simply disseminate My order everywhere. Go from house to house and beg [the residents as follows]: ‘Speak about Krsna, worship Krsna and teach [others] about Krsna.’”

[Caitanya-bhagavata Madhya-Lila 13.8-9]

Go to each house and preach my order and that is “bolo Krishna (say Krishna) bhajo KKrishna (chant Krishna) karo Krishna Shiksha(teach others about Krishna)” so this is Chaitanya mahaprabhu’s instruction,not mine, who am I to instruct you ,I am also like you,I am just one of you.
500 years ago when Chaitanya mahaprabhu appeared “sambhavami yuge yuge”and what he does dharma samsthapanarthya establishes principles of religion, and Kaliyuga’s dharma is Harinam Sankirtan

“kali kaler dharma harinaam sankirtana ara nahi dharma”,
It is said in the scripture’s there is no other dharma in this age of Kali other than Hari nam sankirtan.
“Iti sodasakam namnam kali-kalmasa-nasanam
Natah parataropayah sarva-vedesu drsyate”

Brahma said this to Narada Muni, we should accept that kali yuga dharma is Harinam sankirtana. Do you all agree?
Devotees: Yesss!!!Hari Bol

Lokanath Swami Maharaja : Otherwise, I will have to give you references from different shastra. If you understand then I would not say all that. So you all become religious, Kaliyuga’s dharma is harinama sankirtan to become dharmic we will have to accept the dharma of kali yuga then only we will become dharmic. If we do Harinam sankirtan, Brahma ji said to Naradmuni- Brahamaji is father, Guru, he is not only engineer or constructor of material world. He is acharya. Like our acharya is SrilaPrabhupad. We are called as Gaudiya Vaishnav and our first acharya is Brahmaji.four different types of Vaishnav tradition. Out of that one disciplic succession, whose first acharya is who says

“Om Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare”

“iti sodasakam namnam kali-kalmasa-nasanam
natah parataropayah sarva-vedesu drsyate”

Iti means this, sodaskam namnam- 16 name, Kali-kalmasa-nasanam- is to counteract the evil effects of Kaliyuga. Natah parataropayah- and there is no better way, sarva-vedesu drsyate-no other method has been mentioned in all the Vedas.

Harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevlam

I am the knower of all the Vedas, I was the only person who heard Veda fromLord lotus-mouth (Mukharavind), and I am the authority to say,
na atah paratarah upayah paratarah means better, so there is no better way “na” means no, “sarva vedeshu” in all the Vedas no other way is mentioned Harer Namaiva kevalam.

So, in this discipline succession of Narada muni, even theLord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also appeared and in the line of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu recently In the 20th century Bhakti Vedanta Swami SrilaPrabhupada ki jai. Prabhupada appeared and took the responsibility of spreading the spiritual principles given by his spiritual master. “Yato yato Yami Tato Prabhupada” wherever we go there is Prabhupada. Prabhupada’s spiritual master instructed Prabhupada about a 100 years ago to spread awareness about Bhagvat Dharam or Chaitanya Bhagvat dharma in the Western countries. This instruction was given 100 years ago so In ISKCON we are celebrating the 100th anniversary in 2022 accordingly in 1922 this instruction was given by Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur to Bhakti Vedant a Swami Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada followed his spiritual master’s instruction and founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

So we can say that Srila Prabhupada was the protector of Gaudiya Vaishnav sampradaya, that was his responsibility then to spread the instructions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as well as his desire. So as we discussed already Dharma Samstha panarthay Sambhavami Yuge Yuge. One of the reason of the incarnation ofLord is to preach the dharma, and Kaliyuga’s dharma is Harinam Sankirtan, so spreading harinam sankiratn was the responsibility of Bhakti Vedant Swami Srila Prabhupada, he made many plans so that Harinam could be propagated and spread all over the world, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had predicted that,

“prithvi te ache jat nagar adi Gram
sarvatra prachar hai be moranaam”

He said in Bengali becauseLord had appeared in Bengal/Mayapur which is nondifferent from Vrindavan, It is Vrindavan only because Shri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna himself, not only he is Krishna but he is Radha also,

“Sri Krishna Chaitanya Radha Krishna Nahi Anya”

Such is the introduction is of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And he predicted that my name will be preached in the whole world, in every town and every village. This prediction was made true by Bhakti Vedant Swami Srila prabhupada, So to spread the holy name he made many plans, under which Srila Prabhupada started this padayatra which is also known as the walking festival or bullock cart sankirtan and what to say, he instructed me “You preach the holy name by bullock cart padayatra” There are other means or mediums of Harinam propagation, out of that one can say that padayatra is a special or main medium to reach harinam in cities and villages. I don’t know what you’ll are looking at. I got this instruction on the day of Radhastami in New Delhi in Radha Parthsarthi temple Prabhupada told me to handle this, then we went to Vrindavan from Delhi and we prepared everything so that we can go from padayatra or bullock cart.

This is about 1976 on 10th or 12th of September, Prabhupada himself inaugurated this program behind the Krishna Balaram temple where here is Prabhupada quarter, we were only 10 to 12 padayatris (members of bullock cart sankirtan party) so Prabhupada spent a whole hour talking to us, and many things he explained about how to spread this even he told us that when we enter into any village, park your cart next to the well. So, we came to know this later, although I was a villager, I came to know that rural people come to places where water is available, so you can meet them there. Prabhupada explained many things like this to us. He told us to keep two blankets because the winter days were just about to start and Prabhupada also said that your bullock cart should also have rubber tiers.

And when you go into the village, you have to keep the people in villages only, nowadays rural people are running towards the cities. We were in Kanpur, they helped us a lot, our padayatra was going on in Kanpur, Nagar Sankirtan, book distribution. At that time, we did not have financial assistance for our padayatra, we did not have a bank account and our bank balance was zero, so I wrote a letter to Prabhupada from Kanpur, send us some money and some manpower, so then Prabhupada replied, no no don’t depend on outside help, become self-sufficient, do book distribution. By the way Prabhupada sent a sankirtan newsletter with that letter and said that our institute is maintained with the collection from the book sells. We maintain our institution by distributing books worldwide, so you will also have to do the same thing and we were also thinking to open a center in Kanpur for fund raising, there are many rich people, many businesses men’s in Kanpur.

So Prabhupada came to know about our idea, how to raise funds, then he again wrote a letter to me he gave an address Mr. G. Panth, Ashok Nagar, Kanpur, Prabhupada said yesterday itself this gentleman from Kanpur had come to see me in Vrindavan, Mr. Panth and he is a great devotee, he can help you, so contact him. So like this we were contacting and conversing with Srila Prabhupada about raising funds in Kanpur to support padayatra sankirtan party and then I even sent the bullock cart sankirtan party ahead and I alone stayed back for some time for fund raising or to open a center but then I also joined the party and then we reached Allahabad, Prayag Raj, at the time of Kumbh mela in 1977, there was a camp (pandal) of ISKCON and Prabhupada himself came there even though his health was not good and our bullock cart sankirtan party had also reached there.

As I met UP (Uttar Pradesh) padayatris today, the devotees of UP padayatra were narrating their reports to me about how good the preaching is going on and the books are being distributed very well, this person sponsored the cart for us, we have a motor cycle we use it, etc. they were telling. So just as they were reporting me about UP padayatra, I also shared with Prabhupada whatever experience we had from Vrindavan to Prayag raj and Prabhupad was listening interestingly and was asking questions also and as I went answering, there was only Prabhupada and me in that tent and as he kept on listening the bullock cart sankirtan party’s report so “the face is index of mind” so looking at the happiness on his face I understood that Prabhupad was very happy, and that happiness which I saw personally, the mood on Prabhupada’s face, it was joyful and happy and it still inspires me to do padayatra and to take the sankirtan forward. The annual Prabhupada Vyasa puja book is made every year so at least once a year I give my report with a hope and I am confident that Prabhupada would be certainly pleased with it.

Recently in the last week I have sent my offering for the Vyasa puja offering book of this year. So, one day Srila Prabhupada was returning from his morning walk in the Kumbh Mela and we had parked our bullock cart’s in the park, Prabhupada came straight to the bulls I was also with him I remember one thing that on one side of our bullock cart we wrote our party’s name Bhakti Vedanta Swami bullock cart sankirtan party, This name was written in a semi-circle so Prabhupada started reading from one point and he read it in circular manner as it is written. we had named the sankirtan party ” Bhakti Vedanta Swami bullock cart sankirtan party” ki jai. Then we went ahead to Varanasi, Prabhupada’s order was to go from Vrindavan to Mayapur. So, when we would go, people used to ask us where is this party going? Then we would say we are going to Mayapur. Some people would say you’ll are Swami ‘s and you are going to Mayapur? you are going into Maya? so at that time people were totally blank about Mayapur slowly now because of Prabhupada everyone is coming to know about Gauranga Mahaprabhu and his birth, at that time almost no-one knew about Mayapur. So, when we were in Varanasi, it was February, and we want to reach Mayapu in March because Gaura Purnima festival is celebrated in March.

Srila Prabhupada used to organize Mayapur festival there, his disciples and followers from all over the world used to come together and Gaur Purnima means same as Krishna Janmashtami festival.Lord Krishna appeared on Ashtami and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared on Gaura Purnima or Falgun Purnima. Gauranga! Nityananda! Just like in Vrindavan (we say) “Dauji ka bhaiya, Krishna Kanhaiya, in Mayapur (we say) “Gauranga, Nityananda” because that same Krishna, Balarama appear in the form of Gauranga and Nityananda in Navadvip. So, we had to reach till Gaura Purnima and only one month was left and we were in Varanasi so we were thinking how to reach on time, so we came up with a plan, please don’t share it with anyone okay? We hired a truck, we were cheated a little, we were supposed to go by bullock cart and padayatra from Vrindavan to Mayapur but we wanted to reach till Gaura Purnima so we hired a lorry (truck) and our bullock cart, our bulls, our all padayatris, their all personal belongings, our books, our Gaura Nitai deities that time the head pujari of Vrindavana he was a household devotee so he gave us his personal Gaura Nitai so all of these we loaded into the lorry.

This was a kind of black business, we wanted to travel at night so that no-one could know, we crossed the entire Bihar and unloaded at the Bihar-Bengal border, and from there we left for Mayapur. The Padayatra was very much welcomed in Bengal specially. Because from a vision Bengalis were fortunate becauseLord Gauranga mahaprabhu appeared in Bengal, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Kirtan has been famous in Bengal since long. Harinam Kirtan is performed for Ashta prahar (24 hours) day and night. We were very welcomed wherever we went. We went to Navadweep city, we had to cross Ganges to go to the other side is Mayapur, Chandrodaya temple. So then again, we loaded bullock cart, bulls, padyatris, into a boat.

When we were crossing the river, one of our bulls went into the Ganges. The boat was going ahead and the bull was going backward. We were praying toLord. Narsimha, please help, protect. We were pulling the bull; with great difficulty and prayers we reached Mayapur. Aarti of Radha Madhav was being performed in the afternoon. We took darshans, the bullock cart was parked in front of the temple. We went up to meet Prabhupad. Prabhupad had met us in Vrindavan, in between in Prayag raj and now when we reached Mayapur, Prabhupad was there. Prabhupad lived on the 2nd floor. Prabhupad’s servant Hari Sauri Prabhu, we were about to climb the 2nd floor, then he came forward and said You can’t go, Prabhupad is busy you can’t meet. So luckily Prabhupad came out of the bathroom it was not attached and was about to go to his roomhe saw something was happening here, a riot. Prabhupad said let them come then we reached Prabhupad’s room, lotus building, 2nd floor. We sat down after paying obeisances. So that day, when Prabhupad came for darshan, his disciples had garlanded him with many colorful, aromatic, lotus and many other flower garlands. It was all lying there in Prabhupad’s room. Prabhupad said “Tamal Krishna, Hari Sauri, offer them garlands. So, within a few moments we wore big-big garlands.

Prabhupad welcomed us this way and did the hospitality. Then again reporting happened like it happened in Prayag raj. Now we narrated the entire journey from Prayag raj to Mayapur. Prabhupad asked how was the journey? I told Prabhupad “it was easy journey to Mayapur planet”. There is a book by Prabhupad called “Easy journey to other planets”. The journey was smooth, I said. After that festival Prabhupad said now you go to Jagannath Puri. Earlier we were told to go from Vrindavan to Mayapur, now he said go to Jagannath Puri. We also went. Now this is 1977, this is Prabhupad’s last year among us or in this world. Prabhupad was in Vrindavan in November, a week before his departure to Golak. I and my party, Prabhupad had asked us to organize a bullock cart party as well as a book distribution party.

The name of that party was “Narad muni travelling sankirtan party”. When we reached Mayapur, Prabhupad had kindly given darshan’s to us. In those days it was difficult for Prabhupad to even sit, he used to lie down. We went and sat next to Prabhupad and again Prabhupadasked for the report of book distribution. At that time,we had come from Badrikashram, while distributing books we went to Badrika ashram, we knew Prabhupada’s health was not good but, in those days, we had no mobiles, e-mails, SMS to contact se we ourselves came from Badrikashram to Vrindavan.Prabhupad was asking which book was more distributed. We said that we had gone to Badrikashram and we showed your Bhagwat Geeta to Srila Vyasadev ji in Vyasa cave. Prabhupad was very happy to hear this. We thought that Vyasa dev must be staying in that Vyasa cave, we didn’t see him but he must have definitely seen us and the Geeta. At the end of the meeting, I and other devotees of the sankirtan party were also leaving the room, I was the last person to leave the room so I turned to see before I leave, Prabhupad signaled me with fingers to come so I went into the room and sat. So Prabhupad asked me ” I would like to see you, what time could I see you?.

I said anytime Prabhupada, there’s no question, anytime you wish to see me. Prabhupad said”4 O’clock is, okay? I was thinking whole day that the way Prabhupad had said I want to see you, I was seeing that something was serious, he had something in his mind. So, when we returned at four O’ clock, whatever he wanted to say at 4 o’clock, Prabhupad had already told it to his servant’s and secretary during the day. The thing was that Prabhupad wanted to travel in Vraj Mandal especially as a trial to Govardhan by bullock cart.

You all easily said Haribol, we also had said Haribol, but many said cautions! Because Prabhupada was bed for 4 to 6 months his situation was very delicate. So Krishna-Balaram temples senior devotees were discussing at the reception hall and I also was there, so they sent me to Mathura to organise a bullock cart and I also organised a cart, it was also parked in front of the temple and next morning we had to go to Govardhan but then at night yes/no, agree/disagree, all of that happened and then finally Srila Prabhupada dropped the idea to go by bullock cart, so bullock cart idea was not going to happen. So, the next day, Prabhupada was not going to travel by bullock cart, but the travelling idea was not dropped, “okay I can’t go bullock cart in this condition”. So, we, disciples were sitting around Prabhu Pada’s bed so Prabhupada again gave the proposal, I want the travel with (by) buses, at this time no one had taken objection and Prabhupada wished to travel so everyone was happy too as Prabhupada will be with us, he will not return back to godhead, he would be with us. We all welcomed. So, like that, so this traveling by bullock cart did not happen so I was thinking, because I was the owner of bullock cart or Prabhupada gave me the responsibility, I thought this is the will, last desire of Prabhupada to travel by bullock cart but that couldn’t be fulfilled. By the way, Prabhupada’s idea was that as a trial first, we will have padayatra in Vrindavan and then slowly extend the preaching everywhere. Prabhupada would say “fighting with maya, I will reach back to godhead by fighting with maya”, preaching is fighting, “fighting with maya I want to leave the world”. Then in 1984, we were making plans about how can we celebrate Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s 500th birth anniversary, Chaitanya mahaprabhu appeared in 1486 so in the year 1986, 500 years were going to be completed.

So, we planned and with that planning the wish of Prabhupada that was not yet fulfilled that will be fulfilled, so we decided that we will organise padayatra from Dwarka to Mayapur, first yatra was from Vrindavan to Mayapur and this yatra was from Dwarka to Mayapur via Kanyakumari. we started that Padayatra on the day of Radhashtami, the day Srila Prabhupada instructed me to take charge of bullock cart team. So, after 18 months we reached at Mayapur from Dwarka completing the journey of 8000 miles. At that time, it was a big setup like a circus, with elephants, camels’ cart and so many bullock cart’s also we had. These bulls in UP padayatra, this idea we had in the year 1984, then we Purchased bulls from Gujrat Whenever we have new padayatra being started we take bulls from Gujarat.

We got success in this padayatra so we taught how can we stop. We were supposed to stop at Mayapur but we did not stop, so then we thought from where we have started the journey we will stop there only, we will complete a round. So, we came to Jagannath Puri from Dwarka, and from that we thought we would go to Badrika ashram from Mayapur, then back to Dwarka and we had gone to Rameshwaram also, and we completed journey of 4 Dham, so we completed one round. We thought we had completed one round so we will go for one more round than 3rd round and 4th round and, in this way, padayatra had completed 6 rounds of entire India and we call that as “mother of padayatra”, and its children’s are UP padayatra, Andhra Pradesh Padayatra, Utkala Banga padayatra, Gujarat padayatra, Maharashtra padayatra. Padayatra is going on in a half dozen states. Single padayatra was held and Prabhupada was very impressed by the bullock cart sankirtan so he wrote a letter to his disciple in America named Nityanand prabhu. The letter said,” we should have millions of such cart all over the world”, such cart’s means the carts which we were using in India, Prabhupada said we should have lakhs of such padayatra’s all over the world. We took inspiration from this and when Prabhupada’s 100th birth anniversary was going to be celebrated in 1996. Century means hundred years were being complete for the birth of Prabhupada. Until then padayatra ministry was also established, there are many ministries in ISKCON out of which padayatra ministry is one.

So ISKCON Padayatra ministry had organized padayatra’s in 100 countries to celebrate the festival of Srila Prabhupada’s 100th birth anniversary. Either you didn’t listen or you are not so surprised,’ OH, it’s just 100 countries, How many countries?100 Countries i said. Actually it’s more than 100, in 111 countries for 5 years padayatra happened, and those ISKCON Padayatris have travelled 3,00,000 kilometres till now, three hundred thousand kilometres, every day in a new village, new town. Once we started Europe padayatra in Glasgow in England. From Glasgow to Moscow, 5 years of travelling, everyday not only walking but at the same time even chanting “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare”. By doing this, from many European countries we went from Glasgow to Moscow. Then we had American padayatra,like that we did padayatra in the west coast.I myself travelled from San Francisco to San Diego and then on the east coast, then Australia, Africa, and everywhere in innumerable villages and cities Prabhupada hypothesized this padayatra.Srila Prabhupada Ki jai. So with this, the future prediction of Chaitanya mahaprabhu that,

” Prithvi the achhe, Nagaradi gram,
sarvatra prachar hoibe mor naam”

is being made true by this Srila Prabhupada’s padayatra, around the world. OK. Thank you for your time and interest. Now your padyatra, ISKCON Kanpur’s own padayatra is held from many years, are the padayatris here?stand up, Ritudvip prabhu is our leader and behind are many padayatris. From 3 years, during COVID pandamic we stopped for some time otherwise nonstop in many villages and cities of UP, just imagine, everyday padayatra goes from many villages, village 1, village 2, village 3 then in 4th village we stop at night, and next day 1, 2 villages then next, in this way and this padayatra does not preach only in villages or only in towns, in the middle of villages or in the middle of the towns also preaching happens. Thank you. Congratulate the padayatris and we are also thankful to ISKCON Kanpur’s management, for giving the support and energy, and you all also can join sometime, on weekends or vacations, whole family can go with them for yatra. Can they come?. You’re welcome, youth’s can go, ofcourse temple brahmachari’s are always welcomed, and household devotees also on vacation. Ok, thank you. Hare Krishna!