TRULY A MILESTONE
By His Holiness R.P. Bhakti Raghava Swami
Date: February 22, 2020.
Yesterday (February 21, 2020) was Shiva Ratri and marked the 100th village of our ongoing survey conducted under Dharma Gau Gram Yatra in the village of Rajampet, Nizamabad District in the State of Telangana.
It was special in a number of ways. The presence of a beautifully decorated bullock cart was befitting the occasion. Due to the good publicity by our devotees headed by Hari Kirtan prabhu and banners having been put up announcing the event, a large number of local villagers joined in the Harinam Sankirtan with people joyfully waving as we passed by and happily taking our handbill. Even some of the local Muslim people took the literature, watched the procession, smiled and raised their arms in kirtan.
The Gau Puja that followed the Harinam was also nicely arranged with a beautiful and peaceful cow along with her calf receiving the Aratika prayers. Devotees had arranged a large quantity of flowers for the Puspanjali ceremony at the end of the Arotika. After reciting the prayers in glorification of Mother Surabhi, one could witness the abundance of flowers pouring from the hands of hundreds assembled to worship Mother Cow as if demigods were showering flower petals from the heavens.
Next came the pravachan. The locals had arranged an attractive pandal with flower petal walkways leading to a tastefully arranged stage where the devotees had placed a large colourful banner depicting Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON and the name of our Yatra.
The grand finale came at the end of the program when we started the distribution of the Samskar Patra, a program we have introduced since the beginning of our Yatra, inducing people to take up to the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra on Japa Mala. In most places before Nizamabad, we had been getting 20 to 40 people on average taking the pledge. Our seemingly unbeatable record had been set some months back in Purulia, West Bengal, with a whooping 90 pledges signed that night. It was only one week ago in the State of Telangana near Nizamabad that we finally broke the record bringing the total pledges from 90 to 111. Within a few days after that historical event, by Krishna’s mercy, we again broke our record bringing the number 111 to 129.
This evening, seeing the number of participants and the level of enthusiasm shown by the local villager of Rajampet, one could sense that we may yet another time break our present record of 129. The crowd was greatly motivated and very eager to reciprocate. As we have been doing in more recent programs, in addition to teaching people to chant the holy names, we have also introduced dancing as taught by Lord Caitainya and demonstrated also by Srila Prabhupada when first going in the western countries. The response this evening was stupendous with young and old, men and women, all enthusiastically participating.
Then came the invitation for people to take their pledge and sign the Samskar Patra. The flow of locals lining up to get their certificate was truly amazing. As we announced the names of each candidate over the loud speaker, more and more people were eager to receive the holy name. By the time the line of seekers finally came to a close, after a good 2 hours or more, we realized that by Krishna’s mercy we had set a new record of 214 Samskar Patras distributed to 214 fortunate souls of Rajampet. A truly wonderful achievement all made possible by the enthusiasm of the local people and the devotees who organized the event.
Prasadam that had been prepared on location with the help of our devotees was then served. It was finally time to leave already close to 11:00 PM. One of the unexpected surprizes was the signing of the Samskar Patra by a local Muslim man. He requested that his name not be announced on the microphone as we normally do. In addition to accepting the Japa Mala, he gladly accepted a flower garland as well.
Krishna was showering His mercy upon one and all. The devotees left the program intoxicated and amazed at what had taken place. All glories to the Holy Name.
Hare Krishna. All glories to Gurumaharaj and His enthusiasm and compassion to distribute the Holy Name. What a miracle, A pure devotee of the Lord can create,by transforming the consciousness of so many souls. A big Haribol to all the wonderful, dedicated devotees who worked hard to make the event a grand success.