I would like to share a very touching and wonderful realisation from our ISKCON Maharashtra Padayatra. While travelling through a village, we stayed there for just one night. In the evening, during the blissful nagar sankirtan, a dog quietly started following us. At first, we did not notice anything special, but that night it came and stayed near our chariot as if it had found shelter.

The next morning, when we began our padayatra and started moving with the chariot, something amazing happened: the dog also got up to walk with us. It did not turn back. It walked nearly 7km along with the chariot.

From that day onward, it has not left us even for a single day. It continues to travel daily with the padayatra, faithfully walking along with the devotees. What is truly astonishing is its nature and behaviour. It only accepts prasadam and completely avoids any outside food. Even if other food is available, it will not touch it. It honours prasadam with such respect and never wastes even a small portion.

The dog always stays close to the chariot, which protects it from other dogs. During the night, it carefully guards our oxen, remaining alert and attentive like a sincere servant. At the same time, it never disturbs the chariot or enters the kitchen area. It behaves with such discipline, as if it understands devotional etiquette.

Every single day it attends all the aratis, from mangala arati early in the morning to the evening programmes. It peacefully sits during kirtan and listens, appearing fully absorbed in the holy names.

Seeing all this, our hearts become filled with devotion and wonder. This is no ordinary animal. By the causeless mercy of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, this living entity has received the rare opportunity of sadhu-sanga and devotional service.

This beautiful incident reminds us of the dog of Sivananda Sen who went back to Godhead by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu mentioned in the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta:

prasāda nārikela-śasya dena phelāñā
‘rāma’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘hari’ kaha’ — balena hāsiyā

Furthermore, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was throwing remnants of green coconut pulp to the dog. Smiling in His own way, He was saying to the dog, “Chant the holy names ‘Rāma,’ ‘Kṛṣṇa’ and ‘Hari.’ ”

śasya khāya kukkura, ‘kṛṣṇa’ kahe bāra bāra
dekhiyā lokera mane haila camatkāra

Seeing the dog eating the green coconut pulp and chanting “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa” again and again, all the devotees present were very surprised.

āra dina keha tāra dekhā nā pāilā
siddha-deha pāñā kukkura vaikuṇṭhete gelā

The next day, no-one saw that dog, for it had obtained its spiritual body and departed for Vaikuṇṭha, the spiritual kingdom.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Antya-lila 1.29-31

This is all the magic of sadhu-sanga; even a simple dog can become most fortunate by associating with devotees and participating in sankirtan.

This result is possible even for a dog, by the mercy of the Vaiṣṇava. Therefore, everyone in the human form of life should be induced to associate with devotees. By rendering a little service, even by eating prasādam, what to speak of chanting and dancing, everyone can be promoted to Vaikuṇṭhaloka. It is therefore requested that all our devotees in the ISKCON community become pure Vaiṣṇavas, so that by their mercy all the people of the world will be transferred to Vaikuṇṭhaloka, even without their knowledge. Everyone should be given a chance to take prasādam and thus be induced to chant the holy names Hare Kṛiṣhṇa and dance in ecstasy. Through these three processes, although performed without knowledge or education, even an animal went back to Godhead.

All glories to Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar.

All glories to ISKCON Maharashtra Padayatra.

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By Damodharlila Dasa (Maharashtra Padayatra leader)

After his foreign tour Acarya Prabhu visited our padayatra when we were at Jamkhed in Ahilyanagar District. His presence infused us with encouragement. He gave Srimad-Bhagavatam class in the morning and guided each one of us. He said the number of padayatris should increase for the service of Their Lordships and asked us to pray to Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar to live together in harmony. We were very uplifted by his words of wisdom.

It had been four to five years since Acarya had visited us, this time staying for two to three days. He attended all our programmes with us and seeing his devotion all the padayatris were inspired, even those who never attended mangala arati started coming.

We did house programmes in Jamkhed at the property of a grihasta disciple of Radhanath Maharaja whose name was also Acarya. He stayed with padayatra for fifteen months and has been regularly serving since. He also keeps in contact with us. We also did a programme at Rajarishi Prabhu’s house where they welcomed us nicely.

We recently went on Gaura-mandal parikrama and on our way back Mokshada Ekadashi Mataji saw us at the Jamkhed bus stand. She had a strong desire that padayatra and the devotees should come to her house so when we were in Beed, I went to her place in Jamkhed with an advance party. When we told her that the padayatra was coming to her village she was shocked, saying “How can this happen, I desired and the Lord is coming.”

We had planned to stay in Beed for two days; however, we couldn’t get a place in the city so we tried staying in a colony outside the city but there was no water or toilet, so we moved ahead to Jamkhed. There was an empty plot in front of Mataji’s house and we stayed there. She was very happy and requested that we stay for at least one day, but we stayed for eight days!

Mataji was delighted that the Lord heard her prayer.

Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar ki jai.

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On March 6, 2026, by the mercy of Guru and Gauranga Amravati’s ISKCON Girls Forum held its seventh annual one-day Vaishnavi padayatra.

This year’s event saw the participation of more than 100 Vaishnavis as well as non-devotees. The youngest Vaishnavi was a four-month-old named Gaurangi, the daughter of a congregation devotee,and the eldest was an 80-year-old mataji.

Starting from the Satidham temple we walked about 4km to the Shri Ekvira Devi temple. Our chief guest was the honorable Divisional Commissioner of the Vidarbha region, Dr Shweta Singhal, who inaugurated the padayatra, did arati of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, and inspired the assembled Vaishnavis. She was very happy to see the gathering of Vaishnavis participating in a spiritual event.

Dr Singhal said, “It is very nice to see Vaishnavis coming together for such a spiritual programme and helping each other,” and she also gave a message to educate girls. She said any problem can come in life, so each girl should be educated, should stand on her own two legs and have a job, then she can contribute to society.

All the Vaishnavis and IGF girls enthusiastically performed sankirtan and danced as we moved ahead while making announcements about the importance of padayatra and the maha mantra. We had a grand sankirtan and the Vaishnavis danced to their hearts’ content.

The padayatra took place on International Women’s Day to endow women in spirituality. Our motto is we Vaishnavis cannot walk in padayatra (cannot join any padayatra), so to understand what a padayatra is, to get bliss and the experience of padayatra, to distribute books, prasad and the holy name to the public and remind the culture of padayatra, we organise a Vaishnavi padayatra. As we walk and dance the Vaishnavis also chant the Hare Krishna maha mantra while playing instruments and doing services like book distribution. This year’s dress code was red saree, and it looked very beautiful as matajis moved in a circle producing a visually powerful ring of red fire!

We thank our temple management for helping us by providing us with a sound system and delicious prasadam. It is said that the spiritual programme is incomplete without prasadam, so when we reached the Shri Ekvira Devi temple we all honoured prasadam and distributed it among the people assembled there. Then we had a surprise for everyone. After honouring prasadam, all the Vaishnavis played holi with dry colours, something nobody knew was going to happen.

It was very blissful and we pray that our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, and Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees bless us that we can have such an influential padayatra every year, not only in Amravati but all over India, thus encouraging Vaishnavis in sankirtan and empowering them in spirituality and teaching them the happiness of sankirtan, book distribution and prasadam distribution.

Our team thanks the temple management for helping us, the assembled ladies for joining us, and the police department for their assistance and giving us permission for the padayatra. Also, thanks to the Sati Dham and Shri Ekvira Devi temple management for allowing us and putting faith in us.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

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By Ritudvipa Gaurachandra Dasa (UP Padayatra leader)

On our padayatra journey we reached Raebareli, a city with a population of about 200,000 in south-central Uttar Pradesh. Wherever we go we try to preach to schoolchildren and their teachers about the importance of the Bhagavad-gita and how it will help to build their character and competence.

There are many schools within a 10km radius of Raebareli, and we obtained permission to hold a programme at one named Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Aihar village. Two schools nearby liked our sankirtan and people there suggested we do a programme at the mandir.

The pupils were very happy to have darshan of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, and they and their teachers were captivated by the huge horns of our majestic oxen. It was interesting to discuss the Bhagavad-gita with these little souls. We encouraged them to chant the holy name, and they all joined the sankirtan and danced with us. The students were then asked to write the Hare Krishna maha mantra in their schoolbooks, which they did happily. The padayatris told them stories of Prahlad Maharaja, Dhruva Maharaja and Lord Krishna. I explained to them how they can worship the Lord by chanting the maha mantra and studying nicely, that chanting will increase their concentration and help them in their studies. We also held a quiz on the Bhagavad-gita and the winners were gifted a copy.

We have had wonderful experiences in schools chanting and dancing with the students. We thanked the Saraswati Shishu Mandir school principal for giving us permission to present our programme and the teaching staff for helping us.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai.

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By Jayabhadra Devi Dasi (IGF preacher and padayatra coordinator)

On March 18, 2026, a padayatra was inaugurated by the auspicious hands of Lokanath Maharaja in Sisupalgarh, a neighborhood in the south of Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The padayatra will cover three districts: Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur.

There is already one Utkal Padayatra preaching in Odisha under the leadership of Dhiranayak Dasa, and this second padayatra will complement it. Haribol.

The new padayatra currently consists of five padayatris headed by Trivikram Pandit Dasa, the leader of the ISKCON Sisupalgarh center.

Maharaja came to Odisha for the inauguration of the ISKCON Bhadrak temple before which he visited the Sisupalgarh center, blessed all the devotees there and inaugurated the padayatra. The president of the ISKCON Bhubaneswar temple, Satwatapati Dasa, addressed the assembly giving details about the new padayatra, which everyone was very happy to hear about.

Would all the Vaishnavas please bless the padayatra that it can move ahead and preach without any obstacles.

Padayatra ki jai.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai.

The post Good news: Maharaja inaugurates padayatra at ISKCON’s Sisupalgarh center appeared first on ISKCON Padayatra.

10–15 devoted souls are preparing to walk the entire island of Mauritius for 50 days, as a heartfelt offering to Srila Prabhupada, honoring the 50 years since he personally came to Mauritius.

Their enthusiasm, their love for Padayatra, and above all their deep affection for Srila Prabhupada shines like a lamp in this age of darkness. These devotees are not just walking the roads of Mauritius—they are carrying the mercy, the mission, and the message of Prabhupada in every step they take.

Looking at their beaming smiles, I could feel Prabhupada’s blessings flowing through them. This Padayatra will surely be a historic offering, a moving temple of devotion traveling through the land, touching countless hearts.

Let us all join in spirit, in prayer, and in support of this divine yatra. Together we chant:

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to the Mauritius Padayatra 2025!

Padayatra ki Jai! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

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They enthusiastically performed temple parikrama accompanied by transcendental Harinam Sankirtan.

The Padyatris also visited Dhanushkodi (Ram Setu), the divine site where Lord Ram built the Setu as well as visited to angni tirtha .

Devotees shared that some devotees from Sri Lanka have warmly invited them to come and perform Harinam Sankirtan there. By the mercy of Mahaprabhu, they hope this will happen soon — arrangements are being discussed to transport the rath and bulls by ship.

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This was the first time such a magnificent Harinam Sankirtan procession was organized in Chikhli through ISKCON, and the townspeople enthusiastically participated in it. To support this padayatra, Swaroop Dasa invited a kirtan group of ISKCON devotees from Tembhurni, a town located 50 km away. Key participants included Shri Laxman Prabhu, Shri Kailash Prabha, Shri Jagdish Prabhu, Shri Ramdas Prabhu, Smt. Raslila Devi Mataji, Smt. Kalavati Mataji, Smt. Rutuja Mataji, and Smt. Lata Mataji.

When Swaroop Dasa first took the resolve to organize this event, he did not even have a sound system. However, he managed to arrange one with the help of his friends and through small donations. He also collected funds for the travel and arrangements of the Sankirtan group. He carried out this service with great humility and devotion.

It is worth noting that Swaroop Dasa is still a student, yet whenever he gets time from his studies, he visits various schools and colleges in Chikhli to engage students and villagers in chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. He also gives lectures on the essential teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and conducts seminars in colleges. Alongside this, he is actively engaged in distributing spiritual books with great faith and enthusiasm.

There is a beautiful Marathi saying – “Moorti Lahaan, Pan Keerti Mahaan” – which means: Though young in age, his deeds are truly impactful.

Among my friends, I have seen very few personalities as devoted and committed to the preaching mission of Srila Prabhupada as our dear Swaroop Dasa.

All of us devotees pray at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurachandra that Swaroop Prabhu Ji’s spiritual journey continues to progress and that his enthusiasm for preaching ever increases.

Hare Krishna!

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By Jayabhadra devi dasi, IGF preacher and padayatra coordinator

By the mercy of Sri Guru and Gauranga Amravati’s ISKCON Girls’ Forum team has successfully held its sixth annual Vaishnavi Padayatra.

Every year we arrange padayatra to be on or around International Women’s Day which is observed on March 8, and March is a special month for devotees because Gaura-purnima maha-mahotsava is in March. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s advent occurred to spread the holy name, and our padayatris also try to do the same.

Our Vaishnavi Padayatra is the most-awaited event by temple matajis and our IGF team. We matajis come together for a higher cause and serving together increases love amongst us.

The objective of padayatra is to spread the holy name and as we walk, we chant the holy name. For those who hear the chanting their life will be successful, but we also plead with them to chant with us. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma, sarvatra pracāra hoibe mora nāma: “In every town and village throughout the world,” said Lord Chaitanya, “the chanting of My holy name will be heard.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) Krishna is not just for India. He is for everyone, because He is God. Mahaprabhu says “My holy name will be heard throughout the world.” This is not possible for us ladies, but at least we can cover the streets of our city and surrounding villages by the mercy of Guru and Gauranga.

Padayatra preparations started one month earlier with the taking of police permissions and other formalities. On padayatra day we assembled as always at the Satidham temple in the main market area in central Amravati. This year’s dress code was the unique-looking yellow Gujarati-style sari worn by the more than sixty Vaishnavis who joined the walk. All were welcomed with offerings of garlands including this year’s chief guests, Amravati’s senior Vaishnavis Gundicha Devi Dasi (mother of Nityaharinam Dasa in our temple) and Manlila Devi Dasi. They inaugurated padayatra by cutting the ribbon and performing arati of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar as kirtan went on throughout.

We presented a street play at the commencement of padayatra and then headed towards our destination, the Ekvira Devi temple ??km away. All the Vaishnavis and IGF girls enthusiastically performed sankirtan and danced as we moved ahead while making announcements about the importance of padayatra and the maha mantra. We had grand sankirtan and the Vaishnavis danced to their hearts’ content.

It is so wonderful to walk and dance and sing the holy name. As it was a Saturday the market and the shops were open and the streets were crowded. People were amazed to witness this eye-catching display, many of them chanting the holy name. We distributed mantra stickers and temple pamphlets and even offered prasadam to the policemen. Everyone was asking “where is the palakhi from?” and we all proudly replied “it’s by ISKCON Amravati.”

Srila Prabhupada ki jai.

Prasadam was offered to the Vaishnavis and the congregation following our arrival at the Ekvira temple. I personally talked about ISKCON’s padayatras and how the padayatris are doing so many austerities and spreading the Lord’s message everywhere as they distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books throughout the year. Our padayatra is very small and our efforts practically worthless compared with their sacrifices and tapasya. Nonetheless it is a small attempt to please Sri Guru and Gauranga.

Our motto for padayatra was to serve Prabhupada and our spiritual master, Lokanath Maharaja, and we walked with our banner prominently at the front of the procession followed by a photo of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. By the Lord’s arrangement the Gaura-mandal Parikrama is also happening at this time, all in our mood of Gauranga. We could not join that parikrama but while walking we were thinking as we are also part of Gaura-mandal Parikrama, because our leaders are our Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar. It’s said “you are where your heart is,” so our hearts were in Mayapur dham. Daily we had been watching the parikrama updates and all the functions going on in Mayapur and missing the dham.

Mayapur dham ki jai.

Throughout the padayatra all the Vaishnavis were taking leading roles. Our padayatris looked so graceful and became the talk of the town. This festival is remarkable in our lives. Filled with enthusiasm we come together to make the day successful, and with the added support of congregation matajis it provides the opportunity for many ladies to confidently address the assembly. Our spiritual master is our inspiration: whatever good we are doing is his causeless mercy and whatever bad we are doing is due to our conditioning.

Our team thanked the assembled ladies for joining us and the police department for helping us and giving us permission for the padayatra. We also thank our temple authorities for supporting us, putting faith in us and encouraging us: ISKCON Amravati temple president Advaitacarya dasa, temple commander Sacipran dasa, and temple management committee members Sundarnath dasa, Nityaharinam dasa and Ranchod Krishna dasa.

Thanks too to our support system: Bhadra Gauranga dasa, the eldest devotee in our temple, and Meghashyam dasa, Bhakta Bhusan and Bhakta Madhusudan for managing the sound system and covering the event. A special mention goes to Prabhupada Sharan dasa for arranging media, his yearly seva, as well as to little Bhakta Nimai for joining us. Our IGF team, my strength, also served hard to make padayatra a success. Our thanks also go to Dinanukampa mataji for always inspiring us in all of our sevas.

We all thank Sri Guru and Gauranga for blessing us and organizing padayatra.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

All glories to Srila Gurudev.

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By Madhava Shyama Sundara Dasa (Padayatra leader)

“We can introduce many such carts around the world.” This was said by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada as he instructed Lokanath Maharaja to organize padayatras.

With the blessings of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar and Srila Prabhupada a padayatra to focus on tribal regions was inaugurated and prasadam distributed at Nandurbar in Maharashtra on December 24, 2024. The padayatra will operate within a radius of more than 100km, centring on northwest Maharashtra’s tribal villages and those of southeast Gujarat and southwest Madhya Pradesh.

I am Madhava Shyama Sundara Dasa, a Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja disciple from ISKCON Nandurbar where we have been preaching since December 2017. Devotees here are highly inspired by Lokanath Maharaja, the pioneer of all padayatras. Our group has participated in the All India Padayatra, a wonderful experience, and found padayatra to be a very effective way of preaching and reaching out to the villagers.

Srila Prabhupada gave this padayatra service to Lokanath Maharaja, who always felt that more such padayatras should eventuate. It was also the desire of Srila Prabhupada, and we deeply sensed that for pleasing Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu and Maharaja we should start a padayatra here in Nandurbar and spread harinama village to village.

All senior devotees please bless us that we can be successful in our desire to preach and instrumental in fulfilling the prediction of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma, sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma – “In every town and village throughout the world,” said Lord Chaitanya, “the chanting of My holy name will be heard.” (Caitanya-Bhagavat Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

Padayatra ki jai.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai.

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