Sri Govind Gau Gram Prachar Yatra Report to Revuru Village
The presence of His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami (Minister, ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry – India) had inspired fresh inflow of energy in the group of devotees. The journey of Sri Govind Gau Gram Prachar Yatra continued, but now with new found enthusiasm. After Mattampalli, their next target was Revuru village. It happened to be a sleepy village with very less population in the same mandal and district as other villages covered in the previous reports by the author.
The Revuru village woke up to the glowing faces of the Yatra devotees, bright with tilak, the two parallel lines going high on their foreheads, trying to touch the lotus feet of the Lord. Their attire, their kirtan, Lord Jagannath, everything was pleasantly new to them. The villagers surrounded them and followed them as they pulled the tractor-cum-chariot through the dusty lanes of the village. Wherever possible the devotees, especially HG Sripati prabhu, HG Ram Lakshman prabhu and HG Jananivas prabhu addressed the villagers in their local language. Usage of their dialect immediately bridged the gap between them and they followed the chariot. HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj’s presence was another chief attraction. He drew them like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Everyone thronged to take a glimpse of his holy face.
They were so enthusiastic and so unaware of the distance that one of them kept leading the Jagannath yatra cart to a point which was so nearby (sic) that it took them hours to reach! Every time the devotees asked him, his answer was – “It is just nearby, we are about to reach”. They kept walking along the chariot accompanied with singing of the Holy Name, still there was no sight of the place. They asked again, they got the same reply – “It is just nearby, we are about to reach”. It was hard as the heavy sound system had to be carried on the shoulders and by now it had started biting into their flesh because of its weight. They asked again. They got the same reply. Hopeful that by now when they had already covered a reasonable distance, and it must be really close, the devotees kept moving. The thing that bothered them the most was to see Maharaj walking along with them using his crutches. Finally they reached the place and realized that they had walked 4 kms! For the villagers this distance was just round the corner or nearby! Lesson learnt- Don’t trust villagers’ ‘nearby’. Their definition of ‘walkable’ and ‘nearby’ could be drastically different from the comfort loving city bred people. JTime and space has a limited definition for the city folks but for those in sattva guna (village folks) these limitations are already transcended!
Maharaj began to speak about the importance of Harinam, of cow protection, of simple life style on the lines shown by the Supreme Lord Krishna in Vrindavan. His descent is not so far in the history. Just 5000 years ago the Lord had descended as a cowherd boy to show the model lifestyle. The villagers looked at him, completely mesmerized by his presence. Convinced by His Holiness’ words; about 60 youngsters, women and farmers took the Sacred Oath, pledging to protect Mother Cow. Rupanuga prabhu, one of the Yatra team members distributed 18 maha-books and 40 small books by Srila Prabhupada. This was really an impressive score in an obscure hamlet like Revuru. Almost everybody appreciated ISKCON’s gesture of reaching out to them. Till then they never existed in anybody’s map; their presence was acknowledged only by the politicians that too at the time of elections–once in five years. But now a band of devotees along with Maharaj had chosen their village to preach the message of the Supreme Lord. As Maharaj spoke on sanatana dharma – dharma of the soul and on varnasrama dharma –dharma of the material body, they listened attentively. The enthusiastic villagers were not satisfied with just lectures, kirtan, dance, books and prasadam distribution. They wanted a permanent ongoing connect with the Yatra devotees. Clearing all their doubts, Maharaj offered them to get their village registered under any of the two banners:
- Hari Nam Sangha: This was more like already existing Namahatta centers which would allow them to receive basic spiritual training- chanting and following the four regulatives.
- Krsi Gau Raksha Sangha: This was registration under the IDVM-India. It was a new concept thought by Maharaj. This was wider in scope than the previous one and allowed both the varnasrama training as well as spiritual training.
The villagers enjoyed the personalized dialogues and conversation with the devotees and Maharaj. One of the farmers in the gathering brought a wonderful book for Maharaj from his house which he had been keeping with him since long. It was almost 60 years old book on COW PROTECTION by one named Shri Abhinav Sahdev. It offered wonderful details on the subject. There were many topics which had been lost to the present generation but the book covered it. Unfortunately it was confined to only Telugu reading people. Seeing the book, Maharaj immediately suggested that the book be translated in English, which would allow increased readability and accessibility to the rich body of information on gomata.
As the Yatra was moving further, we realized that it was also coming out from obscurity. More and more people were getting to know about it. Even the newspaper reporters were covering them. One popular Telugu daily titled, Andhra Jyoti gave the Yatra devotees a special coverage, complete with pictures. However, the objective was not to bring their own selves in the lime light but to spread the light of shastras and sanatan dharma to every nook and corner of the country.
Hari Nam SankirtanYagna ki Jai!
Srila Prabhupadaki Jai!!
Sri Govind Gau Gram Prachar Yatra ki Jai!!!
Reported by: Vrndavanlila Devi Dasi, Hyderabad India